For those of us that have been around for a long time I would agree here. Barry is the expert in this area. It is obvious from certain others posts that they either have a gripe with Honda or another undefined problem. In short Honda has a car on the market which missed their target market like no other ever has. Lots of kids kicking the crap out of it and then crying warranty foul. Unfortunately this is adversely effecting folks who don't race every Friday night at the local main street parade. Do everything Barry says! Hell in the early days he got a whole car replaced for some chick as I recall?

Utah

 

I would have thought that the price tag would have reduced the "kick the crap out of it crowd". The interesting thing is that even those folks who repeatedly abuse their S2000, still worship it. There is not a Honda tuning mag out there that hasn't paid homage to the engine. I find it amazing that on one hand, the S2000 can be put to the grinder, while I consistently have engine problems on my daily commute. I am being patient, but it sucks not only to not have my S2000, but not to have any car at all.

 

Interesting, isn't it. There isn't a drive that goes by where I wouldn't hit the rev limiter at least once (or at least make the red lights flicker), yet 3 years, 80,000km I'm completely happy. No clutch buzzing, no engine siezures. Hell, not a drop of oil burnt (Between services, the mark stays dead on the line)

Yet, some people lose engines while babying their car?

Considering the relatively low rate of failure, you have to wonder how someone can trash 3 engines. I can understand why Honda may be antagonistic, when they say "We have a failure rate of less than 1 in a 1000, and you've broken 3 in a couple months??"

 

I don't disagree that many S2000's are mistreated but blaming a poor guy who has had 3 engines fail in a short peiod of time is a bit harsh.

It sounds like most of his problems have arisen out of one original dud engine and then a sequence of fvck ups caused by incompetent techs.

Failure rate of 1 in 1000?

I highly doubt it.

Consider that in Australia alone there are around 1400 S2000's yet there are well in excess of 10 engine failures that I have heard of. The exact number we will never know but it is likely to be around 30 or 40.

Also have a look at:
http://www.lemonlaw.com/lemonlist.html

It is said that the car that we all love so much features so high.

 

I'm curious out of how many other people have experienced engine problems whether they use the engine to decelerate in stop-and-go traffic. This would not be an over-rev situation, but a frequent occurance during every day driving.

Thanks Sundar for successfully making me jealous as hell. If you blew your engine once, it might slow you down. Go without your baby for a month, you might think twice about getting anywhere near the redline. Have more engine trouble after that and you're likely to feel majorly let down-- which is about where I'm at now.

 

I generally do not use my engine to do braking... I do gear down correctly to 2nd gear, but the brakes take the brunt of the decelerative force, not the engine.

I also broke my engine in properly when it was new, ensuring it was always at "H" after every drive, not VTEC'ing till 1000km and going pretty gently till 5000km.

Dhess, I didn't actually say I blame the poor guy, but think about it from Honda's point of view. They think they have a good quality product, and have few returns. Yet one person brings back 3 engines in a few months? I think any reasonable person would have to think. "Well, what is unique about this case that doesn't happen in any other case..." And one obvious answer is the owner.

In this case, they would be dead wrong, but nobody would blame them for thinking that.

 

Some of us are disatisfied with honda service and treat their car well. The clutch has never been sidestepped, i do not drag race, and i have had zero problems mechanically with the car. I agree that some people do falsely cry foul who whine and complain about diff failures after dropping the clutch at 7000 rpm etc etc.. but i dont think spark plug failures and#4 cylinder failures have ANYTHING to do with racing the car, this is an engineering foul that has been repeated on a variety of cars with a variety of owners!
My cynicism comes from dealerships who mistreat the car by "test driving" it, handing owners bs excuses because they have no idea themselves and have an inkling of hope that the owner will buy their crap. The cynicism also comes from having other honda vehicles and being treated the same at multiple dealerships. Hell it took years and action by the NHTSA to get honda to admit that it was their foul when accord owners had transmission after transmission failure... they had to bearthe cost of the fix and have the insult of dealers telling them it was their fault.
Now try and tell me any of us should not have a little doubt when we walk into a dealership.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Utah S2K
[B] Do everything Barry says! Hell in the early days he got a whole car replaced for some chick as I recall?

 

DHess and others -

I'm not for an instant discounting what anyone here has to say but I have to throw a flag for BS on that list you've cited.

First of all, look at the methodology used to compile the list. Note that it doesn't differentiate between one owner calling one time for one item, one owners calling three times for three items or one owner calling 800 times for the same item. Its statistical crap.

Also, notice the folks who put the list togehter. Gee... do you think they might have some sort of less then thinly veiled motive at work here? I mean, come on, they even have a link at the bottom of that list encouraging people to "get rid of their lemon".

In my personal opinion, the S200 hasn't been as reliable as the garden variety Accord. I also don't personally think thats unreasonable in that the S is a limited production, somewhat hand built car that is largely built to exacting specifications. However, what I do (again, personally) object to is the way that Honda sells and services this car. But that's just me.

 

In an over rev situation, the piston would have to got through the valves to hit the spark plug. At the revs required for the piston/rod to stretch and not break, the valves would be floating just waiting for the piston to demolish them. If the spark plug is cracked/broken then it either failed or some loose piece was jammed into it.

I'm making no excuses for Honda (mine has had zero problems), if it's a design flaw they should fix it, if the service guys didn't have a clue and did a bad rebuild job, then they should pay to have someone with some experience fix it.

From what I've heard, the S2000 has had more problems than the average Honda product. The service guys don't get much experience with them because it is a limited production car and it is not based on any other Honda platform. It is a recipe for unhappy customers and I had hoped Honda would realize this and make some adjustments to the warranty and customer relations process.