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? Suggestions?

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.

 

Same things happen to me but in cylinder 4. I change all the things you said. I never find the problem and after 2 weeks the engine blow. Something hit the spark plug. Engine have only 33000 miles.

You better have to do a good check.

Good luck!

 

have you mis shift by any chance?

 

i know the problem!!! you have an AP1... haha

nah im jk... try swapping out ur #3 injector with ur #1 injector... if it stays the same then i dont know what to tell you... if it changes to cylinder #1... then you have solved the mystery good luck and post results

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by S2KILLA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nah im jk... try swapping out ur #3 injector with ur #1 injector... if it stays the same then i dont know what to tell you... if it changes to cylinder #1... then you have solved the mystery good luck and post results</TD></TR></TABLE>

agree also check your map....

 

So it wasn't an injector.

Turned out to be pretty major compression loss on cylinder #3. Leakdown sounds like it is coming out at the crank, so it's probably a bad ring. Anyone have hands on experience tearing down one of these motors and care to comment on the difficulty or time required?

Dealership wants $2000 to fix. I'm probably going to let them do it. I just don't know that I'd want to go into the motor myself. I did find a good guide to pulling the heads and it doesn't look too bad: http://www.sportcompactcarweb.....html

I don't know how bad it is getting to the crank side to disconnect the connecting rod. I'm assuming you can just pull the oil pan, but I haven't actually looked to see if anything has to be removed to get to it. It seems like this job would be a royal pain in the ***, but it would probably save me about $1000 in labor.

I know this is probably the result of abuse or neglect by a previous owner since this isn't exactly a typical failure. I haven't abused or neglected it. No missed shifts, etc. since I bought it. I'm probably going to eat this bill and sell the car. I just don't want to look at it anymore.

 

If you have the tools and are mechanically inclined to an extent you could do this for very little. If it is infact a bad piston rings, the parts you would have to buy are not expensive. If you can remove the head, you should be able to unbolt the mains. You will want to probably replace the bearings while you are in there. But there is nothing to hard about removing one piston. Once you have the head off and the mains off you just have to unbolt the rod cap and push the piston out thru the top. If you got a helms manual I'm sure you could do it.

 

That's not a bad price from the dealership actually. FWIW, I've seen numerous F20C's with bent valves, actually of the 5-6 I've been a part of in the last year, all but 1 were bent valves (the other oddly enough was an AP2 with only 15k miles and a cracked set of ringlands on #3.. wierd).

In any event, I'd ask if they performed a leakdown test just for giggles, I'd hate to see you spend any $$ only to have the same problem at start up

 

When you ajusted your valve did you check to see if they were bent? Also you could find and independent shop to do this for a better price.

 

Oh yeah you could check S2ki.com there are alot of write ups on there. you could check

 

Leakdown was performed. It sounded like the air was coming out at the crank (oil) according to the mechanic, but I want to do it myself to make sure.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you can remove the head, you should be able to unbolt the mains. You will want to probably replace the bearings while you are in there. But there is nothing to hard about removing one piston.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I talked to a mechanic at an independent shop who said the motor has to come out of the car to get the oil pan off on the S2k. He said all the FWD Hondas were pretty simple, but not this one. The independent's estimate was actually a few hundred dollars higher than the dealer.