Hello everyone I am looking at buying an S2000. I looked at one tonight and it was an immaculate 2006 with 37k miles. The only issue is that he said at 29k miles the car was running oddly. Mind you, this is an older gentleman that said he drove the car very lightly. He took it into Honda and they found that 8 valves were leaking causing low compression. Thye found this odd because it was such a low mileage car. Honda fixed the issue because they honored the 36,000 mile powertrain warranty. Honda replaced his entire top end free of charge at 29000 miles. The car now has 36k miles and ran great. He has all of the maintenance records.

Opinions please. Is this an issue i should be concerned about???

Thanks!

 

There's evidence of tight valve clearances in the '06 and later DBW (drive by wire) cars and this one seems to have been a victim. There's been a Warning here for some years for us to check the valve clearances and I did last year in my then recently purchased '06. They were fine at 38K miles. Your car was professionally fixed by Honda under warranty and based on what you've written I have no reservations about it.

Standard "concerns" about any 10 year old car. There's a brake booster "recall" (mine was done by the selling Honda dealer) but that's about it. If the car has been routinely serviced the brake fluid should have been changed as well as the coolant. Both jobs are DIY very easily. Same with engine, gearbox, and differential fluids which many of us here obsess about about.

The '06 cars were prone to tearing a hole in the roof from the inside over the passenger shoulder. My fabric has some wear there and I smoothed the framework and put a prevent wear patch on the fabric. The elastic between the top bows wear out and should be replaced.

Tires are a great factor in how the car handles. I'm running so-called "uber-performance" summer tires but only drive the card in the summer.

Sounds like a great car if the price is right. These cars are niche cars but high demand in that market. I decided two summers ago to not lose the car for $1000.

-- Chuck