Category Archives: Driving

My Honda S2000, Six Years Later…

I’ve owned my 2003 Honda S2000 for six years now.  Hard to believe it actually.  I remember six years ago in April of 2012 when I drove to Russellville, Kentucky to make the purchase from the estate of its former owner.  You can click HERE to see the post I made, with details from when I made the trip to pick the car up.

One of the blogs I read regularly and highly recommend belongs to a fellow car enthusiast like me.  His name is Tyson and he has a thing for Acuras.  His blog is named drivetofive – as in drive to 500,000 miles!  I thought about him when I started putting this post together because Tyson documents how many miles he logs on his fleet of breathtaking Acuras.  And yes, he is lucky enough to own the Holy Grail:  an Acura NSX.  So Tyson if you are reading, take a look at this:

Yes, that is a picture of the dash of my 2003 Honda S2000 taken this past Friday, April 6, 2018.  The S2K had a milestone:  the sweet sixteen!  Doing the math, I’ve owned this car for six years, and have put just a tad over 11,000 miles on it.

Even though this car is 15 years old, I get looks and comments as if she had rolled out the dealership recently.  I have gone out of my way to keep this thing as clean as possible.  Matter of fact, I can’t say I’ve ever driven this car in the rain during the past six years.

The first major purchase for the S2000 was a new set of BF Goodrich summer-only tires.  Well, I need to get a new set of rears because 11,000 miles later, they are down to the wear markers.  I’m not surprised.  From my research the S2000 is similar to Tyson’s NSX in that the rear tires wear prematurely in exchange for optimal handling.

And so, there you have it.  My 2003 S2000 has been an amazing car.  It has its shortcomings in the torque department but what a joy it is to drive with the top down, revving up to the 9000 rpm redline.  This thing has F1 DNA.

Expenses have been negligible.  Other than the previously mentioned BFG’s, all I have done is replace fluids and filters. And, oh yes, I did buy a titanium factory shift knob and the factory front air dam and rear spoiler.  Honda (ahem, Acura) dependability I suppose!  😉

 

Honda S2000 Soft Top

Honda S2000 soft top latch, fully locked…

The Honda S2000 soft top locks in place with two latches on either side of the inner windshield frame.  Unfortunately, bumpy roads can cause the latches to rattle from time to time.  My S2000 is no exception and the rattling is driving me nuts!  Today I did some research and found a Honda S2000 Soft Top TSB (in PDF format).  This TSB addresses various ways of solving squeaks and rattles on the Honda S2000 soft top.

As it turns out, the inside half of the latch has a plastic trim piece.  Under certain conditions this plastic trim will rattle.  The following picture shows the soft top partially retracted…

And a couple of more pictures showing what the latch looks like…

So the way the hinge works is by pressing the side button and letting the hinge open towards the front of the vehicle.  This releases the claw from the windshield frame.  In the middle photo above, you can see the inside half of the hinge surrounded by a plastic trim.  This is the source of the rattles.

A roll of Honda EPT Sealer

The Honda TSB talks about using Honda EPT sealer and wadding it up into a small piece.  Then wedging the wadded EPT Sealer between the latch and the plastic trim.   This fills the void and prevents the plastic from rattling.  fair enough…

But, I have no idea what “EPT Sealer” looks like, so I Googled it and found the picture on the left.  As it turns out EPT Sealer is sold in rolls.  I don’t need a whole roll.  Instead (according to the TSB) all I need is small strips about 10mm x 5mm.

What can I use instead of EPT Sealer?  💡

I noticed the EPT Sealer is roughly the same thickness as Craftsman toolbox drawer liner material.  I found an extra liner and cut a section as shown in the picture to the right.  This piece is about 1×4 inches in size.  More than enough to do the job!

I carefully cut small strips of this material.  The material took a little coercing to fit in between the latch and the plastic trim but the result is perfect!  If you look closely in the following picture you can actually see the little strip of material between the latch and the plastic trim (in the yellow circle):

Small strip of drawer liner shown in the yellow circle…

The solution described in the TSB works!  I drove my S2000 down a bumpy road not far from my home and no rattles.  Oh and I still have plenty of this material available, so if you want some shoot me an email (info at bowtie6 dot com).  I’ll be happy to send you a piece!

S2000 Update

My Honda S2000 has been a real joy to own.  Hard to believe it has been 4.5 years since I bought it from an estate sale and brought it home.  During this time expenses have been for fuel, oil, filters and a set of tires.  I also had the A/C system checked because it was a few ounces off.

Hard to believe the S2K had only 4,726 miles when I bought – ahem– stole it!

On purchase day…

Today, I took a picture of this same dash and it shows slightly more miles on it.  And this is interesting…  There is a thread on one of the forums where folks talk about how many miles they have on their S2K’s.  I’ve seen several photos of cars with 250,000 and more miles on the clock.  Hmmm…  I have a lot of driving to do!

Today…

Funny!  Today’s photo has a nicely centered and focused dash…  Thanks to my friend Tyson who has taught me how to correctly show mileage in a photo!

And finally…  Two complete opposites!  RedRock in the background and the S2K in the foreground.  The Camaro with tons of torque; the S2K just wishing…  The S2K with the agility of a gazelle, the Camaro just wishing…

I suppose I am a just a lucky sumbitch!!!  :mrgreen:

Opposites attract…

My S2K at 12,345 Miles

I had a bit of milestone this week:  my 2003 Honda S2000 at 12345 miles!  I regret not being more attentive because I missed the straight flush mileage count by just a couple of tenths of a mile.  Oh well, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to catch it in another 100,000 miles.

On a lighter note, here is wishing you a happy Labor Day weekend.  I was going through some of the older posts late on a Saturday night with Sammy Hagar playing Heavy Metal in the background.  Remember Heavy Metal the movie?  Ha!!  Good times!

At any rate, I’ve made a few tweaks to some of the older galleries in the blog.  I’m trying to optimize performance a little so if you see any strange behavior or broken links, please let me know.

Gasoline is cheap and yes, there is a road trip in the plans.  If I find something interesting along the way, I’ll try to get a few pictures…  In the meantime, be safe and have a great weekend!

Honda S2000 Sales Video

I found the following Honda S2000 sales video and thought it might be cool to post it today for those of you fellow S2000 enthusiasts.

Needless to say, Spring is making an honest effort to arrive.  There have been a few really decent days to drive my S2K – top down – here in Upstate, South Carolina.  The more I drive this thing, the more I like it. And the more I thank my lucky stars for being able to buy (read “steal”) a 10-year-old example with only 4700 miles on the odometer.  OK – we now have a few more miles on the odometer but my S2K is as pristine as they come – oh lucky me…  :mrgreen:

The Video

Here is the video – give it a few seconds to load…

Yep. My Sebring Silver S2K is a keeper…

“Its like strapping on a race car, with license plates”   – Parker Johnstone