Short story: Looking at a '07 today with 23K miles. Price is good, comes with 7/100 bumper-to-bumper *AND* service contract.

Owner says the rear end "just went out" at 22K and was replaced under warranty. Supposedly this event occurred immediately after a flush and fill at the dealer and the owner thinks the dealer screwed the pooch during said service. The car has 4 new tires so I have nothing to go on regarding wear on the rears.

Whaddya think?

Abuse caused the rear to crater *or* it was just bad luck?
Is 22K really the OEM tire replacement interval? If so I will stop complaining about my C6 eating tires.

 

Could have put the wrong differential fluid in. I've heard this has happened before...

 

Maybe he beat the living hell out of it, and your clutch and motor are on their way out as well....lol just joking hopefully not, that would be terrible though.

 

That is exactly what concerns me, although 5 more years of bumper-to-bumper would seem to limit my exposure.

 

23k sounds about right for needing a tire replacement. It is not uncommon for the wrong fluid to be put into the diff causing them to go back after a drain and refill. is thats indeed the case just ask for the service records.

 

it IS possible the dealer messed it up. Honda has a Diff fluid for the CR-V, but it cannot be used in the S2000 and there is no "Honda" label diff fluid for the S. So if they accidently put the CR-V fluid in there, that could be why the diff was replaced.

22k is pretty good mileage for the OEM summer tires, especially the rears.

 

Yea my rears are gone around 12K miles. I had a dealer try and put Cr-v fluid in there as well. Thankfully I saw him going over to the drum and I told him that won't work and I went and got the correct diff fluid myself. Its surprising to me that there is no Honda label for diff fluid on the s2000.

 

I'm not sure about what tire the 04 models and beyond were running, but with the 00-03 models running the specially designed for the S2000 Bridgestone S02 you would be extremely lucky to get 22k out of the rears. It's more like 15k max if you're actually having fun with the car. Less than 10k if you're on the track, but at that point you're probably running R compounds.

Regardless, I would be very weary of a car that has had the differential replaced with so few miles. It's very possible that the damage occurred from the dealer putting the incorrect fluid in it, but my first instinct would lean towards it being abused. When I owned the S2000 I never once revved up and dropped the clutch in an attempt to "burn rubber". It's pretty obvious that the car was not built for that purpose.

I'm a stickler for perfection. If I were shopping for another S2000, I would want it to be in the same condition it was when it left the factory in Japan. Personally I would skip over one if I knew that anything had been repaired or replaced, specifically drivetrain and suspension components. It's just not worth the headache or worry that the car wouldn't be performing factory perfect to me, regardless of any additional warranty.

 

Thats exactly right, the diff goes bad almost immediatly with cr-v fluid.

 

do a compression test and see how the engine is like.