Dealer has had my Honda s2000 for a month. I’m guesing they like to drive it vs fix it. It sputtered and stalled twice, wouldnt restart. Ten years old and 95K miles, with major no problems til now. Help!
Dee, sorry but this a web forum with no influence on your dealer . All I can think of is have the vehicle sent to another shop or contact the dealership general manager.
If anyone has an idea of what could be causing this, Ill pass it on. So far, changing the starter, battery, battery cables did not work…
You could get all kinds of guesses and one of them might be correct. But telling a mechanic to replace something and it not be the right part will not help you . Why has the dealer not told you why they still have not repaired your vehicle. That is your major concern right now .
Agreed. Thank you
Just have a conversation with them. Are they having trouble finding out what the problem is? If it is a no start, it should be fairly easy to diagnose. Could they be waiting for a part to come from Japan?
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… and the OP will have to pay for any unsuccessful repair attempts that resulted from her suggestions. That is why it is far better to let the mechanics perform the diagnosis/diagnoses. If they make a mistake, the OP won’t have to pay for it.
That being said, she does deserve an explanation for the long delay, and the dealership’s general manager is probably the best person to approach with any questions.
OK, well, if the engine is really sputtering, it’s not the starter. So if they changed the starter because the running engine was sputtering then they’re idiots and you should yank the car back and dispute anything they try to charge you from here on out, then find a real shop with mechanics capable of tying their own shoes, and ask them what’s wrong.
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Hi and thank you. I have spoken to the service manager every week for a motn,who reports that the issue (after installing the new starter, battery and battery cables, is that it worked on cold start but not on warm engine restart. Yes, there was some delay
on parts Honda hasn’t made this car in years - now their “ master technician” thinks it’s a “sensor”… would love a mechanic who knows about car repairs on this model -a 10 year old car that’s closing in on 100K, faithfully maintained, and in all this time, only needed to replace a clutch/slave valve and patch two spots on the canvas top. Sigh…
Hi and thank you. I have spoken to the service manager every week for a month,who reports that the issue (after installing the new starter, battery and battery cables, is that it worked on cold start but not on warm engine restart. Yes, there was some delay
on parts, Honda hasn’t made this car in years - now, their “ master technician” thinks it’s a “sensor”… would love a mechanic who knows about car repairs on this model -a 10 year old car that’s closing in on 100K, faithfully maintained, and in all this time, only needed to replace a clutch/slave valve and patch two spots on the canvas top. Sigh…
Dee, just for reference we see all of your replies no matter who you are replying to.
Got it, CarTalk Peeps . Thanks for all your support and advice!
So it’s cranking ok now, but not catching and starting when the engine is warm? But it does catch and start ok with the engine is cold? Could be the mixture is too lean. When cold the engine computer purposely injects extra gas and that may be masking the problem when cold. Suggest your shop do a fuel trim measurement, which would show if it was running on the lean side. If that doesn’t turn anything up, checking for a healthy spark at a spark plug when it won’t start is what I’d do next. Crank position sensors and ignition modules can fail when hot, which will produce a no-spark situation,
I think you should have the car towed to an independent locally-owned shop that gets good ratings.
The battery replacement was the first clue. For some reason, dealerships these days tend to want to replace the battery no matter what the symptoms are. There must be very high profit margins on battery replacements.
It sounds to me like these guys have no idea how to diagnose anything, and are just throwing random parts at the problem. Works great for them, because you’re funding their technicians’ education (assuming the techs are smart enough to learn from their mistakes) while they keep making lots of money on every bad diagnosis they make.
Thank you so much for these insights, everyone
Good morning,
Honda service manager left a message for me about an “internal valve cam shaft sensor- the valve warps when hot, causes stalling because it can’t turn the motor” and says this means we need a “whole new engine” …
Would anyone know why that would be the case vs. just replacing the valve and sensor?
Thanks for any insight you can share
There are many Honda forums out there that can help you. If you want an estimate of the repair, register to driverside.com and enter your info there.Its free
Thank you for this information.
That sounds like gibberish to me. Is it the valve, or is it the cam shaft sensor? The cam shaft sensor isn’t going to make the valve hot, and it’s not going to detect when a valve warps. All it’s going to detect is what rotational position the camshaft is in.
A warped valve is not going to prevent the motor from turning - that would be like a truck running into a soda can and stopping like it hit a brick wall. It may prevent the motor from starting if the warp makes it impossible to build compression in the cylinder, but it will still turn.
I again strongly recommend that you find a mechanic who isn’t an idiot.
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Sounds to me like the “go away” diagnosis. They can’t figure it out so they tell you it needs a new engine. One of two things results- you agree to replace the engine. Yay! We get a big job for lots of dollars and the pesky problem goes away with it. Or 2, you go away and their problem is solved.
Time for a new shop to have a go at it. Hopefully, they are better diagnosticians than these guys.
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