It's now been three weeks since I left my car at Scott Honda in Westchester, PA to have the tranny rebuilt. The work is being done with great care by Tim (suzukatim), and I've urged him not to rush. I'm headed to California on Wednesday, so I won't see or drive my car again for at least another week.

I'm suffering major withdrawal pains Life is not the same without this car! I will feel great joy when I'm back behind the wheel again.

 

what happened to your tranny in the first place Rick?

 

Shot 1-2 synchro, reverse synchro, 4-5 shift fork. I was getting occassional, but awful 1-2 grinds, and the car was slipping out of gear on rough downhill roads. The work is being covered under warranty.

The rebuilt tranny should work better than the original did when new, since Tim thinks these flaws were there from the getgo (all but the reverse syncho is covered by TSBs, so they probably were).

Lord knows I babied the tranny as much as I could. It got so I never did any fast 1-2 shifts, because the thing was always very notchy. The "like butter" phrase never applied to my tranny.

 

Rick,

Do you have ties with this dealership?
I'm getting my 2-->3 gear grind again (3rd gear replaced when I had 5000 miles) and the dealership knows I have the 4.44s. They told me it would void my drivetrain warrenty all together.

BS?

 

I do not have any ties other than knowing the lead tech there, who is an S2000 owner himself. There is great variation from dealer to dealer in how they will treat these kind of problems. Scott Honda is a first-class operation.

I would never take the car to my original dealer for anything, let alone a tranny problem, since they are incompotent fools and would have blamed any problems on me. I have bought or leased 5 Hondas from them over the past 10 years and they act like they don't even know me and treat me like crap. Consequently, when I buy my next Honda, I will look to Scott Honda, even though it is nearly 100 miles from my home.

There is no way the new rear gears should void the warranty. If anything, high ratio rear gears result in less stress on the tranny, not more. This is just the typical dealer BS to escape responsiblity for a flawed tranny and thier flawed attempts to repair it. If your dealer repects its custmers and wants your business again, they'll fix it and not look for excuses.

While the original S2000 gear box is a great design, it obviously had some engineering and/or maufacturing problems. The several TSBs are proof of that, as is the fact that the synchros have been changed in the 2004.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rick Hesel

 

Rick-how many miles on your car? I have never been 100% in love with my gearbox but figured most of the issues are the clutch (ringing/buzzing and now squeaking pedal despite much dealer attention).

Maybe I need to mellow out and enjoy the whole experience (which I do..). My car just crossed 36K miles.

 

Not to rub anyone's nose in it, but I hope all the "Honda Quality" devotees are reading this thread. Yes folks, Honda quality in many cases is just a questionable as other cars, from other times. None of the complaints raised here are new to me. Some of my local club friends have suffered these problems as well as many, many others, including electrical problems.

These problems are listed regularly on S2000 Talk and Under the Hood. People love to call MGs and other British sports cars POS, but look at the low miles some people have on their S2000 when a major drive train component lets go.

I suppose some will turn a blind eye and continue to believe that Honda quality is unsurpassed. I still think you won't do too much worse with a Ford.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bob Moss
Rick-how many miles on your car?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bob Moss
.....most of the issues are the clutch (ringing/buzzing and now squeaking pedal despite much dealer attention).

Maybe I need to mellow out and enjoy the whole experience (which I do..).