I found a local private owner selling a 2001 spa. The car looked very clean, very well taken care of. 19,000 miles, all Service records, extended warentee included. Everything is fine until I take it out for a test drive. I noticed when slowing down in gear there was a loud vibration noise, sounded like a loose exhaust but it was coming from the transmission/engine area, couldnt tell for sure. Any thoughts?

 

thats normal, there is a TSB for it, but ive heard it doesnt work

 

do a search under "clutch buzz". it isn't a mechanical problem, just an annoyance.

 

Is this clutch buzz a problem with just the '00'a & '01? or does it continue on the other years too?

 

I just did a search for "clutch buzz" (as compmonkey suggested) & it sounds exactly like what I experienced during my test drive. And since you mentioned the TSB doesnt really help I may pass on this car.

 

good luck find one without that problems....

almost every single S2k that was produced around that time has that problems
even some of the 2002s thta i test drove
mine was fixed by honda and now the problems are gone

 

It shouldnt be umbearable, The joy of driving this car far outweighs any noise, that ALL CARS end up making, no car doesnt have a rattle or something associated with it. I say ask the owner to do the TSB first then decide
IMO

 

The S2000 by nature is a very loud car anyway. Wind noise with the top down is MUCH louder, for example. In my opinion, the clutch buzz is a complete non-issue. It's far more important to find a properly maintained car.

Of course, I don't know what you want in a car - I'm not trying to be snotty here, but if having a quiet car is important for you I'm not sure you'd enjoy S2000 ownership regardless of any clutch buzz.

In any case, for the other S2000 owners - doesn't the '03 friction disk pretty much eliminate this noise?

 

You know what. Maybe this car has a more serious problem. I would not classify this as a "clutch buzz". It is more like a loud rattle

 

You heard wrong, sir.

Honda tried about three different attempts to resolve this problem. I have a MY2001 and I had this problem really bad, it was driving me crazy listening to the racket. I waited until the problem was actually fixed before I had my clutch disk replaced and mine is still working, about 40,000 miles later. It has 57,000 miles on it at the moment.