I found a seemingly great s2000. It's a 2 owner 2002 with 67k on it, bow stok California car until this year when the guy moved to the northeast for his job.

I had him take the car to Honda for a compression test, differential inspection, trans and clutch inspection and made sure they typed up all notes and findings. Everything came back good besides it needing front pads soon but whatever.

My concern is the compression test results. The manual says the nominal is 228. I got 220, 220, 220, 215 which I figured was good as long as they were within 10 psi of each other until someone on s2ki.com said if the test was done properly that 220 was too low and that he has seen either bent or badly pitted valves and scoring of the bores with 220 psi...

- is this true? I was told that it doesn't matter what the numbers are as long as they are close to each other within 10 psi or so...

-what does a compression test really tell for a story?

If a bone stock s2000 reads out at say 255, 245, 255, 255 and mine reads out at 220, 220, 220, 215 does that mean his car is healthier, making more hp and performing better?

I need to let the guy know if I'm gonna take it by friday or walk away from it...
The body is amazing, paint and everything is flawless, never modified or tracked but the compression test worries me because mishifting a car with a 9000 rpm redline well ya know.

 

buy my car!!! pm me if your interested


2 day old paint

 

Way out of my price range. Back on topic...

 

yeah, thats too low... mine was beat to ****, then i beat it to **** and it had over 250psi compression.

 

i told you bro you should just buy mine lol

 

anyways, yeah that seems really low.... It all really depends on how the guy drove it... low mileage on these kind of cars don't mean anything now a days.... a 100k motor can be healthier than one with 25k... depends on maintenance and so on.. don't rush into buying an S. look around and find the one that you want in your price range and make sure its legit.

 

also depends on what compression tester you used, whether it was done when the motor was fully warmed up, elevation, etc. IMHO, if it's all within 10psi of each other, it typically shows a good motor.

 

Seems to good to be true

 

Hmm, trust your gut man. Its hard to say dont rush to someone who wants a car. Especially when (at least in the NW) there aren't many to choose from. I had to Rush out 4.5 hours away to pick mine up for the price i did.

 

It could have just been the shops teaster... It could read low.

 

Compression testers vary, and it's commonly known that the numbers should be compared to one another more than to other engines. Certainly, if they were consderably lower, you would have reason to be concerned, but given that they're pretty close, and they're all very close to one another, you're fine. My tester throws numbers on my high-comp GSR motor that people say are too low, but it makes the right amount of power and doesn't burn oil.

If that's the only thing "wrong" with the car, then go for it.

Edit: If you're still concerned, you could always have a leakdown test done too.

 

thanks for the test. This will show my buddy what the notorious "$50 paint job" will end up like.

 

YES!