Hi All,

Really hoping someone can help me with this one. WIll put the symptoms and the lead up to the problem below. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated!

The Car
2002 AP1
93000 miles
daily driver
had clutch & tranny fluids changed last month
Oil & Filter before i bought the car about 3 months ago but unsure of what oil he used
oil level looks good

The problem:
Yesterday lunch time had the car valeted (jet washed vents under the bonnet by the windscreen
Drove home from work (4miles) yesterday night and the car was running fine
left the car for about 4 hours and when i drove home the engine light came on and developed a bad misfire straight away and quite a lot of smoke from the exhaust (white, not blue)

I live in London and don't have a garage so tough to do decent maintenance work. What would you suggest i do first (easy DIY) to eliminate some things before i go to a garage? Prefer to sort it myself so i know exactly whats been done and also keen to learn more about the car

Cheers all, im pretty gutted as this is my first S2000 and my pride and joy!

 

check for water in the coil packs

 

Cheers Apme, Will do that today if it stops raining and come back to you.

ta

 

How come nobody ever thinks about finding out what the codes are when the engine light comes on?
If you're going to check for water in the coil packs (which is highly unlikely as water would have a hard time finding it's way into the coil packs' sensitive areas to begin with), you may as well check the tire pressures while you're at it.

 

Right, its been a while coming but got my diagnostics reader and finally have a set of codes. If anyone could shed any light on the below or suggest next steps it would be a massive help!

It comes up with 6 codes
p0301
p0302
p0303
p0304
p0300
01399

I am assuming these all point to a multi cylinder misfire?

BUT

When i do the freeze frame data the following comes up:

DCTFRZF - P0302
FUEL SYS1 - OL
FUEL SYS2 - N/A
LOAD PCT (%) - 38.4
ETC (°F) - 118
SHRTFT1 (%) - 0.0
LONGFT1 (%) - 1.6
MAP (INHG) - 11.5
RPM - 1512
USS (MPH) - 7
IAT (°F) - 81
TP (%) - 7.1


unfortunately most of this means nothing to me and not sure if the freeze frame is more of an indicator of fault or the 6 codes? Keen to learn about it all and sort this problem out.

Thanks all!

Matt

 

P0300 and P1399 are both "Random Misfire". P1399 merely means it's "temporary", meaning it's not a constant misfire and is detected intermittently. The other codes points to each cylinder misfiring at some point in time.
Start with the simple stuff like checking (or replacing) all the sparkplugs, making sure they all are gapped correctly and are of the correct type. Don't buy into the hype about multiple electrode plugs or the "Oh so great" Iridium plugs (these have been known to case high rpm misfires without a CEL). Stick with OEM till you get through this. Then use concentrated injector cleaner for 1 tank of gas. The "concentrated" stuff usually costs upwards of $20.00/bottle. The 2 to 4 buck kind is just maintenance cleaner. If your injectors are getting bad enough to throw misfire codes, you need the heavy duty cleaner. If you can afford it and want to take the chance, have the injectors cleaned professionally where they hook up the cleaner directly to the fuel rail and run the whole can through it. Otherwise, if using the gas additive cleaner and if the CEL doesn't go away on its own after about 3/4 tank of gas, reset it using your scanner and then see what happens.

PS, you could operate an S2000 with random misfires indefinitely and it may go away on its own. But if you want to be proactive, you can do the above.

 

You may want to look at the wiring and connectors at the rear of the engine compartment, which may have gotten wet from the washing. Try opening the connectors and spraying them out with a water displacer (WD 40 or equivalent). With all the washing, did water get down inside and into the ECU? The cam sensors at the rear corners of the valve cover may cause misfires if wiring or connections are bad.

While it may be coincidental that the misfire started after the washing, the washing is what I would suspect as the cause.

 

A HUGE THANKYOU to both of you for the replies. Amazing help

So it is ok to drive the car then? I am going to drive it to work this morning (4miles) and get some injector treatment and also give it a good old spray of WD40. If i can get some spark plugs as well i will do and have them changed.

s2000sccaracer, your post seems to make quite a lot of sense. Some dirty b***ard was sick on the bottom right side of the windscreen while the car was parked up. (DON'T ASK!!!) That was why it was being washed on the Friday. And he was jet washing the vents at the back of the engine bay as sick got into them. Would water through those vents get into the electrics? Any specifically that i should check.

I owe you both a pint!

 

If the CEL ever starts to blink, pull into a safe spot, shut it off and have it towed.

Start with the cheap stuff first. Now that you know what the codes are, clear them and wait and see if they come back after you do each intervention.

 

I had the same issue. Replace coils. advanced auto has the exact unit Honda will give you at half the price. Same part numbers and everything