I'm looking at buying this car, it's a 2008. Dealer said that the CEL turned one because they were trying to show the miles without turning the engine on. In that pic, the engine is on (right?) and the CEL is on. He said it goes off after 8 seconds.

Normal or is there something wrong here?

Also, how does the oil thing reset?

 

And is this how a plate is normally mounted on an S2000? I thought there were holes on the face of the bumper.

 

the c.e.l. should go off soon after starting the car, i think the oil light turns off bu holding down the trip button dunno for sure, you can look it up easily in the owners manual. yeah there should be holes in the front bumper, looks like somone may have had it shaved (cool)

 

No owner's manual. I'm looking at buying one of these.

Yea it does look like it was shaved so likely the bumper was resprayed. All S2000s have the two holes up front, correct?

I think I see a little bit of chiping under the plate too. Perhaps bad paint work.

 

Yes the car is on in those pics (you can see it's at 2k RPM's so they probably just started it while it was cold, so it was idling pretty high). Also that is not the CEL, it's the Maintenance light. 08's are a little different so i'm not sure if it does the same thing, but on AP1's the maint req light will blink on start up, then go away after a few seconds. That's most likely what it is, and all that means is that it's time for an oil change. You can easily reset the light though, just do a quick search here for "reset maint req light" and you will see how easy it is. I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

Also yes there are suppost to be holes in the front bumper where the license plate would mount, but it looks like they shaved the holes. That also means they re-painted the whole bumper to do so, so I would make sure to get a carfax and such to see if it was in an accident or something since it's a fairly new S, and they wouldnt re-paint the whole front just to shave the holes.

 

Thank you for the explanation of the maintence light.

And even if there was no accident, the paint work could be poor and start flaking after a while.

Thanks again.

 

Yes, that is not a check engine light, that is an maintenance light. You can see the oil "health" is down to 15%, it is telling you that it will be time to change it soon.

That is either an aftermarket bumper, or those holes were shaved. Normally there are plugs that go there.

 

this...it's the "maintenance minder" light. See your owner's manual.

 

Another question.

One of the local S2000s I looked at, a 2008, in the trunk had a soft top cover. It's something I'd put over the softtop when it was folded down. Is this something all S2000s came with? Or is this an accessory I shouldn't expect with most used cars?

 

it's called a tonneau cover and it's an accessory. Personally, I never understood the purpose of it...