S2000 gearbox replacement

I appreciate that I may be jumping to conclusions and that having only owned the car for 5 days you might say I'm being paranoid about the noise.

I have driven the car for at least 600 miles since I've had it, 200 of those being motorway miles. I feel this is enough time to know what sort of noise the gearbox makes in a healthy state. It would have a very slight whine in 1st and 2nd at low rpm. Nothing unsettling and sort of made it sound like a baby racing car.

Since the 'clear sound of bits breaking' incident occurred the noise the gearbox area now makes is extremely pronounced as I go up the revs, it is not me being paranoid. It sounds broken (perhaps a bearing) despite the mechanical feeling of the gear change not feeling any different. I can only imagine this would get worse and cannot enjoy driving the car anyway near the upper half of the rev range for fear of the gearbox seizing and causing damage to the engine.

It is a major job getting the new gearbox. As suggested, it is probably worth getting the fluids changed and taking a look at the existing fluids, though I am not confident this will improve things.
The reason I'm taking it to the Honda dealer is that I can get a discounted labour rate and secondly, the nearest decent specialist is 100+ miles away. This Honda dealer has done a number of engine swaps on the S2000.
 
Even if, by chance, you have mashed a synchro or other vital part, it would be so much more worthwhile just getting the existing box rebuilt rather than purchasing a second hand box that may have its own issues anyway - better the devil you know.

I'd agree with the above that a fluid change would likely help and remove the noise, but if you really want peace of mind then just drop the box, split it and inspect. You'll have to replace the fluid anyway then...
 
flinco said:
This Honda dealer has done a number of engine swaps on the S2000.
Click to expand...

an engine swap on any car isnt exactly rocket science. least of all on the S2000 as the engine bay is massive and easy to work in.

No honda dealer I have dealt with has had technicians who know enough about the s2000 for me to trust them doing more than an oil change.

get a trusted independent to change your gearbox oil and see if the noise persists. any other action will be throwing money away at this point.
 
Did you ever have a whooshing sound when lifting off the accelerator? I say this because I did and eventually my main shaft bearing went just side the box. This was on the motorway and I I also got a whine. It sounded like a clatter of metal when it went inside the box. Worth dropping the oil and seeing what's what and then opening the box. This happened on my atr.
 
I thought it was worth mentioning. Might not be the case here but then again could be similar.
 
Simon said:
You'll have done more damage to the engine. I can't really see how you will have damaged the clutch or gearbox. The gearbox and diff are whiny and the release bearing will make noise.
Click to expand...

How do you work that out when he effectively did a clutchless change, putting it in 5th with the clutch up will damage a gearbox not an engine, I think you must have misunderstood his post.

I would at least get it checked out to be sure.
 
flinco said:
I appreciate that I may be jumping to conclusions and that having only owned the car for 5 days you might say I'm being paranoid about the noise.
Click to expand...

When my anxiety is bad I hear all sorts of odd noises in my car, they all seem to disapear when im having a good day however.

If I was you i'd go find a race track (or industrial estate) nearby and do some laps, not too fast but get some racey gear changing in and then if it breaks you wont look like a wally out on the road. If the car drives consistanly, goes in all the gears and doesnt crunch (im thinking syncro here) then relax and enjoy the car until somthing actually breaks.
 
Building Candy said:
When my anxiety is bad I hear all sorts of odd noises in my car, they all seem to disapear when im having a good day however.

If I was you i'd go find a race track (or industrial estate) nearby and do some laps, not too fast but get some racey gear changing in and then if it breaks you wont look like a wally out on the road. If the car drives consistanly, goes in all the gears and doesnt crunch (im thinking syncro here) then relax and enjoy the car until somthing actually breaks.
Click to expand...

Trust me. It is not a case of anxiety. There is a huge difference in noise from the gearbox. You would think the car is broken if you drove it.

The car is now at the garage, i await to here what was in the gearbox oil tomorrow.
 
flinco said:
Trust me. It is not a case of anxiety. There is a huge difference in noise from the gearbox. You would think the car is broken if you drove it.

The car is now at the garage, i await to here what was in the gearbox oil tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Having had a gearbox seize while driving, I think you are taking the right approach, having the rears lock up with absolutely nothing you can do about it, is not fun!
 
Whelp.

Got the car back from the Honda dealer. Two of their mechanics took the car for a spin and thought the sound it was making was not in their opinion worth spending a grand on fixing.

They dropped the gearbox oil and found no swarf in it, filled it back up and discovered no difference.

Thankfully I was only charged £20 for this work. The next step will be taking it to TGM in Fleet and see what they reckon. I just find the noise ruins my enjoyment of the car.
 
Get a video up of it. Plenty of people on here own S2000s or have driven them and other Hondas; there's a good chance that someone will be able to identify it.

Personally I'd take anything a Honda "tech" says with a pinch of salt unless you were there to witness it. I was going to suggest TGM earlier, but wasn't sure how far away from Fleet you were!
 
Archeum said:
I don't see what anybody can really do other than drop it out to properly look at it.
Click to expand...

Agree with this - if you are in any doubt then this is the only way of knowing for sure.

Personally think you are overreacting, you made a poor gear change, it made a noise but other than that nothing else has happened. Gearboxes can take plenty of abuse, the odd poor or crunched change here or then isn't going to instantly cause failure.
 
The car does feel quite a lot better now. Gave someone a lift with the windows down, didnt seem to have any issues going into vtec, the sound it was making before at higher rpm seems to have gone. YOu can still hear some whining, but it is tolerable.

I think the hot and fresh gearbox oil has improved things somewhat.
 
just forget about it and use the car. if it starts giving you issues from the gearbox then you have a reason to worry.
 
Only person on this forum I know that killed a Gearbox is ME. Ripped shaft mount of the gearbox case and IT WAS STILL DRIVING :D sometimes stalling the engine when starting to drive (have not knew that its so ****ed) was expecting bearing on way out.

Chap that took gearbox apart could not believe i drove like 1000 miles like that :D
Anyhow ITS NOT that easy to kill a gearbox :) Engine on other hand :P
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom