Spring is here!!! Is your S2000 ready???
Yep that’s right… it’s time to take the S2000 out of the garage, put the top down, and head out on the highways for a spirited drive. Before you do, there’s a few things you’ll want to inspect/change. Our resident maintenance expert Dave (xviper) has written up a list of things for you to do before you take off on that long weekend excursion. Take it away, Dave…
This is the season that many S2000s are coming out of hibernation or coming out of a tough winter. At the very least, many are about to embark upon a season of more spirited driving both on the road and on the track. Let’s look at some of the things you might want to attend to that may have been overlooked.
First and foremost is to read the items in the maintenance schedule of your owner’s manual or service manual. Many are inspections and can be done easily at home. Note that the place your car exists in the schedule is based on your car’s MILEAGE or TIME, whichever comes FIRST! I won’t deal with listing the more obvious and common items you’ll find in there.
Begin with the mechanical stuff (the grubby stuff). Check and change all fluids if necessary. We have engine oil, transmission fluid, rear diff fluid. Don’t forget the engine coolant, brake fluid and clutch fluid. Model year 2000 is the only year that doesn’t have a long life (Honda Type II) engine coolant. This should have been changed long before now. We have NO power steering fluid, so you’re off the hook here. Remember that air conditioning refrigerant is also a “fluid” and so is the air in your tires (don’t forget the spare). Please go to the FAQs and “Oil Journals” at the top of Under the Hood to get “How To’s” on many of these procedures so you can do them at home and so you can decide which fluids are best for you.
FAQs — https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=108435
Oil Journals — https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=195574
Checked your battery terminals lately? Clean them off and make sure they’ll on tight. A good solid connection can cure a lot of woes.
We have 3 filters on this car – the engine air filter, cabin air filter and fuel filter sock. Unless you’ve been using really dirty gas, the fuel sock is not a regular maintenance item and should be good for the life of the car. Changing it involves removing the fuel pump from the gas tank. Again check out the FAQs for these.
Often overlooked are all the rubber protective boots on the car. To name a few, we have the CV boots on the rear half shafts, the steering rod boots and all those little ball joint grease boots. These require a rubber safe silicone spray. When they age, they dry out. Then they crack and the grease falls out. A few bucks invested in a can of silicone spray may save you hundreds of dollars later to replace the component that the boot protects. There is a thread in the FAQs about this as well.
Don’t forget the other “rubber seals” on the car. The ones around your top (both soft top and hardtop) and windows, trunk opening and hood opening. These require a silicone grease. Oh, did you know there is a rubber seal around the outer perimeter of the insides of your doors? Give them a go, too.
The hood latch, trunk latch, door hinges and strikers, top latches and hardtop rear receiver catches need a white lithium grease to keep them working well into the senior years of your car.
Now, proceed to the interior. You will find many good threads at the top of the “Wash and Wax” forum that deal with interior care. UV light heat and your own skin oils can have negative impacts on the materials that your interior is made of. This also applies to the exterior, which is the next thing you can attend to. Remember that our soft top is “plastic” (vinyl) and needs some care and attention to keep it flexible and long lasting. Refrain from operating it when the ambient temp is near “freezing temps”. Doing so may increase the chances of the top cracking or splitting. Those with plastic rear windows, it’s not a lost cause. There are ways to bring it back and to help it stay in good condition. Check the FAQs at the top of UTH for that thread.
Make sure you DO NOT rotate your tires or rims. The axle hubs and rim holes are of different sizes front to rear. If you go to a tire shop, confirm that they put the correct tire on the correct rim on the correct end of the car. You can “flip” the tires to get a few more miles out of them. Check the FAQs (UTH). If you have aftermarket rims, did you use the centering rings? We have “hubcentric” rim attachment. The use of the correct centering rings for aftermarket rims is highly recommended. Not using them could result in undue vibration and/or excessive lug and lugnut stress.
Lest we forget some of the interesting and relevant threads stickied at the top of many of the major forums – S2000 Talk, Wheel/Tire, The Library forum, Forced Induction, Electronics, to name a few. You will find these links informative not only for the S2000 but you may see a relationship to most other cars out there.
Happy and safe motoring to you all.
-Dave “xviper”