Dante(suzuka)

I'll appreciate any knowledgable feedback if you can help. I've already searched and didn't some up with much other than the MAP-Whack and bad fuel problems.

Twice now I've hit the accelerator and gotten a 'bucking' response at anything more than 1/2 throttle. The first time it lasted a minute or so and then was fine for a week. This time it started after a hard left U-turn and lasted a couple minutes, then the car stalled as I coasted after it happened. Started back up fine. Idle and revs up to 5K sounded fine. These two times were about 2 tanks of gas apart. I even autoXed it and it was fine.

My car is stock, 2003, ~29,000 Miles.
Idle has always sounded fine and still does.
No warning lights or CEL code.
Regular oil changes, went to synthetic at 10,000 miles.
93 octane pump gas from whichever station was near/cheap.
I have driven, sometimes hard, with 1-3 or even no bars of fuel on the guage.

W1ngman suggested it was my fuel pump. I'll take it into the dealer tomorrow but I wanted other opinions. Anything helpful is much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

xviper

No CEL? It could still be a bad MAP sensor. This car has known MAP sensor issues. I think Honda might even be, at this very instant, putting newer, better MAP sensors into the S2000. It wouldn't hurt to do the "MAP whack" associated with and ECU reset. Failing this, you may be a candidate for a new MAP sensor.
If it were ignition (plugs, coil packs, etc.) the problem would not likely be on again, off again kind of thing. I'm also skeptical about it being the fuel pump. A quick test of the pressure will verify it's operating parameters.
You could also have an "odd" Throttle Position Sensor. Good luck getting to the bottom of this.

Dante(suzuka)

Mechanic took it for a test drive and felt the problem. 'Cutting out' at hard acceleration. Since there's no CEL to go by they think it could be the spark plugs. Someone a Honda dealership doesn't have plugs in stock so they're having to overnight them. Pfffft, this is going to get ugly.

S2kRod

I have something similar to this happening to my car. A couple of times it stalled when I left it idle and didn't rev the engine up. The car seems to hesitate to move and sometimes it hops forward and then goes back to lagging. The first time it was hapening to me, the engine light came on and they said the O2 sensor was bad, but this time, since it's off and on, they couldn't find anything wrong with it. This happens sometimes on and of with a week or more in between and it happens for hours or a whole day or two at a time. I don't even know how to do this map whack thing but if it works for you, let me know so I can try it out, or the spark plugs.

Thanks.

Dante(suzuka)

I should have known this would get painful. The plan was to overnight a set of sparkplugs to the dealership. Install them first thing and take it for a test drive.

This morning they say the plugs are somewhere between california and here and they couldn't do anything. I could have ordered aftermarket plugs or even OEM ones from Hardtopguy and had them here this morning easily.

Do dealerships really not carry a spare set of spark plugs? And are these plugs that hard to find?

stefluva

any updates on what the problem was? i'm currently having a similiar issue??

mbilderback

You can also try zip-tieing your MAP sensor in place. Wasn't there a pic of the new sensor? They used a zip-tie to make sure it didn't move. Sounds like yours may be getting loose and a zip tie could fix it.

Utah S2K

1) Verify your oil level is correct
2) Verify the car is not being VTEC'ed prematurely

The "cutting out" is normally caused by insufficient oil pressure. Most look for three bars on the water temp but "cutting out" is actually the F20 entering safe mode due to low oil pressure(OBDII will not set a pending or hard code for this). Let your car warm up until the fans come on (quite awhile after the 3 bars). This will let you know the car is hot. Then try to replicate the problem.

If problem reoccurs then have the mechanic look at the MAP sensor.

Utah

P.S. Is the "mechanic" a Honda mechanic or are you just getting the plugs from Honda?

jlucas

There a service bulletin for hesitation, and the fix is a bracket & zip tie for the map sensor connector.

Tell you dealer to look it up on iN (Interactive Network).

Dante(suzuka)

Six months late and a dollar short, but thanks for playing.

Mine was fixed by the new MAP sensor and zip tie. Have not had any trouble sense.