2000 Honda S2000. 52k miles.
Idles rough.
CEL is lit.
P303 is the code...Misfire on cylinder 3.

Swapped the coil packs around & cleared the code. Issue stayed with cylinder 3.
New plugs (OEM NGK's) with proper gap & cleared the code. Issue came back. Still on cylinder 3.
Adjusted valves & cleared code. Issue came back. Still cylinder 3.

Now I'm thinking the injector maybe? Possibly the wiring to the coil pack? What y'all think?

The kicker is that it runs like a champ for 20-60 miles after clearing the code. The idle is smooth as ever at first. After running it for a while it will start to idle poorly again and the CEL comes on shortly after.

Also, noticed tonight on the highway that there is a slight high pitched whine when I give it a little gas. If I let off the gas and coast it goes away, but when I get on the gas just a little so the engine isn't too loud you can hear it. Wondering again if I'm hearing an injector acting up or something.

12/11/2007 10:12:09 PM

Get better hamster feed?

ZING

kek.

12/11/2007 10:15:07 PM

Get a new rubber band?


No, I don't have anything real to contribute.

12/11/2007 10:18:31 PM

sounds exactly like what happened on my MR2

it was an injector failure which isnt cheap at all


check the injector and see if they each have a tick sound, you might not be able to check depends on where they are

google the misfire as well but sounds like an injector to me, put some seafoam in it and see what happens.

12/11/2007 10:18:56 PM

swap injectors.

12/11/2007 10:48:57 PM

is that a continuity check or something else [noob]

12/11/2007 10:50:32 PM

no need for seafoam on a 52K motor.

so lets see, you say it runs good for like 20-60 miles after the CEL has been cleared?

now do you swap plugs or anything after the CEL comes back?

im curious if it runs fine each time the CEL has been cleared without any tampering of anything else.

like when the CEL comes on, reset it and drive, then when it comes on again, reset it and drive.

does it do that over and over? or do you take the plugs out and clean them after the light?

have you had injector issues in the past?

12/11/2007 10:52:38 PM

I did clear the CEL twice without doing any real work and it seemed fine for a little while. For example, it came on when the tank got low on gas that I had bought at a pretty crappy little gas station so my first thought was maybe it was bad gas. I filled it back up with premium and the code actually went off on it's own for a little while. When it came back on I tossed in a much needed air filter that I hadn't gotten around to installing, cleared the code, and drove it to see if it would come back on.

No previous injector problems.

12/11/2007 11:25:29 PM

swap the injector like they've said.

with another cyl. and see what happens.

if anything, hardwire it to another inj. so you know its on. and also see what happens

12/11/2007 11:29:20 PM

Roughly how much is an injector for this car if that is the case?

12/11/2007 11:33:48 PM

pull the injector (or you could even pull all of them) and send them to RC Engineering to be blueprinted/cleaned.

[Edited on December 12, 2007 at 12:35 AM. Reason : and if you go to the dealer, bring some lube]

12/12/2007 12:34:53 AM

Product Description Availability * Price
Part No.
1580674
Beck/Arnley New Fuel Injector
Fuel Injector: New
Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty * Ships in 2 days $143.99



Part No.
621280
Python Injection Inc. Fuel Injector
Fuel Injector: Pgm


* Ships in 1 day


$67.99

$12.00 core



Part No.
621307
Python Injection Inc. Fuel Injector:1430227
Fuel Injector:


* Ships in 1 day

$67.99

12/12/2007 12:37:01 AM

are the plugs fouling? completely black? etc

12/12/2007 8:33:13 AM

The plugs I took out were badly worn, but not fouled. I really thought that would take care of the issue when I saw them, but nah.

12/12/2007 9:56:26 AM

like everyone else said, swap injectors w/ another cylinder and try again.. see if the misfire follows it..

12/12/2007 10:04:01 AM

do you have pics of the tips of all four?

when the CEL comes on again, take the plugs out, turn the car over a few times and see if fuel gets dumped in from the injectors.

12/12/2007 10:17:08 AM

The first pic is the plug that was in cylinder #3. I didn't take photos of all the tips, but they all looked about the same.

Does that plug look a little too white to y'all? Just want to make sure it wasn't leaning out.

12/12/2007 10:29:42 AM

lol yeah, thats what my civic plugs look like when i change them.

12/12/2007 10:59:11 AM

Werd. I gotta get this fixed so I can get her back out in the fields.

12/12/2007 1:22:13 PM

oh, well then the NGR valve might be bad if its not working the fields.

12/12/2007 6:38:06 PM

I dont see how it could be an injector problem if the car operates great for 20-60 miles after clearing the ECU.

Try it though.

12/12/2007 10:13:32 PM

Well, I swapped the injectors between cylinder #2 and #3 today and found out some new info.

Basically, I drove about 70 miles and couldn't get the CEL to come back on. Sometimes it would idle poorly at a stoplight, but sometimes it idled smoothly. It was off and on.

Then I thought that maybe it needed more of a stress test. So I got all Fast & Furious on it for about 10 miles and soon enough it was idling poorly at the lights, but still no CEL. Then I realized that it is probably just misfiring at idle so I pulled into a parking lot and let it idle for about a minute. Sure enough, the CEL came back on.

So I'm still thinking injector. My thought is that it's probably spraying as long as I'm on the gas, but maybe it is partially clogged resulting in low flow at idle.

I'll get the code again tomorrow to see if the problem moved to cylinder #2.

12/12/2007 11:29:33 PM

your fuel maps are stock right. haha.

but yeah. either send them to get cleaned. or get another set RC engineering has some awesome ones.

they are aftermarket, and i would only say get them if they are cheaper than dealer/cleaning

12/13/2007 7:06:34 AM

Bad news.
Issue still on cylinder #3.

Dropped it off with the dealer. Came back with major loss of compression during leakdown test. The guy says it sounds like the air is coming out the crank side so it's probably a bad ring. Not sure how it can switch back and forth between running smoothly and running poorly with bad compression, but I guess it happens.

Not sure what I'll do right now. Dealer says it'll be $2k assuming it is the rings when they pull the head. Called around and neither Happy Jap's nor Tao Auto has ever actually been inside an S2000 motor so I don't know if it's really worth trying to lowball the repair. I might save a couple hundred bucks, but I might get burned too.

And I still have no idea what caused it. I haven't missed any shifts or anything. It just happened out of the blue so how do I know it won't happen again once I get it back? I'm open to suggestions at this point although the best idea (push it off a cliff) is out of the question.

I'm going to go get the car and park it in the garage while I figure out what to do.

[Edited on December 13, 2007 at 4:36 PM. Reason : o]

12/13/2007 4:35:09 PM

once i read that it was loosing compression, i immediately thought rings. good deal, well not really.


is this common? my friends S2k was just at our shop within the past week. low compression, ring failure (well not failure, but bad rings).

hmm.

but his S2k is an 02-03, had a supercharger on it. so im not suprised with his motor.

12/13/2007 4:48:51 PM

I thought the early s2k motors tended to have more of these kind of problems.

12/13/2007 5:23:21 PM

ouch, good luck with that.

you check the oil often? very odd that would happen out of the blue.


i think early s2k engines were prone to cylinder #4 failures.

12/13/2007 6:19:55 PM

well the ECU does have a limp mode.

its pretty much a safety mode.

did you ever try pushing it while it was having this problem? limp mode prevents you from getting on it.

12/13/2007 7:33:47 PM

I never pushed the car when the CEL came on. It just seemed like a bad idea.

There was a cylinder #4 problem that has been documented by at least 30 or more people via the intarweb, but I have never heard anything about cylinder #3.

I'm probably going to let the dealership handle it and be done. It is shitty as hell and I'm rightfully pissed, but it's not like I can cry about it or anything. If anyone wants a relatively low mileage S2k it'll probably be up for sale in two weeks. I barely drive the fucker and part of me wants to keep it and get my money's worth out of this repair, but the other part of me just doesn't want to see it in my garage anymore.

I guess if I'm going to sell it I might be better off going with someone who will do the job a little cheaper, but I don't know where would be the best place to take it. I'll probably call The Honda Specialists tomorrow and see what they say. Suggestions are welcome.

Quote :

"is this common? my friends S2k was just at our shop within the past week. low compression, ring failure (well not failure, but bad rings)."

Not common that I know of. Are you talking about the imports dealer/shop on Westgate that you used to work at? Any idea how much they would charge to do the job?

Quote :

"you check the oil often? very odd that would happen out of the blue."

Like all S2000s it used a little oil if you do a lot of spirited driving. I admit that I didn't catch onto this as quickly as I should, but it never got low enough for the oil light to come on or anything. I think the first time I checked it was almost a quart low and from there on I was more diligent.

[Edited on December 14, 2007 at 12:08 AM. Reason : l]

12/14/2007 12:07:20 AM

carmax it

12/14/2007 1:23:49 AM

So, the first time the CEL came on my first thought was "bad gas" because I had filled up at this shitty gas station that I never should have gone to. I filled the car back up with 93 (as always) and the CEL went off.

Now that I re-think the situation I wonder if bad gas could have caused detonation that led to the failure. I guess that will be a little more obvious when the piston comes out. There really isn't shit I can do about it at this point since I have run several tanks of gas through the car. I don't suppose there is an agency that tracks complaints against gas stations is there? I would be interested in knowing if anyone else complained of bad gas from that station around that timeframe.

12/14/2007 2:47:56 PM

if it is not the injector when u swap it check your compression on # 3

12/14/2007 7:23:55 PM

umm

yeah

im not sure if you read the thread there champ

12/14/2007 10:33:54 PM