kizneda

Just got my car back this week. Some on the board knew that my car was in for a short block replacement.

My '01 had around 2900 miles on it when I heard the horrible clicking noise that some have attributed to the number four cyclinder failure. I had the car flatbedded to the nearest dealer (unfortunately I was 3 hours from where I live at the time). This all happened on a Saturday, so I had to wait until Monday to hear back from Honda customer service. Honda shipped out a short block to the dealership that arrived Friday of last week and by Monday evening of this week the car was up and running. Honda picked up the cost of a rental car for ten days (Chrysler Sebring - at least it was a convertible and it has a marginally better stereo, too).

I did have to drive three hours back up to the dealership to pick up the S2000 and return back down three hours to the Bay Area just in time for rush hour traffic. All in all the dealership did a fine job and they only put five miles on the odometer. By the way, they had two S2000s on the showroom floor: asking $10K over.

Honda's official diagnosis? Low oil. Didn't you know that the owner's manual requires you to check your oil at every gas fill-up? And didn't you know that if you don't follow the maintainence instructions in the owners manual you put your warranty at risk? You all check your oil at every fill up, right? I do. In fact, I am following Barry Wy's idea and I am now signing every gas receit after I check the oil. How a car can burn enough oil in 2900 miles to destroy the engine is beyond me. Honda customer service is extending the warranty on the engine to 5 years / 50,000 miles to help ease my fears that an engine assembled by mechanics that have done very little work (up until now) on S2000s will not be quite the same as one assembled in Togichi.

That's my tale of woe. I think Honda has done a good job for me. What could I expect, a new '02 S2000?

Mack

Just out of curiousity.

Did you check your oil prior to your problem?

I've used over a quart in 2200 miles. I'd say a quart or 2 low could cause a problem.

kizneda

AutoEX: Honda rented me the car through Enterprise. They only provide $25 a day which just about covers a Cavalier, but nobody wanted the Sebring convertible in February so they gave it to me. I did have to pay for unlimited miles...

My car is a Silver/Black '01. I do have to break in the engine again. The dealership does not put the special break in oil in the new short block, but I guess the extended warranty will help.

Mack: No, I was not as diligent as I should've been about checking the oil. Honda knows that and the short block replacement is a "one-time good will replacement". Seriously though, I have never heard of a brand new car that drank so much oil in 2900 miles. And if Honda really wanted us to check our oil at every fill up, shouldn't they have mentioned this at purchase and (not my idea) put a reminder sticker on the gas cap? I can tell you one thing for sure, I've checked my oil at each fill up since the short block replacement. So far so good.

autoxEX

kizneda, glad to hear everything went ok. My car has been at the dealer since last Monday and they are still waiting for the new short block to come in. Consider yourself very lucky that you had a decent rental, I have a Chevy Malibu right now which was the best choice I had: Geo Metro, Corolla, Cavalier 2 door. They still don't have a real explanation as to what happened to my car yet, I checked the oil before they flatbedded it away and it was normal. I think my problem was a little different than a few of you guys with the #4 cylinder failure, the symptoms and sounds aren't the same. I only hope that my car can be returned good as new and I find out what killed my motor. 2 questions, do you have to break your car in again? and what color is your car? Its good to know that Honda is taking responsibility for these problems and providing adequate service to get our cars back on the road. I thought that there would be alot of finger pointing to the driver as the source of the engine failure. I'll post my results in a week when my car should be ready.

Mack

Kizneda-

Sorry about your misfortune.I agree with what you said about the recommendation from Honda. Hope you get yours back as good as new. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I've got 2,200 miles on mine and feel like I'm still in the danger zone.

Sime

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kizneda
[B]AutoEX:

Sondra S2K

Sime: Audi had to buy back my A4 1.8T Quattro (at 9 months and 14,500 miles) 2 years ago also, but not because of oil consumption (total tranny replacement, a/c and wheel bearing failure, turbo problems, paint flaking off).

Good for you for sticking to your guns to make them do it! I wish it didn't take so much work on the part of the consumer to get a car repurchased by the manufacturer, but I'm just glad they bought the POS back...

I wonder if Honda has had to buy back any S2000's!

Tox

Without knowing what kizneda's engine looked like inside, this is only an opinion, but --

If the number 4 piston started to slap, with the bent skirt and the non-sealing rings and all that stuff, it would blow the oil out of the engine pretty quickly. Low oil may have just been a symptom rather than the cause.

On the other hand, I've heard of some rather exceptional oil consumption rates on this board, so the dealer may have called it correctly.

What actually failed that created the noise?

kizneda

I don't know what actually failed. The service department said that there was no sign of where the oil went. If oil was blown out due to the number four piston failure then there probably would've been some evidence under the hood (bonnet ). Someone else on the board had an engine failure due to excessive oil consumption:

http://www.s2000online.com/forums/showthre...p?threadid=6706

I had been driving on the highway for three hours with no oil light, check engine light or any other indication of a problem. Temperature light never went beyond three bars. It wasn't until I shut down and tried to restart the car that the lights decided to show up.

Checking the oil at every fill up will now be part of my routine. I will also change the oil sooner than recommended as the engine oil is not the special break in oil.

rocketman

If the factory engine requires break-in oil, why wouldn't a replacement engine require break-in oil? If break-in oil IS REQUIRED, they should give you break-in oil with the new engine. This is either a significant oversight on Honda's part or this break-in oil thing is a bunch of crap.

[please note, I don't know exactly what comprises a "short block"; this ignorance may totally negate the above comment]