The S2000, and crazy people problems

"McChiken116 - Patrick H." (mcchiken116)
07/28/2014 at 12:42 • Filed to: Personal, Ramblings.

I am kind of crazy. But the harmless kind, with mild to severe anxiety, and the occasional bout of depression. Driving calms me, and lets me focus on one thing I have total control over at that moment. Now, the S2000. There has been a lot said about this car, to it's near bulletproof drivetrain, to it's.... interesting starter process, to it's semi tail happy nature. What no one tells you, is that for everything it has with the Honda name, it is the Stepchild of the Honda brand. Their dealers look at you weird, their service techs don't like it, and you don't fit in with the civic appliance owners. This is an issue in having issues diagnosed through them, because, your idea is usually better than the techs. Thus, leading you to scour the internet, and go to your trusted local independent. Now, I rescued my S2000. What does that mean, you may ask? Well that means I was taking someone elses project and then trying to turn it into a daily. Now, besides from body panels still a bit messed up, everything is fine with the car now. But, now going back to anxiety, you discover that everything that can go wrong, does. This leads you to tip toe your car more than you should, be more gentle then you should, and thus not having as much fun as you should. The fear of breaking this odd ball Honda is what is keeping me from driving everyday now, from loving it as much as I want to, and worst of all, might be driving me into the arms of it's older german sister, the 944. Sports cars are not always the soundest choice for people like me, but I'm learning. Thats what all young enthusiasts do, right? Learn how to match a car to our own set of skills and mindsets. The S2ooo? Might not be. But if that ends up being the case, it will never shake me from this love of cars, as neurotic a love as it may be.

DISCUSSION (19)

RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
07/28/2014 at 12:52

S2000 > no S2000

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
07/28/2014 at 12:52

ehh...not sure where you live, but an S2000 is one of the easiest and cheapest sports cars to maintain. It truly IS bulletproof, and nothing is too quirky or weird to the point that a legit mechanic can't fix it. And of course, there are plenty of very good specialized independent mechanics who do great work on S2000s.

Sorry you're having such a rough time with your car - honestly I'd say it's a result of the previous owner and his "project" aspirations, rather than a fault of the car itself.

In the 3 years I owned my car it never broke down, never overheated, nothing ever broke - regular maintenance, rubber, and a clutch replacement was all I did..and it's the same story with most of the local S2000 community I've met. Sure, there are a few known problems that you should watch out for/pre-emptively fix like the valve retainer issues, timing chain tensioner, etc. - but nothing that should be completely out of the blue leaving you broke and stranded.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > ZHP Sparky, the 5th
07/28/2014 at 12:54

And rationally, I know that, but I went through a streak of the old broken shit, that I am kinda afraid to ring it out.

Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
07/28/2014 at 12:57

If you are tip toeing with a car because you are afraid that something might go, I would definitely not recommend a 944. Take it from a 944 owner, and I only have a N/A, I hear the turbos are even worse.

Keep the S2000 man, if something breaks, look at it as a learning opportunity to learn how to fix something else.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
07/28/2014 at 13:04

It happens. My E30 has randomly broken down on me a couple of times, and it's really hard to trust a car for a while after that. A lot like a relationship! But with time you get to know each other better and learn to trust again. Hopefully it's not too expensive and the surprises get less frequent with time.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom
07/28/2014 at 13:04

Oh god. I can imagine. My last car was a turbo 4, built by Audi. And if you want to talk about something that was always broken...

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > ZHP Sparky, the 5th
07/28/2014 at 13:05

True. I think I have something broken right now, but I can't figure out what the noise is

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
07/28/2014 at 13:06

Are you a s2ki member? Haven't been on there since I sold my car, but the local community seemed very knowledgeable and helpful with troubleshooting if you're fortunate enough to have a good local group of owners.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > ZHP Sparky, the 5th
07/28/2014 at 13:13

They are, but my style and theirs tends to clash a bit, if you know what I mean

Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
07/28/2014 at 13:17

Yeah I can imagine.

And the thing is, it isn't the 944's are super unreliable or anything, it's just that things randomly go out on it, there's some cheapness to certain areas (the dash is lit up by a single light, a lot of relays are VW relays), but the biggest problem with them is it takes forever to fix any big mechanical thing. A clutch swap on an N/A is a 22 hour job. To put motor mounts in you need a cherry picker, P/S reservoirs are always guaranteed to leak, and they leak on the motor mounts, which burn them out prematurely, bad MM makes the engine shake bad, and on and on. If you get a 944, and decide you want to fix something, it's a domino effect. Happened to me, it was a clutch job, turning into a, hey while I'm here, which then turned into a, fuck it I'll do it all.

As the saying goes, when you own a 944 you really own 2 cars. The 944 and the car you drive when you're fixing the 944.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom
07/28/2014 at 13:20

And if I am buying a second vehicle at this point, it's a Motorcycle,

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
07/28/2014 at 13:23

ha, most definitely. I had a constant stream of people asking how I was going to mod my car, and all I wanted to do was UN-mod it.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > ZHP Sparky, the 5th
07/28/2014 at 13:33

Right? And we have a few stance kiddies.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom
07/28/2014 at 13:49

Off topic, but this sounds a lot like owning a 928. Some random things, some known problems they never sorted out and you just had to get used to addressing regularly, and a few ridiculous failures.

Sure was fun when it worked, though.

Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom > NotUnlessRoundIsFunny
07/28/2014 at 14:28

Yeah, and then of course there's the ever present thing of, if you hear it, you better check it out, because that sound will disappear. Doesn't surprise me the 928 is similar, the 944 has essentially half of a 928 V8.

These cars really are fun when they work, but when they go down, they go down hard. I'm doing clutch/oil pan gasket/motor mounts/complete brake refurb right now

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom
07/28/2014 at 14:44

Yeah, and then of course there's the ever present thing of, if you hear it, you better check it out, because that sound will disappear.

And when it disappears, it does so expensively .

Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom > NotUnlessRoundIsFunny
07/28/2014 at 14:46

Exactly! Like when my CV axle started making noise, but this was when I didn't know what a cv axle about to break sounded like, and it magically disappeared like 5 miles later, and never came back.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom
07/28/2014 at 14:50

So what we're really saying here is a Porsche is an expensive way to learn about cars.

Fun, but expensive. And time consuming.

Jeremy H formerly Kalakaboooom > NotUnlessRoundIsFunny
07/28/2014 at 14:59

Yes, very very time consuming, especially if the PO was a jackass. I had a stripped bolt on the coupling that connected the transmission to the torque tube. It took me 2 freaking days to get that one bolt off. It took me 45 minutes to drop the transmission.