Hey guys- just bought used 01 S2000 with 44k on iit- it has been pretty cold since ii bought the car a few days ago- when i first start the car in the morning it chugs for a second then dies- i press the engine start button right after and it starts right up. I normally would not see this as a big problem- but reading the mechanical forum for a few hours has had me paranoid about every noise i hear. Is the S2000 the unreliable honda? the previous owner was a leaser- i bought the car used (good deal) from a toyota lot with no service records- any thoughts/opinions? Also - anyone else have this startup problem?

 

This is not an uncommon phenomenon with this car. A change to cold weather can do this and it may take the car 3 to 5 cold starts before it "learns" to correct for this. If you try to help it from stalling or help it idle better, it will take much longer to learn. Let it stumble and let it stall. Hopefully, after about a week of this, it will no longer do it. Mine did it from the time it was 2 weeks old and for the next 2 winters. Then the following years, it has never done it since.
Also, you might "freshen up" the MAP sensor wiring harness connection by unclipping it and wiggling it vigorously when clipping it back on. The cold "might" have an effect on those contacts and this would also contribute to odd starting.

Once you do all the maintenance on it, I think you will have a much more enjoyable car.

 

mine did that exact same thing the first two days of a cold snap here. But it hasnt done it since. I thought there might be somthing wrong with mine too but just like xviper mine did it twice and then just hasnt done it anymore.

 

so is all the mechanical forum stuff true (there are allot of post of mechanical defiency involving the s2000) or am I just being new/used car paranoid? I got back into a honda from a VW GTI because of how unreliable vws are. Now i am getting scared..

 

Yes. Anytime anyone has a problem with their car, it gets posted up here. People don't generally post anything when there's nothing wrong. That would get pretty boring, wouldn't it? Forums like this is a cauldron that concentrates issues and problems.
There is a thread here strictly about S2000s that have exceeded 100,000 miles but then, this doesn't get the same kind of press that a problem thread would.
If you want something a bit more uplifting, find that thread and also take a look at this one:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79802