Maverick-Goose

Another Spring Spacer Story

So i had my car for about one year. I used to point to others that they may have spring spacers unremoved. I thought i check it, and that my car had the proper ground clearance.

well, last week, i went for an oil change, and to my surprise i discovered two pairs of spacers in the rear! now, all this time, i thought my car looked low enough and handled well enough--now only to find out that it could've looked better and handle better. well, what appearantly happened was this: the Honda dealer only removed the front set of spring spacers and left the rear ones in there! Why didn't they bother to take out the back ones?? I thought all of my spacers were removed because the front fender gap was pretty small, so i figured that the rear ones were removed as well.

so anyway, the rear fender gap shrank about 3/4th of an inch, and my car rides and handles much better. no wonder my car's ride was so rough. Needless to say, it handles much more predictably--without the rear snapping out so easily. (I wonder how many mag. reviewers test the S2000 with spacers in them) Now imagin how many S2000 are out there that still has spacers in them! And imagine the number of people possibly complaining about the rough ride and the jerky handling.

So, as the one who has certainly removed the spring spacers, i say this--if you have not check them yourself, you might want to try this:

(if you have stock set up)
You might have the spring spacers if: not more than two fingers fit in the front fender gap, and not more than three fingers fit in the rear fender gap.

Destiny2002

Can you see the spacers if you remove the wheel and look at the suspension? What does it look like? Any pictures?

Bruinlax

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Destiny2002
[B]Can you see the spacers if you remove the wheel and look at the suspension?

Psicho54

I'm assuming that since I put in aftermarket springs, I should not have any spring spacers right?

moonpie

damnit! Now I'm gonna have to check for them again Everytime a new thread comes up I have to go check for them

Maverick-Goose

why don't you try my test? it's easy...

tomspedale

Maverick-Goose,

First great name...Top Gun is awesome!! Next, your quick test doesn't seem to make sense to me for some reason. Are you saying that if I can fit more than 2 fingers in the front and more than 3 in the back, I might have the spacers. I would think it would be the reverse because wouldn't the spacers be expanding the springs and thus making the fender gaps bigger?? Thus, the more fingers I could squeeze in there, the higher the likelihood that I have the spacers. Could someone please clear this up for me because all of the posts regarding this has got me a little worried that I might have some, but I'd rather not have to take the wheels off...thanx....

Globetro

I'm so glad you made that post. Immediately after reading it, I was pretty sure mine were still left in. So, I managed to reach my hand under to check, and sure enough, felt 'em. Took my car in to dealership today, and they removed 'em... there were 2 rear ones still on. Thank god it's only been 2 days since I've picked up the car... it definitely feels a lot better now... no more rear-end skipping around on turns. Now I'm paranoid that they mighta missed some more!

StwoK

Another thread on Spring Spacers found only on the rear. A number of accidents have occurred where for no real clear reason the rear of the car slides around and control is lost. There's been speculation as to what causes these accidents. It may have been due to the S02s or maybe this was the owners first rear wheel drive car and didn't know how to straighten the car out. I wonder how many of these cars still had spring spacers in at least on one side. Thanks Maverick-Goose for this bringing up !

All new owners should check the FAQs page and read Taking Delivery. There is other useful information there also.

Maverick-Goose

tomspedale,

if you can fit more than two fingers in the front fender gap, then the gap is too big. which means you probably have the spacers in them. (same thing in the back--if you can fit more than three fingers, you probably have the spacers in them.)

i say "more than two" fingers, because people have different finger sizes. In S2000s that had the spacers removed, i could barely fit two in the front fender. if you have really really small (thin) fingers, you may be able to fit two and a half... if you have thick fingers, you may only fit one and a half. but in any case, for average size fingers, you will fit about two or less in the front for the car that does not have spacers in them . if you could fit more than that, say, four fingers in the front, you definately have spacers.

i hope this clears it up a bit.