Hello, all. I'm a new S2K owner. Purchased a 2004 black-on-black vehicle with 28K miles last week. Car checked out flawlessly by a Honda dealer's pre-certification inspection (only items were battery replacement and flushing the brake fluid). I have barely driven it yet due to the holiday break and being out of town, but I'm looking forward to a rewarding experience! This is the 4th vehicle in the HH so it will be used on short trips & mostly for weekend/fun in-city driving. I considered buying an S2K back in 2006 but my wife insisted we looked for a 4-seat cabrio for the kids back them (which resulted in my leasing a Saab 9-3 Aero). Now that we have a 3rd child that 4-seat artugment no longer holds, so it's time for two-person fun (me & her; me & my son).

One quick question from my 1st week of ownership: With virtually all 4-5 S2Ks that I test-drove during my consideration phase (ranging from my 2004 to a 2008 model), I've noticed an on-off (somewhat consistent, though) "droning" noise coming from the area of the instrument cluster or windscreen. It's not a rattle but more like a vibrational effect of sorts. Is this something others know about? Is there a TSB or DIY fix? Am I just too "picky"?

I will definitely be following this community from now on (my other passion is Audis and I've owned/own several over the years and I'm also actively participating in the Quattroworld Audi forum).

Thanks much!
Dimitris

 

Do you have a stock shift knob?

 

It may just be normal. I can't say that I've ever noticed a noise like that in mine, but these cars are a lot noisier than other cars. Maybe you can find someone local to give it a listen.

 

+1

 

definitely the stock shift knob.


-jazzman

 

Welcome and enjoy the car!! Can't say I have ever noticed a noise like the one you describe. Perhaps if you can take a video of it, we can help pinpoint the issue.

 

Does your vibration occur when decelerating, particularly in the 4000 rpm range? Does the sound go away if you depress the clutch? If so, so a search on here for 'clutch buzz', see if that is your issue. It's a pretty common problem with no easy fix. On the bright side, it's just an annoying sound, it doesn't mean anything is wrong and it won't hurt the car.

 

No, the issue is not relaetd to the clutch. At least I don't think it is as I don't notice it when I depress the clutch. I'll keep on listening to see if I can pin-point better the location/origin. Thanks for the response!

 

Yes, I do have the stock shift knob. What's the correlation here? ;-)
Should I want to replace?

Thanks,
Dimitris

 

The "clutch buzz" was limited to '00 and '01 cars; there is indeed a relatively easy fix: replace the clutch disk with a later-issue stock part. My '00 sounded as bad as the worst POS that GM ever slapped together in their darkest days. A new clutch disk (OEM from hardtopguy) fixed the problem. Now, nobody asks me, "What's wrong with your car?"