Absolutely none.

 

xviper. No arrogance, at least not like yours. It just does not seem right that this car behave this way. If they all do, then fine. I will live with it. Having had it only 10 days, I don't have vast experience like some others here with the car. This is the only car that I've ever driven to behave this way. With me being new to this behavior it's easy to assume something is wrong.

You are judging me without knowing anything about me, similar to what Wisconsin did in his reply to my intial post. However, he made it clear in his subsequent posts that he wanted to help and was not trying to be disrespectful. I can certainly accept that as this is the internet and no one can hear another's tone as something is being said.

Having said this, I will assume you are not trying to be offensive but rather may be a bit blunt and we'll leave it at that.

I do appreciate your explanation of why my car behaves this way. However, I don't see how I could make it do this as I don't control de engine's electronics.

 

For the sake of everyone to read who may be new or hasn't seen this information before.


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The ECU on this car has to run a very high output engine. It relies on numerous sensor readings to run the engine. Each sensor has it's high and low values and each one has "acceptable" ranges for its values. If input from different sensors are at opposing extremes at any given time, the ECU tries the best it can to do simple tasks like control idle, both at cold start, at hot start, at cold running, at hot running. Sometimes it tries to do what's best for a given sensor's input but this may be in contradiction with what another sensor may be telling it. So, yes, it can get "confused" in the sense that it tries to do the best job it can given the inputs it has.

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All modern cars nowadays do the same type of thing. Our ECU is somewhat different, however, in the sense that it's trying to control and protect a very high output engine. Maybe another reason is this ECU tries to play the balancing act much more precise than say another kind of car. Some other sports cars do exhibit this kind of behavior, though not quite as extreme. Two of them being the Viper and the Corvette.


So you could waste your own personal time trying to get the dealership to fix this, but in the end you'll simply end up where you started. I'm just trying to save you the headache of going through all that. Another thing, when this DOES happen DONT give the car gas. You will only lengthen the time the ECU takes to fix itself.


That said, I will say that if your car CONSTANTLY does this, and continues to do so for more than a week or two, you could have another issue. At that point I'd take it to the dealership and let them know, as you could have a bad map sensor or something to that effect.

 

I won't address the other topics as this is obviously a "conflict of character" (yours and mine).
My old Corvette ZR-1 did this, as did my old Viper. My twin turbo Stealth also did this. My nearly 5 year old S2000 (before and after supercharging) still does this from time to time when conditions are right.
I don't have time at the moment to give a detailed explanation (only a very sketchy one) as to why this happens but the reasons apply to all these cars.
The S2000 is a very high output engine for its size. It spins very high as a normal state of being. The ECU controls a lot of variables just to make this engine perform they way it needs to. It relies upon a lot of inputs to do it. It has to deal with compression, fuel octane, ambient air temp, atmospheric air pressure, humidity, throttle position, idle air control, emissions, anti-knocking. All of these things affect the way the ECU runs this engine. Yes, you'll say that every other car out there must contend with these things, too. But do those other engines this kind of output for this kind of displacement and compression on this many cylinders? This is almost like a race engine that has been domesticated for daily driving. Have you ever been around a full blown race engine. They can barely idle at all. Our cams are almost like "full race" cams. It's trying to create a steady idle when it's also being ready to rev to 8000 rpm (or 9000 in my case). It's trying to hold a steady idle when you've just taken your foot off it and come to stop. Then comes the human factor of the some driver's who insist on helping it to hold the idle with gas while at the same time blasting the A/C to keep cool. It's a very high strung little engine with high strung characteristics. It's so rung out for output for a daily driven car. That's the reason why so few aftermarket stuff will give you anymore extra power while other kinds of cars are relatively easy to increase HP with very simple and inexpensive mods.
An intake and exhaust on a new Mustang will gain the owner nearly 20 whp. The same mods on this engine will gain you next to nothing.

 

just out of curiosity where do your S2k's idle around after being warmed up?

Mine seems to stay at 1k, where as my GSR was around 500

 

yeah around 800 or so

 

900 to 1000. During those "near death" experiences, it can dip down to as low as 300 before it picks itself back up.
Those times that it fluctuates, this is on a hot day, after a hot start, A/C on and the rpm can bounce around between 700 to as high as 1100. Not helping it by applying throttle will allow it to "learn" and stabilize much more quickly.

 

yeah i bought my S on july 4th and i've noticed this sometimes, it doesnt really bother me, but it seems like its gonna stall, but it recovers, to date it hasnt stalled or anything on me.

i really dont know what this guys means about a rough idle compared to other hondas, the s2ks idle is great!, you cant feel any vibrations through the steering wheel. the place i do feel vibrations is through the shifter more than on other cars. i've had an EP civic and since it to had electric power steering i couldnt feel any vibrations through the steering wheel. But with my other current car a rsx type-s i can feel a rougher idle when i hold the wheel, also the tranny feels like its made out of tin compared to the S's lol.

 

Let me start by saying that I am by no means trying to re-start controversy, but I did figure something out that may help other owners.

I was certain that my new car's idle could not be normal. I can understand it getting a little uneven at times as this happens in many cars. But my engine really seemed like it was going to shut down while idling. It did it while cold and after it had warmed up.

My car is an '05 S2K with a Nov. '04 build date. I was thinking about my car's build date and how long it had been sitting at the dealer. I'm sure the trip from Japan to California and then to FL could not be more than one month or so. This means that the fuel that was in the car's tank was probably 7 or more months old.

I've been filling up with BP/Amoco on all my cars for some time now with excellent results. This fuel has been recommended to me by several mechanics I know.

I'm sure the "free" full tank I got from the dealer was with 89 octane so once it got to 1/2 tank the day after delivery, I topped it off with BP 93. Then, when it got to 1/2 again, I did the same thing and the 3rd time, I let it get down to about 1/4 tank.

I put a bottle of STP super concentrated fuel injector cleaner in the tank. I then went for a "spirited" drive to make sure the fuel was....."mixed properly" and I'm happy to report that my car's problem is gone!

The idle is now "normal" and certainly acceptable. It gets a little uneven when the A/C compressor kicks in and on engine shut down but nothing that concerns or bothers me.

It seems to me that given these cars nature, and depending on the dealer/area, they may sit on the lot for a long time. My car certainly did as it has a lot of "fall out" or crud in the paint that I'll need to remove with a clay bar, etc.

I hope this helps any new owners that may suffer the same problem with extremely old fuel in the tank.