So, a little history on the car, and being a car enthusiast, why I had to have it! I bought it off the original owner, a colleague of mine who I’ve known for a good few years now, and therefore I’ve also known the car for a long time. Unfortunately for my friend, whilst driving home from work on a dark January evening in 2016, he drove into a flooded road and the engine ingested water and became hydrolocked! Something he lived to regret, as although he only crawled through it on idle, it was deeper than he realised. Luckily the engine stopped dead and didn’t break a rod, but the block did end up becoming cracked. After a yearlong battle with his insurance company, and his car being stored at a Honda dealership, the car was classed as a cat c by the insurance and written off, as Honda quoted them £15k for a new engine. On a plus side another stranded owner pushed him back out of the flood and therefore no water entered the car! Bonus!
Being a true Honda S2000 enthusiast (this was his third one), he bought the car back off the insurance company with the intention of putting it back on the road. He then realised how difficult it was to find a good 2nd hand engine, the potential escalating repair costs, and after talking to his Honda dealer and myself, decided to cut his losses and sell it to me to fix instead!
I bought an engine from an S2000 breakers costing me nearly £4k. The engine came with full service history documentation from the car it was taken from, 3 months warranty, and had only done 59k miles. The engine was also a DBW engine from a 2007 model. This if you know your S2000’s is the better engine to fit into a later car anyway, as they didn’t suffer with the common crankshaft thrust washer issues!
Now if the car had been in an accident (which is never has, nor has it ever had any paintwork repairs, all paint is original), then I wouldn’t have been interested. But having known the car, and the owner, and the fact it was simply an engine that it needed, I had to have it.
However, after fitting the engine I wasn’t happy with the engine as it smoked on initial start up, which indicated the valve stem seals were leaking oil. It was fine when driving, just smoked on initial start up. Being the perfectionist that I am, I stripped the original 2009 head down, had it crack tested and inspected for any defects (all was fine) then rebuilt it cleaning the valves and replacing the valve stem seals with OEM Honda items. I then removed the 2007 head and fitted the 2009 head, with cams and VTEC valve train too as they looked in nicer condition. No their warranty refund which took me months of fighting for didn’t cover this cost‼ Anyway, this gave me the chance to properly inspect the bores and de-coke the piston tops etc. I reassembled everything with genuine Honda gaskets and the problem was fixed! I always do the work on my cars myself, being a true car enthusiast and a mechanical engineer, I know if I do it then it’s done properly! Whilst the engine and gearbox was out I also checked the clutch which has minimal wear (a lot of motorway commuting everyday was its past life). I also replaced the gearbox oil with genuine Honda MTF oil, and replaced the clutch fluid too.
The good stuff is that the car pre-insurance claim, had FULL Honda service history and IIRC from the same dealer too. It has always been serviced or fixed by this dealer too. The car is in amazing condition, with very little wear to the driver seat, and the passenger seat looking new still. A fairly recent geometry adjustment, all four Bridgestone tyres are in good condition, and brand new rear discs and pads. New front pads bought but not yet fitted (or need to be yet), I’ve just refreshed the oil and genuine Honda filter again (Castrol edge 5w30) after the new engine covered 2000 miles. I’ve also just adjusted the valve clearances and given the engine a good clean bill of health. It also has a pioneer blue tooth head unit, and all the original service history including a folder full of receipts!
So, that’s the story behind the car, and the bad bit out of the way! The car drives faultless and pulls very well. Has excellent compression and a full documented photographic build for proof of everything I’ve done, I even have the original engine still to prove the write off fault!
Now I can take the car to Autolign who will do a vigorous MOT type inspection on the car, and once satisfied will remove the cat c status from the HPI record, and put it to condition inspected, proving that it is worthy of having the cat C classification removed. This costs £250-£300. As it was purely an engine replacement I have no concerns to this outcome. I had planned to do this later in the summer, as I hadn’t planned to sell the car!
Main stats on the car –
• Ultra-rare Special edition 100 model (number 4)
• 88k miles (new engine has done 26k less – SH to prove)
• Full Honda service history prior to new engine being fitted
• All original handbooks including original bill of sale!
• Recent Geo adjustment • New gearbox fluid
• New clutch fluid • New rear discs and pads
• New front pads included with sale
• Valve clearances just done
• 4 good Original spec Bridgestone tyres
• Only 2 owners
• Both sets of working keys
• It comes with the original immaculate hard top too with a cover
• MOT until Feb 2018
• Bluetooth Pioneer head unit (dash controls still work)
• Grand Prix white with Red leather interior and red carpets
Now it isn’t a brand new car (though its condition is not far off!), therefore there are a couple of things that it’ll need to make it perfect. There is a small scuff on the bumper, some age related stone chips to the bumper, and the wheels though not terrible, could do with a refurb (worst one pictured). Also I would fit some genuine floor matts from Hendy. I’d say that these items would cost no more than £500 to put right. All these things I was going to do this year, but I need to replace the family car Therefore I feel that I’ve priced the car accordingly with its condition, and current status, however I am open to sensible offers.
You need to see this car to appreciate it, and should not let the current cat c status put you off as it is purely an engine that has been replaced. With so many 2009 S2000’s suffering from crankshaft thrust washer failure, many others had new engine replaced anyway – this is no different! If the previous owner hadn’t put it through the insurance it would have been fixed and had no Cat C status applied!
You need to see this car to appreciate it, and should not let the current cat c status put you off as it is purely an engine that has been replaced. With so many 2009 S2000’s suffering from crankshaft thrust washer failure, many others had new engine replaced anyway – this is no different! If the previous owner hadn’t put it through the insurance it would have been fixed and had no Cat C status applied!.
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