Hornblower

This may be completely normal but it is annoying nonetheless. When I start off either in reverse or first gear, and I don't give it quite enough throttle, I get this rattle or knocking noise. I guess I'm at the point of lugging the engine. I've driven many straight drive cars and this is not that uncommon I suppose but it seems this car does it worse than any other car I've driven. Is there something I could check and possible tighten or is there any modification that would improve on this? Thanks for any ideas. --Ken

slipstream444

It's "normal". It's your S2000 telling you not to lug it so much.
You're allowing the RPMs to drop too quickly and not adding enough gas, and this car doesn't like to get below ~850-950 RPM under load - it's just the nature of the beast. Add more gas when you take off and it won't happen.

istdercollen

nothing to tighen, it just does it.. it's a torque monster so it's literally bending the frame everytime to give it some gas.

Hornblower

I figured but I wanted to ask just in case there was something abnormal going on. I saw something posted the other day that made me start thinking about this. It was sort of a shock absorber-looking device made by Spoon that was called a torque damper. I wondered if that might help in this regard. Any thoughts about that?

istdercollen

those are supposed to keep the engine from flexing on launch, but what they will also do is transfer all that flex through the chassis and you may ind up with a much more vibrational ride