I Was looking at buying a used 2001 and on my test drive the engine was coutting out at about 7000 rpm, after about 5 miles or so I was able to fully rev the engine. I this some sort of fail-safe for a cold engine or is there something wrong with the car?

 

I have a 2001 and that has happend to me. It only occured once and I had prurchased it a few days prior. I may be wrong here, but my guess was a cold motor. I do not think this car has any sort of rev limiter (does it?) at least in the 7,000 range.

 

I dont even own, but I believe there is a rev limiter on cold engines that do not have 3 bars of oil pressure showing on the gauge. Once the engine is warmed up and u have more than 3 bars you can rev to redline.

 

Thanks for the info. I was pretty concerned it was at a really good price

 

This happened to me on my 2002. I had just picked it up and it was cold, tried to take it around 9000, but it kicked out at around 7K twice. I was confused but it wsa fine after that and it has never done it since.

 

You can't hit VTEC when there are fewer than three "bars" on the thermometer. Be nice to the engine when it's cold and shift early until it warms up.

 

I believe that happened to me once too, in my 2001 S2k, when I was getting on the highway one cold morning. I was not paying attention to the tach, as I was merging. The next thing I know my car fell on its face. I then look down and saw I was well under redline. I stayed off the throttle for a few minutes; the car seemed to be fine. Once the car warmed up, it reved freely. So I assumed it was some freak anamoly until I read this. That would explain it.