LG John

406 No.2, engine go bye-bye

It all started with a little grind that developed over the weekend. I went round to a mechanically minded mates house last night and we agreed that it sounded like it was coming from the cambelt area. The decision was taken to drive it no more than absolutely required and as such I drove to work planning to drop it off at the garage on the way home. About 20m from the entrance to the work car park as I slowed a set of lights I heard the 'snap', 'zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz' as the broken belt worked through the tensioners and that was that. On the basis the car is only worth £2k when running its probably not viable to fix....again!

However, when we started digging around in the old 406 V6 we got as far as the heads and could still find no signs of damage. So, if the belt only f*cked the valves and heads and the valves and heads on the other car are fine it might just be possible to get her going again for a few hundred and some beers which would give me a car I could sell on.

I bought the 406(s) as they bascially couldn't depreciate any more than the £2000 I bought them for. How wrong was I, they are both - it would seem - virtually worthless so all in all I'd have probably been cheaper if I just stuck with my scooby despite the horrific servicing, etc.

Ah well, applied for a loan last night - its S2000 time. See ya french cars, bring on the japs

brickboy

Bad news

So was it something in the bowels of the previous motor that let go ...? As you say, you might be able to put together a Frankenlump

LG John

AA man thinks the 'idler' may have let got (hence grind) and chewed the belt. I'm off to find out what the hell an idler is and what it does! I now have two 406 v6s each with its own bucked engine! The old one seems to have been deep in the bowels but it got too cold for us to continue digging down. Nicer weather is coming so we'll spend a saturday soon

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

SB, big sympathies, have had similar experiences to yourself.

Fiat Coupe, bought for seven grand and sold for 5 with a dicky turbo after 8 months, poor sod who bought it ended up doing a rebuild.

Rover BRM, headgasket went, spent 3 hundred quid fixing it, now its pressurizing the cooling system, paid 2900 in Sept, spent 300 and am waiting for a guy to pick it up for 1500 quid !

Basically, you can do cheap, you can do fast but not at the same time !

Picking up a Saab 9-3 on Thursday, hoping it lasts more than the 3000 miles the past cars have lasted, its only a 150 bhp LPT engine so hopefully with the full Saab service history it has it wont blow up straightaway. How is it when you run an old snotter (i.e. 100 quid Pug 309) you try to kill it so you can get a new motor, you just cant ?

Get a MK2 8 valve Golf GTI, indestructable engines, cheap to fix, just check it for rust, and to be honest they are more fun than any of the dearer stuff I have owned.

john banks

You eat engines like I do Kenny

LG John

If I kill an s2000 engine then I'm hanging up my car keys and getting a bus pass! Surely to god even I can't kill one

Angry

My managers husband had a 406 V6. The camshaft snapped in one of the engine banks. Bill was close to £1600.

So true, an old addage I picked up from some ozzie car enthusiasts:-

If you want a car, you can pick two of the following three factors

Fast
Cheap
Reliable

If you want fast and reliable, it wont be cheap, if you want cheap and fast it wont be reliable, if you want cheap and reliable, it wont be fast

imlach

Hehe. I've said this before to you, but the engine will be just fine.......











....the bodywork might not be.
Mate smashed his twice. Never smashed any other car. Go down Chathams, and opposite the garage is their bodyshop....S2000's seem far too prevalent in there (I passed quite often when living down that way). Given they can't sell that many, gotta be something in it

imlach

Actually, my last post is rather defeatist isn't it!! Doesn't match your new positive outlook.... ignore

LG John

Time for positive re-inforcement. I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end, I can catch the back end

Jeff Wiltshire

I once had a Civic 1.5 VEi company car which snapped it's oil pump after 70K miles (I used to redline it in every gear)....Honda replaced the engine FOC even though it was out of warrenty so they could take the engine back to Japan to discover the reason for the failure....

I would be astonished if you can destroy a S2000 engine (assuming that it is serviced correctly).

Dark Blue Mark

Good to see it hasn't deterred the S2000 purchase - Rich is waiting!!!

MB

LG John

With all due respect to Rich - and I say it here because its unlikely to put any other perspective customer off - but I feel his car is over priced - notwithstanding its a lovely example. Its also as far from me as you can get! There is a mint 2003 with 20k miles in Dundee which I'll be trying to view at the weekend and a mint 2002 in St Neots with 8k miles that I'm also interested in.

Good luck with the sale Rich - it looks like a lovely example and someone closer to you will surely snap her up and pay a premium for such a well loved example

RichB

Fair enough, travelling that distance adds a heafty amount on the price and when you dont actually know the owner is a big risk so I fully understand. Good luck with yours.
Like I said, in no hurry to sell and yes, it is at the very top of Parkers guide price but then again, it's a good un.

Honda*S2000
2.0i 2d (Alarm)* 2002/02
Insurance Group 20
Average mileage:**20,000 miles
Cost New ('02) £ 25995
Franchised Dealer £ 20985
Independent Dealer £ 19265
Private Good £ 18230
Private Poor £ 15650
Part Exchange £ 16340

Cheers,
Rich

RichB

maybe that should have read "...when you dont actually know the owner, it is a big risk..." LOL

Dark Blue Mark

Well I think you're a liability behind the wheel

MB