I just moved from a modified prelude SH to a 2002 low miles s2k about two months ago. On the way to work today it was raining really hard and steady. I have never had a rw drive car before. I never got above 60-65 but I felt I was always one lane change away from spinning out of control. I tried to stay as slow and to the right as possible and not to change any more lanes than absolutly nescessary. Is this sensation typical of the s or are my fwd memories playing tricks on me?

 

regularly drive mine in the poring rain (don't get much else here at the moment it seems) and easily overtake audi quattros and the like, mine is very stable at speed and not twitchy at all in the wet as long as you don't stamp on the throttle in the lower gears. Lots of grip just a lot less than there would be if it was dry. Check your tyres are the correct size (some people have changed from the origional S02s and put other brands on and other sizes, non S02 rears should be 245 wide and check your tyre pressures which makes a lot of difference to the way it feels on the road.

 

Look to see that you have the same KIND of tires on the front and rear. Sometimes people will put different brands/models of tires on the rear because they needed to be changed. Mis-matched tread patterns really tend to upset this car.

 

I bought the car with only 9,000 miles on it. I got it from a dealership. The lady turned her lease in on it. They did the honda certification on it. I know they check tire wear and tread depth before they will certify it. I can not imagine they would pass it if they were not factory tires on all the weels. I had to give them my original Prelude hood to replace my c/f hood on my trade in because it would not pass inspection.

 

The stock rear s02's don't last very long. There are dozens of people who have gotten less than 9k miles on them. I changed mine out at 16k, but it really depends on how hard the car was driven I guess. I probably let mine go too long. So, your car may, in fact, have the stock tires on it, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.

 

I would probably replace your tires.... S-02's get like that when they are almost gone.

 

I did get the Honda certification warranty. I cant imagine that the tire tread depth is bad enough that they would certify it and then let me have a warranty on it. How deep is the tread on a new set of So2's and how shallow can they get before they are bad. I may call the dealership and see what they will cover if I need a new pair of tires they said were fine 8 weeks ago.

 

No problem in the rain here. Its feels safe and stable!

 

9000 miles? Probably original rear S02s. The problem with the wear is that the rears tend to wear out on the inside first. Thus, while it looks like you've got some tread left on the outside (enough to sell the car), on the inside it could be nearly bald.

Depending on where and how the car was driven for those 9000 miles, your rear tires might need replacing. I suspect that you'll notice the car is much better in the rain after replacing it. However, always drive very carefully in the rain. Even though the S2k is fine in the rain, the dry weather performance is so much better that you can get into bad habits. Then when it rains, you might automatically do something (like accelerate in a turn) that causes the back end to break loose. The only surefire way to avoid that is to maintain that fear of the rain. Otherwise, once you get comfortable, you'll slip into dry-weather habits every once in a while that can wreck your S2k in the wet.

 

I would be suspect of any rear SO-2's with 9k miles on them, and the fact that they are (possibly) 2+ years old on top of that would seal it for me. The compound won't be as pliable as it used to be. Get some new rear tires. Bonus if you can get the dealer to do it for you.