Hi,

I have the helm manual, but I'm not much of a car repair guy (I can do brakes and oil, thats about it) and I remember reading that on some S2k's there is too much slack in the throttle cable so when you press the pedal all the way down, the throttle might not be all the way open. I was wondering if anyone has some hints on how I can check my cable, and if its too loose on how to adjust it so it is at WOT when I have the accelerator all the way down.

Thanks!

 

Normally there's about 1/2 inch deflection in the wire - i.e. you should be able to move it 1/2 inch from it's original position. Open the hood and look at the throttle body, the cable connected to it is the throttle cable. press on it with the tip or your finger (or a measureing stick) and see how much deflection it has. If it's more than 1/2 inch, you might have to tighten it. It should be pretty simple but I haven't really looked at the TB that close to tell you how to do it. I'd think it'd be ok. The other thing to do it have someone press the gas pedal all the way and see if you can still open the throttle any further. You can do all this without starting the car. Sorry if this is not very descriptive.

 

Thanks, I thought that was about all there is to it to checking it. I've looked it before and had the engine at idle and then pressed on the throttle on the TB and had the engine rev up. I had to do that at the last SCCA Solo II to pass tech.

 

I know this is an old post, but this really worked for me. I've heard that some 00-03 s2000's have a looser throttle cable that normal and you should tighten up the slack if it's more than a half an inch. Wonder how many loose ones are out there?

 

A lot

 

^really? Im gonna run outside from work and check it nao.

 

Just get someone to sit in the driver's seat and mash the pedal to the floor. Under the hood, see if you can open the throttle any further. If so, too much free play. Don't go tightening the throttle cable just for the heck of it.

 

If you press the pedal all the way down fast and hear the TP click, it's fine. That's the sound of the pulley hitting the stop. You can remove a little slack to help with heal toe as long as it can go all the way back to it's resting point with no tension.

 

Every car I've seen has more slack than I think should be.

The perfect position to me is the point at which the TB is fully closed and back off a tad. None of this 1/2" slack crap. You want instant reaction of your throttle. If you have any slack, you're delaying that. In turn it causes your shifting to be timed wrong, bad downshifts, rev matching delays, etc.

When I make this 5 min tweak to people's cars, they go for a test drive and go bonkers over how it feels like a new car.

Most basic mod you can do.

 

In my Dutch service manual they say to check the play while the engine is warm.
In a pdf copy of a '00-'03 Helms I have there is not a word about warming the engine up before checking it.



And its not a mod, its an adjustment
Or better: get the car back to spec.