Hey guys..
So I've been on the shitty end of this, as you'll see with my thread regarding the current s2000.
Car was exhibiting a slight misfire only a month after purchase and after several methods and part purchases, it appeared it was the coil packs all along. I swapped to a good set of coils that were healthy, after I had installed this unknown to be, counterfeit sensor. Still misfires.
I had bought a map sensor off eBay for 30 quid, stating it was the correct Denso Sensor with all the markings/sticker and certainly looked genuine. Seller had excellent feedback - until recently! (And he won't respond, total CNUT) . Anyhow, removing my old healthy map sensor proved to be the mistake. The one I bought was fine for a few weeks, until the symptoms returned.
I put back my old healthy map sensor a few weeks ago, and it's cured the issue totally.
As a last test, I put on my old coil packs, and the car had misfire codes (with old map sensor on too). Replaced coils, issue vanished.
On closer inspection, the Map sensor is 100% fake.
The sticker is "off", slightly different font (barely noticeable if I'm honest) and the plug does not have the numerical markings inside. The housing looks "cheap plastic cast". How could I not notice this ?
It came in a Honda clear bag with the 37830-PAA-S00 sticker on it.
Also, the top of the sensor doesn't have the same indent square that the sticker sits in.


Offending item above.
If you look on eBay they are bloody everywhere.
Do not buy a £20-£30 Denso map sensor . It absolutely will not be genuine - I'm officially a fool!
On a side point, wtf is so special about these Denso ones compared to one from say Autodoc that's about £30, and a genuine different make ?
I guess longevity of the circuit inside ? It gets bloody hot on the throttle body..
Anyway - be warned! They are around £220 for a genuine one (or £160 at Tegiwa).
Strange this is, when the car was sputtering on idle due to this, no codes or EML.
Seems it's a problem in the US as well, as LHT Performance go on to find. You will have to fast forward through this as he mentions it 3 times in the below video (although a year ago):

https://youtu.be/fb5Na57xgc4?si=AQ4EcF9vZZi1K36O

 

Its scary the amount of counterfeit stuff around these days, spark plugs is one that scares me I heard about recently.

 

^ don't feel so bad, the counterfeiters are getting so good at this. I was stunned to see they actually make counterfeit sparkplugs, along with oil filters and all sorts of crap. The Chinese have been very busy in recent years , it is too bad e-bay puts up with this stuff the vendors should be banned. i would report them.

 

E bay don’t care about fake merchandise, a local hifi speaker cable manufacturer reported Chinese sellers listing fake cable bearing their name as real, what happened? Nothing.

 

This is the thing - the UK market is holding on to it's Used Cars now like never before. Average car age is officially 9.5 years old in the UK. Of course, the Chinese want a part of this as their industry knows it will be easy to sell parts to a massive market. In truth, they are complete garbage some of these things made in a factory somewhere in China's industrial districts. Admittedly they are very good at electronics, inventive and unfortunately some of the factories are sharks churning out BS. Baiting buyers is half the problem - the tuning market is being targeted too.
Buyers must know these are fake - and must cost a few pounds each. It's not worth the risk, but is for others. Whatever happened to reputation and caring about your customers? Some sellers are just fly by night d*ckheads.
We all want a good deal, but small auto shops on eBay may need to be avoided. I have found out the hard way.

 

Counterfeit stuff been an issue on flea for a while

My brother used to buy hand tools and Bosch were often copies which lasted 5 minutes

Chinese don't culturally focus on build quality imo

https://news.sky.com/story/newly-ope...apses-13469162

Would never touch their cars lol

I'm with car perv on this, peak car was around the early noughties when your car was made and the S2 is one example

No turbo, no nanny bollocks, less than 1m sensors to fail... Relatively simple but reliable ignition and fueling setup (post carb, post distributor)

Ebay stick to trusted sellers