Hi All,

The first time I've been on the site. I posted on Piston heads and was recommended to try this site.

I have a 05 UK S2000 38k on the clock. Bought used last November from Gatwick Honda. It came supplied with one years Honda approved warranty (still valid). Service history is perfect and I look after it like a baby. I check the oil every couple of weeks.

A few weeks ago the engine management light came on. Straight away I was on the phone, next day brought into the dealer. I was told a misfire had happened and it may have been just one of those things. The light was reset and of it came on again, contact them.

A week later the light was back on. Again straight on the phone, through work I couldn't bring it back to Gatwick, so took it into my local dealer, Chiswick Honda. They had the car for the day, the code was again a misfire. It needed further research to find out what it was.

To cut an already long story short, the no.1 cylinder was not pressurising. In the end the block had to be stripped down. The oil scraper piston ring was found to be worn, hence no power coming from the cylinder.

After much debating, Honda will not pay the full cost of the repair under the warranty

 

Doesn't sound right to me. The top compression ring is what provides the compression. The oil scraper ring is for oil control. If it was normal wear and tear all 4 cylinders would have comparable wear.

I would suggest getting hold of an independent automotive engineer to inspect the engine and provide a written report. I've used them a few times and found that insurance companies or dealers suddenly stop the bulls*&t when they realise you are collecting some concrete information from an independent source.

I found them through advertisements in the phone book. Call them and talk about your problem so you make sure you have someone with expertise in engine internals.

Once you have the report you will know where you stand and will have something to push up the food chain.

Good luck.

 

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply. I managed to get hold of the engineer thats signs the warranty claims off or not. The fault is not worn piston rings as I was previously told. They basically are not sure, but suspect that the splits on the rings may have come into line causing the pressure loss on the compression stroke.

He told me to appeal it for a second time as he can only go by what the book says. So I'm trying that.

I'm not sure if I buy the explanation. A slim chance of happening I know but with all the millions of cars in the world everytime the rings come into line if this problem happened surely it would be very common.

An indepentent engineer may be the route to go down.

Thanks again.
JC

 

JC Slayer Posted on Jul 30 2009, 02:22 PM
As in: the rings have rotated while the engine was running?

Then why is Honda very specific where to put the splits?


Never on position 2 and 6.
2 is the loaded side of the piston and 6 is where the wrist pins are.

8 - slot top ring
1 - slot second ring
3 - slot top oil scraper
4 - slot spacer ring
5 - slot bottom oil scraper
3, 4 and 5 go into 1 groove.

38k miles is like a hardly worn in engine.

 

38,000 km?

 

old control ring doesn't hold compression, it's the top 2 rings that does(like someone mentioned before)

I seriously don't think you'll get zero compression by lining up both ring, you'll mess up the oil ring by getting blow up but i don't think it's going to be that low compression.
how bad is the oil consumption? i been the dipstick get pops off once a while with all the blow by pressures

maybe the previous owner did something to the engine? any half witted installer know not to line up the opening of the ring together, i doubt honda will let one slip by in the computerized assembly line.

38kilo is NOTHING on the f20, there got to be something fishy

 

I suspect it could be something else like a closed up valve clearance or bent valve.

Did they do a leakdown test or just a compression test. A leakdown would have allowed them to see if the leak was from the headgasket, rings or valves. If a workshop pulls a motor down on compression test results only they are making it really tough on themselves to isolate the problem.

You can get situations where the valve clearance on one valve has just closed up resulting in low compression. Once the engine heats up the head expands and you get a tiny amount of clearance back so the engine runs fine. This means that cylinder wont fire till the engine heats up. Eventually you get to the point where the expansion isnt enough and that cylinder stops firing.

I've worked on some top end race engines that run only enough clearance to get the car started. On a cold day they can be very difficult to start unless you can get a pre-heater connected into the water system.