Hello, I am new to the S2000 forum and new to the S2000 car. Car history is I bought a 2003 S with 22,400 miles on it. It now has 26,850 miles. Ran great since March.

Went to Colorado a couple weeks ago. Coming down out of the mountains after being in them 5 days it got a CEL. Stopped at a Honda shop and they found misfire on cylinders 1 & 3. Light steady on so they said should be fine to drive home - 600 miles.

At home I put OBD II on and also CEL showed randow mis-fires and P1399 / Manufacturer control system problem. Changed plugs around = no change. Changed coil packs around - no change. All this time engine ran strong but rough idle.

Monday went to take in to Honda shop and engine started killing out and barely running. Shop is just 7 miles so I got there, Compression check was 100 PSIG on 2 & 4. Less the 60 PSIG on 1 & 3. Head pulled and sent to machine shop. Another point, on Saturday all plugs looked good. When Honda pulled them 1 & 3 were fouled.

Now, machine shop called and said all 8 exhaust valves were leaking.

Now the question - what would cause all 8 valves start leaking at once and this car to go from running great to being a pile of crap. I'm not hard on it at all, get into VTECH once in a while.

Any ideas of what would/could cause this. I intend to get car fixed and then have a little chat with Honda. Somehow I think they should share in this a little. I bought this car because my Goldwings have been so reliable.

Thanks

Dick

 

Maybe from running fuel with less than 91 octane?

 

Always 91 with exception of one tank which was 89. 91 wasn't available.

 

Isn't this car still under warranty?

 

Dick...did you do or see the compression test? I'm really skeptical you would have even made it 7 miles if compression was that low on 2 cyl. Not even sure the car would have started.

Normally though...those misfires are by: plugs, coil packs, or injectors. Can be any. Since you changed plugs and coil packs, injectors would have been next on my list to replace. But if the compression was really that low, then the dealer diagnosed the problem correctly.

At this point, the dealer has your money. Not much you can do now. As long as they are doing the head work, I would replace the valves, retainers, keepers and guides. Might as well put new parts in there since they are already there.

It is possible that the car was lightly over-rev'ed at some point in its life and cracked retainers let the valves sag far enough into the combustion chamber to get pinged by the pistons. Just enough to bend them. That would make them leak.

 

negcamber

Did not see the compression test, just taking their word for it. For the rest, all good questions. Possibly in past life it was abused. I'm just going by the fact that in the time I have owned it it has ran great and this happened almost overnight. Makes me wonder how this could happen so quickly. I did not do anything on my trip that would cause it. Do not know what to think. Was just hoping someone had seen this before and would know a reason or cause.

 

I would agree with negcamber. A good possibility it was over-revved in its past life but not "bad" enough to cause problems right away. Unfortunately, it finally took it's toll most likely on your 600 mile trip. I would approximate that to around 10 hours of driving which is alot of "abuse" on cracked retainers in 1 day. I think it is time for me to get a compression test. Good luck on getting everything fixed.