flanders

Did they tell you any specifics on the valve adjustment, like all was super loose or something?

rpg51

I'm skeptical. You brought it in for a particular problem and they did not fix it. They did not test to see that it was fixed.
Not good. I would not be a happy camper. Take your work elsewhere.

ericmdub92

yes they told me that my adjustment was off by a factor of ten (on the loose side)... i dont know how the !@#$ that happenened, im positive i used the correct feeler gauges and was in TDC for each of the valves... they were also cold at the time when i did it. the car definitely sounds a lot quieter now too.

i guess im never trusting myself with a valve adjustment again.




100% agreed. their explanation was that the valves were so far out of wack that they were positive that the valve adjustment would fix the misfire so they didnt work on anything else. my car sat there for 8 days and that's all they did lol. i specifically told them (when dropping off my car) that i dont mind paying for dyno time, i just want them to make sure they verify that the misfire no longer happens when i get my car back.

the frustrating part is ive spent ~6k in parts in the last 3 months w/ evasive through my sales rep. i also had my fenders rolled there when i got my new set of wheels and tires and they did a great job. this time though they really dropped the ball.

i spent around 2 hours at rockstar w/ Justin and Johnny troubleshooting my car this morning. the first thing they did was run a compression test and verified the numbers that i reported earlier. the numbers are in the healthy zone (210+) but w/ cyl 3/4 being around 240 and cyl 1/2 being at 220 theyre right there at the 10% variance line. the next thing rockstar garage did was run a leakdown test and they werent seeing anything higher than 15% and they told me that the leaking sound seemed to be coming from the bearings and not the valves

they put the car back together and then johnny and i went out to the freeway so i could have the s2000 exhibit the problem while johnny had his diagnostic tablet monitoring the all the info. i was able to exhibit the problem on the freeway nearby and from what johnny could see it looked like during one of the misfires the vtec solenoid voltage cut and then came back... so we went back to the shop and they threw on a working vtec solenoid and we tried to exhibit the problems again.

unfortunately we still got it to occur with the good vtec solenoid.

at this point their first hunch is that it may be an oil issue. theyre going to approach that angle first (take off my mishimoto oil sandwich plate, etc) and then if that doesnt resolve it we're going to go down the expensive route of taking the head off... we'll see how it goes, justin is going to keep me in the loop. im much more satisfied with how rockstar is approaching my problem (and theyre being very thorough and conscious of my "budget"). im hoping for good things...


at this point im pretty sure im looking at a $2000-3000 bill when this is all said and done. i just wish i did this in the first place before spending a month and throwing around $600 into replacing half the ignition system. at any rate i took care of a lot of small issues (buildup in injectors, coil packs were going to fail in the next 15k-20k miles probs, needed a valve adjustment badly) but yeah

kinda bummed right now!!

flanders

This was the very first question you got in this thread
You got a oil pressure gauge installed but you never checked it closely while you are getting the problem?

ericmdub92

i did! the oil pressure level seemed fine relative to numbers i see when the car isnt misfiring
ive never gotten an oil pressure light either

the reason justin said he had a hunch that it COULD be an oil problem is because when they swapped my vtec solenoid for the good vtec solenoid they test drove it around a little bit (did around 3-4 pulls to top of 3rd) and it didnt happen. then i jumped in it (with johnny sitting passenger, looking at diagnostics tablet) and we took it out to the freeway and tested a bunch of pulls and then it started happening again.

he said it may be oil related because it doesn't happen immediately, it took a couple of pulls (maybe needed time for oil to start circulating) before it starts happening

so maybe an oil pressure issue? but my gauge isn't showing anything out of the ordinary/glaringly obvious


i believe theyre going to try and make sure there are no possible clogs/debris in the oil. they noted that when they took my vtec solenoid off and looked at the filter there was not much in there at all (zero bearing material)

SpitfireS

Ask them to look into how the vtec solenoid gets power from the ECU. What contacts, is there a circuit board relay, that kinda stuff.
See if you can measure voltage at the output 'in' the ECU itself, if possible the relay output and relay signal.
Intermittent voltage could be as simple as a dodgy cable or connector.
You don't have anything like a Modifry shifter beeper with a 'no vtec' function inline with the solenoid, do you?
The voltage to the solenoid is independant from the oil pressure.
A lack of oil pressure can be the problem but in a way that the solenoid needs oil pressure to open the main valve.
The solenoid itself doesn't open the main valve directly, it opens a little gate and oil pressure opens the main valve.
That's how all the solenoids work that I've seen working with hydraulics / pneumatics.
Most likely the vtec solenois works like that too.
A drop in oil pressure can not change the voltage send to the solenoid.

The measured drop in vtec solenoid voltage is a huge hint.
Follow it.

twohoos

^Agreed, all the evidence points to an intermittent electrical problem that manifests under high load. Make sure all grounds are solid, esp. G101 on the back of the cylinder head. G101 is the single ground reference for the ECU, and it's notorious for drifting away from chassis ground.

VashTheStampede

RolanTHUNDER

Well then Rockstar took you much further than Evasive did. At least the problem is somewhat localised now and less guess work is required than before. Since the solenoid itself is not the issue it could mean that the line of communication between it and the ECU is compromised either due to the physical connection itself or like the above poster said G101 - ground issue...unless it really is an oil pressure issue...by the way what oil do you run?

rpg51

This story about your valve adjustment issue does not make a lot of sense to me. Did you snug up the locking nuts after you set the gap?
I'm sorry you are having all this trouble getting this diagnosed. But, I think you will figure it out. I think you said you have good solid oil pressure generally correct? So, to me, that means bearings are ok. Its guess work, but I tend to agree with the folks who are suggesting an electrical issue - or maybe the ecu.