Hello all,

I wonder if anyone could provide some feedback to a couple questions and issues I wanted to discuss. I bought my 85K mile 2004 AP2 about a year ago. It was through a dealer, so besides Carfax, I don't have much history. Motor and transmission are great, I've done all fluids maintenance, valve adjustments, etc. Valve train was very clean, compression is great across the board, so I think the car has been well taken care of mechanically. My questions are more suspension related. I know the previous owner did some amount of autocross. It has Koni yellow adjustable shocks all around and a Karcepts front sway bar. Shocks adjusted to the mid-position and sway bar to the least aggressive position. Oh, also, the car is presently riding on relatively new Goodyear Eagle Sport all-season tires...I know this is not a good tire for the car. I'm planning on putting Firehawk Indys on it in the spring.

The car is super fun to drive and I really enjoy it, but I feel like maybe the handling isn't where it should be...but I have never driven another so I don't have any real basis for that.

Some questions!!!!

1. I know the S2000 has some amount of off throttle rotation, but is it considered normal that say, on an offramp at 40 mph, if i lift off the throttle there is a noticeable rear rotation in the direction of oversteer? It's not at all like the rear end is going to break loose, but you can feel the shift.
2. The rear brake pads are putting out a TON more dust than the fronts. 10 - 20 miles of driving with normal city driving and the rear wheels are super dusty while the fronts don't have hardly any dust. Are there likely some different type of pads on the rear vs. the front...maybe for autocross use? Brakes work fine, just dusty. I'm considering replacing rears with stock pads.
3. Besides the shocks and the sway bar, I don't know if any other suspension work has been done. I notice that when I drive over a bump at slow speed I get some creaking / squeaking from the front end. Not sure what components are doing that.

Thanks for any input / insights!
KC2K

 

To much rear toe in ?

 

Start by bringing things back to standard.

Check the general health of the car. Check for any worn or torn bushings or bent suspension parts.

Get an alignment within the factory AP2 specs.

The tires are a good idea. FWIW, for the price of those Indy 500, you can buy Falken Azenis RT615K+.

Creaking of the suspension over bumps *usually* leads to bad/worn lower ball joints. If you need them, buy them from Honda.

Avoid using any aftermarket chassis parts. Only use them if the Honda part is no longer available. Hardrace and Megan are a good OEM alternative. They make "OE replacement" parts that are pretty damn good.

 

Good input. I think close inspection of parts and pieces underneath (it looks fine on initial inspection, but I'll look more in-depth) and an alignment are first on the list. Thanks!

So does that lift throttle rotation I'm feeling sound excessive, or normal?

 

Sounds excessive. What springs are koni setup with? Guessing stock.

You said karcepts front bar setup lowest setting. That would make it rotate more vs higher settings. What rear bar is on it? Wondering if swapped with stock rear bar from earli model, stiffer. Would also be more prone to rotate.

The squeek at front, wondering if along with karcepts bar,it also has adjustable end links. These are for eliminating swaybar preload. Usually used with corner balancing, which requires height adjustable suspension,which your koni could have if using ground control threaded perch.

In any case, those adjustable end links go bad much sooner, corrode, can squeek

 

Excessive oversteer was largely dialed out of the S2000 by 2004 and aftermarket suspensions are 99% complete guesses on setup other than that the 1% who know what they're doing. The previous owner was probably in the 99% group. Aftermarket suspensions seldom have any meaningful instructions on what settings do what. OEM suspension spring and sway rates are published but what you have may not be. Try to get back to OEM specs.

Same for the brakes. Restoring the car to OEM braking conditions is recommended. May take nothing more than turning the rotors and using OEM pads on both ends.

In my experience tires are the most important suspension and handling item. How many miles a year do you intend to drive this car? Even for a daily driver Extreme Performance Summer tires are recommended. Yeah you'll wear them out in maybe 11,000 miles but I can't recommend anything less than Max Performance. The Indy Firehawks are highly regarded here but are now 3d tier tires. You can probably run them just fine all year. For most of the country this is a summer car.

-- Chuck

 

Yeah, I forgot to mention its inconclusive about suspension setup until you got decent tires in place.

If your season is ending where you are, maybe wait till spring. So tires aren't aging before you even use them.

I wouldn't go crazy messing with suspension until you can eval with decent rubber.

I don't think you need to throw all the cool suspension mods out with the bathwater.

You're not gonna get new stock shocks, so you'd need to go aftermarket anyway, and what you already got is one of the few stock replacement suspension options.

Meanwhile the karcepts bar is adjustable, so you can approximate stock. Its worth $$$, so if you did want to sell and buy stock swaybars, you'd come out way ahead.

But either way I'd keep the konis. Just see what springs are on there. Tires first though

 

Yep, tires would be my first change. All seasons just don't do well on the S2000 if you drive spiritedly. I'd probably swap the Karcepts bar to a non adjustable one, but still larger than the stock 04 AP2 size. Larger front sway calms the rear down. You can still lose the rear but you have to try to make it do so.

For the brakes, I'd just change them out to OEM pads and rotors. The OEM brakes are really good.