crawfordad

I'm new to the group to forgive me if I've posted this in the wrong place!

I bought a 2004 model in December of last year and it has been running perfectly since. It had a brief check with my local garage before I took it to France in August and while I was there the emissions light came on. I was hours from the nearest Honda service centre so couldn't get it seen to immediately. About 40 miles down the road it started to lose power and a serious rattle started from under the bonnet. I limped into a local garage and had a look. It was obvious something very serious was wrong as the engine was struggling to idle, jumping all over the place, and there was a loud banging from inside the engine block...Time to call my recovery breakdown insurance!

Anyway, the car eventually made it back to the UK on Monday on the back of a truck and the guys in my local Honda centre took a look at it. Evidently the spark plug had worked itself loose in it's thread. Once loose the compression from the cylinder blasted it up into the coil, which disintegrated. The rattling sound was the spark plug bouncing up and down inside the coil tube. Half the coil is completely gone, as is a lot of the spark plug. We have no idea where it all went, but suspect it dropped into the cylinder and got blasted through the exhaust, possibly taking out half the catalytic converter on the way out. When you drop a new plug into the hole it won't turn so clearly the thread has completely gone.

The garage have yet to take the head off for a more thorough look, but they're quoting worst case scenario of £9,000 to fix it! I suppose I'm asking if anyone has ever had this problem before (the guys in Honda said they'd never seen it in 25 years of doing the job). Beyond that, I'm trying to get advice about what I should do. I paid £9k for the car in December (it had 80K on the clock, now has about 89K) and paid another £1,000 for new discs, pads and tyres all round in July. I'm not paying £9k for a new head and a coil as that would make the car have cost me £20k (not to mention I don't bloody have it), but do I have any other options? If my stepdad and I had access to a garage and the tools we could buy a new engine from Japan for about £3K and install it ourselves but where would I find that kind of facility?! Alternatively what could I get for it if I sold it in its present state?

I have pictures of the coil and plug but can't figure out how to post them...

Thanks.

crawfordad

... I think I can link to the photos here:

Mintyhit

Hi mate, unfortunately I've seen in aftermath of this in an engine I took apart. The exact same thing had happend but a bit of the plug or coil must have fallen into the bore as it had badly pitted the piston, scored the liner and damaged the cylinder head. The engine was pretty much a write off. Don't despair though as you might have got lucky and just stripped the plug thread - either way the head probably needs to come off for inspection.

It might be possible to use a borescope to asses the damage so you can decide what to do next. Ignore Honda you can get a second hand engine fitted for about 4k or as you say buy one for 2 - 3k and fit it yourself. It is pissible to do it on your drive with a hoist (you can rent one) and basic-ish tools.

You might also be able to get away with a second hand cylinder head if there is no damage to the bores, in which case I'd expect about 1k fitted. Or you could pick one up for a few hundred squid and DIY it. I took the head off mine in a day but it is a lot of work.

Sorry to hear about the damage but if you paid 9k for the car it is certainly worth getting it fixed. You would be lucky to get even half what you paid for it with a shagged engine - they are very expensive to rebuild here in the uk so most people just buy a second hand one.

James

Billman250

2004 is post recall.

SOMEONE changed the plugs, and did not tighten them properly.

A properly tightened spark plug will NEVER back out, plain and simple. Sorry man...

crawfordad

Thanks for the feedback.

I actually had a check done on the car before I took it on holiday. I asked them to check all the levels etc and I suspect they probably checked the plugs and didn't tighten one back again properly. The trouble is, how do I prove this?! I'm looking for the bill as it may say that they replaced a plug and itemised it, but if they just checked them it won't say anything. Just my dumb crap luck.

Either way I'm hoping to get some better news next week and figure out a way to get it back on the road for less then £5K. To be honest it's been a pretty shitty week all round so it won't take much to be better!

Do you guys know any good S2K specialist mechanics in the North London area? I'd prefer to get someone who gives a shit the money than Honda who don;t seem to care once a car gets beyond 5 years old.

Thanks.

Mintyhit

These guys come quite highly recommended:

http://www.dmsracingltd.co.uk/

I spoke to them after my engine blew (I know how it feels) and they were very helpful.

I'm in north London as well (islington) feel free to drop me a line if you need any help checking your engine - I have a compression leakage tester if you need it.

James

chris_barry

Bad luck,

If it looks OK with a bore scope leave the head on and get a timesert fitted.

The trick I use with them is to put the piston to approx half way down the bore, fill the cylinder with shaving cream and then run the timersert tap through the hole to tap the new thread. Once all the tapping has been done you turn the engine over and the shaving cream pushes out any swarf. ( it comes out like one angry swarf headed serpent). Then install the timesert and a new plug, sacrifice a chicken to the god of speed and see how it goes. I normally wash the bore with wd40 and run it for a few seconds without a plug to spray out any shaving cream/wd40 residue.

THere are specialist thread repair people who can do this for you. If it works you save a lot of money, if the bores or valves are damaged then you would probably have to get the timesert installed when the motor was apart anyway.

crawfordad

Thanks guys!

Normally forums are a feckin waste of time but I'm really feeling a bit more positive about all this. I was despondent yesterday and thought I was gonna have to scrap the car I'd saved up for a year to buy! Hopefully I won't have to sell my body to medical science to get me back on the road...

Pinky

I had this happen to me and I wouldn't be so positive on that statement. I know I have torqued mine to 20 FP and had one back out after a few years of not checking torque.

I did the TimeCert and WOW! It really works. To bad your over in the UK lending it to you or renting it out isn't really all that feasible. The whole kit is about $200 bucks and honestly is SO worth it. Never know when a friend of fellow S owner might need it and the inserts are next to nothing for cost.

http://www.timesert.com/html/install.html#A

crawfordad

Thanks Pinky.

My mother lives in Idaho and her husband owns an engineering company in San Jose, CA. He has an S2000, among other cars (29 of them in total), so I may well tell him about it...