plastic91

I am currently researching into doing the oil change (engine oil, gearbox oil, differential oil) myself. i have found the pdf document of the s2000 service manual, but it isn't very helpful to me as they have shown their 'blown-up' illustrations without giving any orientation.

I was just wondering, if anyone is going under their car in the near future, could you please take a few photos of the relevant areas showing the relevant bolts that i should be taking off to drain and fill the oil? Failing that, could someone give me a more descriptive guide stating the position (ie driver side/passenger side, near to front/rear wheels etc). This will be the first time i'm doing the servicing myself, and i really do not want to mess up anything.

Cheers,

Shawn

s2konroids

If only you'd of asked last week, i did mine last week.

Its very simple. Get the car warm for 5minutes or so.

Jack up the car on one side, to enable you to get a heavy duty jack under the front jack point. Its on the cross member looks like --[ ]--

Chock the wheels first!

Jack it up and get an adjustable spanner or another tool - cant remember what its called what i use.

Get underneath and remove the sump plug, anticlockwise to loosen, whilst doing this place a pan or something to catch the oil.

Once all the oil has ran out, remove the oil filter. Clean the edges on the block then apply a very small amount of oil around the rubber gasket on the new filter and screw on, as tight as you can by hand. I use mole grips to take the old oil filter off.

Replace old o ring from sump plug using new o ring you got with the oil filter and screw back in. I usually go 1 less tighten than i can with the tool.

Put oil in car and check its upto the required level, IIRC its 4.6 litres.

Obviously DO NOT start the car over until oil is in the car.

CHIPPO

Ok i have just change the oils in my car and make the following
observations
1) Does the sump plug have an "O" ring seal ? mine certainly had a conventional soft metal seal, replace with every change
2) With a shallow tray, cat litter tray ideal no need to jackup car, 17mm ring spanner to remove the sump plug, with front of car jacked only you will not fully drain the sump unless you are facing down a stepo hill, not a good place to jack up acar , level ground preferrred.
3) FOr gear box and sump i placed car on four axle stands, front chassi rails and rear sub frame tubes, any other suggestion for this would be good ? Had wheels of car as well, these placed underneath as an extra precaution.
4) Gear box ok only real problem is getting new oil in, i used an old fashioned oil can to pump it in , seals were both of the soft metal type and both replaced
5)Diff ok but had trouble with the bung for filling needed 24 ring spnner and a fare amount of force bit worring as it is in a ali casting !!!
6) had no rouble with filter as i fitted it last time and should be hand tight, well that is with a serious red face and a few goes
7) All oils should be changed with the car on level ground
8) When toppinh up engine oil, dont forget filter is empty and will fil when engine is start so recheck, top up and recheck

Now I have always been a sceptic when is comes to oil making a decernable difference, but redline in the gear box has done so so i stand corrected

I used all red line this time, engine is an oil user its a 51 plate and since new used oil , now 55k on clock, new 10-30 redline seems to have marginally educed consumption , its usually 500ml per 1000miles and has maybe reduced a bit

Dembo

DON'T do it hand tight.

m1bjr

Ah, just to reiterate -

"You don't know, that which you don't know".

m1bjr

Its Aluminium (or copper).
You can anneal the copper by heating to cherry red and dipping into water to soften it. With aluminium, rub soap on it and heat gently until the soap turns black, dont dip.
Best to buy new however, but if you can't this will do.

How you gonna get the oil filter off though?
It's pretty awkward from above, easier from below.

Dont use the tubes, just use the chassis rails either end, they are reinforced before the curves into the floorpans.
Or, if your jack won't go under the front, drive the car onto wood strips, I use a couple of 2x2" bits to get the clearance.
Then jack the rear under the diff and fit axle stands to chassis, then lift the front. Combinations of the above will safely get you to most jobs.

Honda seem incapable of supplying the correct seal washers. Take the old ones along from 'box and diff. Again, you can anneal and reuse unless totally chewed up. Buy gear oil (Castrol etc) that uses a pull out plastic tube. Ideal for diff oil, then clean and refill with honda MTF for gearbox.

Its not 24mm, I think you'll find its 23mm? Look for an Imperial best fit as it is low torque anyhow. I found an old whitworth that was an excellent fit. No room to get a socket on the filler.

NO NO NO.
Hand tight will come adrift.
Correct filter is pcx-004 type (large canister) and instructions on this USA made filter state a torque or a tuns from contact. For the 004 filter it is spin till touching the seal then 7/8th of a tun. You WILL need a canister wrench, or I use a 'chain wrench' but mine is made of a leather strap - no damage.

Best to add 4.5ltrs if changing filter and oil.
I 'flick' the starter a few times so it never actually starts the car but will pull some oil into the filter before firing it up.
dont overdo this, unburnt fuel in a CAT is not good (I have no CAT).

Smooth does not equate with suitable protection. Slick50 anyone?
Honda recommend thier own MTF specifically, YMMV.

I have 27K of hard miles on mine, never used a single drop.
Properly run in engine, Castrol oils, nothing special.
Warm up, warm down, every time.
...

CHIPPO

I though i might get a few replies, and some useful ones have come back.

I would comment as follows:-

The comment regarding the pioints on the chassis rail conincide with my thoughts although i felt the stands were getting rather close to each other hence spreading furthe to the rear on the subframe tubes. Yes i use some scrap timber to raise the car slightly to alow a trolley jack to get under.

The soft metal washers as you say are either ali or copper, long time since i have heard the methods for anealing these materials, not a lot of people know about soap and ali!!! I managed to get new any way, one as i recal did have an "O" ring.

Yes the diff fill bung is a slightly odd size and is about 23mm and an old Af spanner is likely to fit better than 24mm

The oil filter problem is tricky as to how much to tighten, we changed the oil on sons fiesta Zetec engine on the same day, the filter had been over tightened as a result the soft whip wrench ( rubber strap ) would not touch it, a chain wrench colapsed the filter, ended up driving a screw driver through the can to remove it! I maintain that fully hand tight is ok, and i think i get mine as tight as is suggested. They always take a lot of getting of still as the rubber seal through heat etc sticks. My son who is a truck mechanic and works on big diesals is also convinced that you should not over tighten filters and after all the are only a tin can to which you will be alpyling torgue. Not sure if its easyier to attack filter from top or bottom, very much personal preferance, i can get both hand on it form top found that tricky from under neath, I suppose it would be easy if one had a four poster.

CHIPPO

And another thing, oil consumption, yes my car was fully run in, in excess of what is reccomended, and had an extra oil change due to recall works, it had an extra lot of running in oil and a new filter at 3k. Its always been on Castrol up till now.

My car is a 51 plate is yours post 04 as i believe it has been suggested that these later cars do not use oil as the earlier ones do?

lower

You might want to do a search on the number of people who've lost oil filters that were only hand tight.

That's why the Honda filter even has specific instructions on it as to how tight it needs to be applied.

Don't forget, neither big diesels or fiesta Zetecs rev to 9000rpm or have a VTEC system driven by oil pressure.

s2konroids

I put my oil filter on as hard as i can by hand, and after a year it was still on. And have done so for the last 3 years.

Saying that i used to mole grips to pull it off the week before last .