Honda S2000

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Discussion

C7 JFW

1,205 posts

218 months

Monday 10th September 2012
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Yorkshire2000 said:
HI Im hoping someone can help me. I dont want to hijack the thread but it seams pretty wide ranging so hopepfuelly this is ok.
I have recently bought a S2000 AP1 that needs a replacement roof. Ive seen a complete roof advertised including frame and motors for an AP2. Will it just bolt on or does it need modified? Will it work for someone of average DIY skills? The key is that its the whole roof not just the skin.
Sounds like there are some experts out there so hopefully i can reap the benefit of their knowledge!
S2000 roofs are notoriously a pig to fit for someone with even moderate abilities. They will look to fit well, however you'll soon find yourself wet in heavy rain. Most people recommend that you nourish the rubber that joins the edge of the cars' glass, however in my experience, that rarely works.

Monsoon hoods http://www.monsoon4x4.co.uk/Contact_Us.htm - 01323 440422 Sell some of the better quality hoods and have worked with the S2000 UK Owner's club previously. A fitted replacement hood a couple of years ago was around £670 but worth it. If you're going to have one fitted, you will want to add patches to the metal bar that supports it which rotates through 90 degrees. Fit some fabric patches to ease wear and you'll never have to worry again.

robinandcamera

265 posts

179 months

Wednesday 12th September 2012
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Get yourself over to S2KI.com in the UK forum there. There is a person in Wales that does hoods for about £280 fitted! He has had great write ups and does the MX5 crowd as well.

Someone recently got one done and was very pleased with it. Not the most recent thread on there, one I found quickly with google about them:
http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/919020-new-hood/


krunchkin

2,209 posts

140 months

Monday 17th September 2012
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any owners here running their S2ks on Dixcel brakes? Any thoughts or advice?

robinandcamera

265 posts

179 months

Wednesday 19th September 2012
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krunchkin said:
any owners here running their S2ks on Dixcel brakes? Any thoughts or advice?
I had them. I had the FCR slotted on the front with Z pads. Improvement in stopping power and would hardly fade on track although after a few laps in heavy zones I would get a longer pedal sometimes which would firm right back up after taking a few corners easy (cooling ducts and uprated fluid fitted also). Shame that half way into my second track day the brake warning light came on indicating low brake fluid from the pads wearing so quickly. I should have gone for the plain FCR disc and R pads I think as they are meant to wear much better.

For road driving they are awesome, but the standard kit I found fine for road and don't think you need to upgrade the brakes.

I had FCR plain discs on the back with the RA pad. They also only last two track days and left tar like goo inside the wheels.

I've since upgraded to a stoptech big brake kit with Performance Friction 06 pads and on the rear XP8 pads still with the dixcel discs. Yes, it is a night and day difference in price, but also in performance. Last track day I was over taking elises as they broke as I could leave braking so much later and they were solid as a rock all day with the ability to lock the tires at will.

After chatting brakes at my last track day someone gave me good advice that was too late for me to follow. He said, if fluids and better pads aren't giving you what you want, don't waste your money going half way, just go for a big brake kit. I agree with that advice.

If you need justification to go big brake kit, my Performance friction pads with 13mm of pad new only wore 1mm after an entire track day, so I should get 10 days out of them. At £250 a pair vs £150 for five pairs of performance pads for regular s2000 calipers that will already give me back £500 towards the cost of the kit.

Hope that helps.

krunchkin

2,209 posts

140 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
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thanks - excellent advice

I'm meeting with Dixon Cheng on saturday prior to take the car out for its first spin on Brands Hatch on monday. Going to change the brake line and upgrade the fluid. Any other changes I should consider pre-track?

robinandcamera

265 posts

179 months

Thursday 20th September 2012
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Its worth getting his fast road alignment done.

My car spends a lot of its time down there being modified, so I know Dixon. In the last yr I've taken my car from standard to extensively modded, coil overs, braces, brakes, engine management, final drive change, manifold, decat, exhaust etc etc so feel free to ask me any questions.

I caught the bug at brands hatch a year ago, so be warned!

I'm zzkamikazezz on s2ki and YouTube by the way.

Rob

krunchkin

2,209 posts

140 months

Friday 21st September 2012
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Hi Rob

I have a feeling once I meet him and get the modding and track bug I am going to be hooked! So - what would you suggest I begin with when it comes to changes? I was thinking air intake, but you may have other ideas?

krunchkin

2,209 posts

140 months

Friday 21st September 2012
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Out of interest - what kind of money are we talking for a full stoptech big brake kit fitted?

robinandcamera

265 posts

179 months

Friday 21st September 2012
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Hey

I'd do intake for the noise. No real gains you'll notice but you'll grin every time you go into vtec biggrin The PRM one is meant to sound amazing from the states. I have AEM V2 and it sounds brilliant. K&N also do a mean sounding one.

I'd look at tires, AD08 are good. Also some coilovers, I've meister Rs that are well rated on the S2ki UK forum. Dixon may have a special on in the Traders section there. Also do the front and rear anti bump steer kits whilst doing this. For the bump steer kits the US and ebay may save you some cash here wink

Being NA and pushing so much power from the factory tuning won't gain you much, better spending the money on handling and braking I say first. A full manifold, decat and exhaust with engine management and remap only gained me 10bhp at the top end. I gained 20bhp and 40 lbft in the mid range though, but this is because with the remap they lowered the vtec point. However the car is so much smoother to drive now, I noticed this after doing the exhaust without the remap, it pulls away better and just feels like its lost a cold.

The brakes were £1400 from balance motorsport. Fitting is a simple bolt on job and just upgrading the lines with those included in the kit. My local garage charged me £140 for fitting. I've not noticed any increase in stopping power with the Stoptech street pads that came with the kit, however BBKs are just as much, if not more about dissipating heat and dealing with heat better so they do not fade. As soon as I put the Performance Friction 06 pads on thinks got ridiculous in terms of stopping power, so budget some money for decent pads if doing the upgrade. The stoptech ST40 caliper is simply huge it is worth noting, on standard wheels you'll need something totally silly like 20mm spacers. I run Enkei PF01 wheels as they were designed in an offset and staggered fitment for the S2000 and to clear big brakes and they clear with only a few mm. Worth considering brake clearance if you do decide to go for lighter wheels. I was considering Hi Spec kits, I think they are slimmer, Stoptech are some of the biggest calipers out there and have so many great reviews on the internet so I went for them. They also have a bunch of great white papers on their site explaining braking and their ktis are designed to keep the braking bias of the car, not making it too front braking heavy. Dixon no doubt could put a kit together for you, I see he has done one on his car with AP calipers and dixcel discs, but the discs were £750 so I think it'll work out as costing more unless you haggled a deal on fitting for free perhaps?

Here is how big the stoptechs are:
http://i.imgur.com/DwfZf.jpg

I have basically been following this in depth set of article on tuning the S2000:
http://www.motoiq.com/projects/honda/project_honda...

Other odds and ends that may be of interest:
Good place for wheels, tirerack in the US, wheels arrived just days later. They only show wheels designed to fit the car. DO NOT by wheels that are the wrong offset just because they look good or have a concave face, the S2000 is very sensitive to suspension geo.

A thread that might be useful if you go with Stoptech, although going below 50mm offset probably isn't best, photos of mine are in that thread:
http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/771731-official-st...

This might interest you also if you aren't looking to upgrade the exhaust but want a bit more sound smile
http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/944056-exhaust-mod...

If you ever want to get the sump baffled if things get that serious, no need to buy one of the £400-£500 sumps, just get one of these plates welded in:
http://www.tegiwaimports.com/tegiwa-oil-pan-sump-b...

Hope that helps



krunchkin

2,209 posts

140 months

Friday 21st September 2012
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Thanks for all the advice and the email wink

normalbloke

7,401 posts

218 months

Saturday 22nd September 2012
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It's 'tyre', by the way....

Rich A

248 posts

158 months

Tuesday 30th October 2012
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ercracing said:
Apart from the brakes (Dixcel discs and pads + lines and fluid, all sorted by Dixon at DMS) all is stock.
What MY is your car, and which tyres do you prefer? Looks like an 8:40 will be a breeze if you get some luck with the traffic.

Enjoyed your videos! Like on FB too smile

Kozy

3,169 posts

217 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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With regards to S2Ki, jesus f'in christ! yikes

Just reading the 'Inside Rear Lift' thread in the racing and competition thread. It is a dangerous thing when that many morons get together to talk about st they don't have the first f'cking clue about.

I was expecting some good discussion there, but just instead just.. wow. Stunning levels of ignorance displayed!

Dracoro

8,661 posts

244 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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Was that in the US section? Not sure that a dodgy thread is really representative (how many of those type of threads are on here?! Loads biggrin)

BTW, use the UK specific forum section (www.s2ki.co.uk), mostly very sensible talk.

Kozy

3,169 posts

217 months

Friday 9th November 2012
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It was just in the Special Interest section?

That question could have been cleared up quite easily by the people that were apparently 'in the know', but instead they just confused matters even more. I would generally take threads like that as a measure of the level of technical knowledge on a new board, and on that one S2Ki failed miserably.

Hopefully it is better elsewhere!

Decibel

95 posts

155 months

Tuesday 4th December 2012
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Can anyone recommend anywhere in Northern Ireland for getting a S2000 serviced?

snorkel sucker

2,662 posts

202 months

Sunday 9th December 2012
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Looks like after 6 years since selling my S2000 that I am back in the market for one smile

Now i'm the wrong side of 30 insurance has come down to a more reasonable level (reasonable, not cheap!) and having run one for a while back in 2006 I know its pretty much the ideal car for a short commute in the week and fun at the weekends.

Anyway, reason for posting is to see if anyone knows of any good examples for sale - PH and Autotrader throw up a rather eclectic mix, and I do have some specific requirements..

2004 or later. Ideal would be a 2006 pre March car with VSC
Not keen on a post March 2006 car as I don't want to pay £450 VED
Colour - anything apart from Orange!
Don't want to spend any more than £8000, ideally £7000

If anyone knows of a car that fits the above criteria, drop me a line. Happy to travel for the right car.

mikey k

13,011 posts

215 months

Monday 10th December 2012
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Its VSA rather than VSC
You will struggle to find a UK with it on but a fair few EU imports did
You can easily fit Race Logic traction control (as used by Lotus) to any year S2000

davey68

1,199 posts

236 months

Monday 10th December 2012
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Think VSA was an option from 2006, standard on 2008 models.

snorkel sucker

2,662 posts

202 months

Monday 10th December 2012
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Indeed. I'm getting assist muddled up with control!

I knew it manifested its way onto the car from 2006 - wasn't aware it was an option only though until 2008. Its more of a nice to have as it'll get used by my OH.

I'd like the '04 onwards car as my last one was an '00. Prefer the mildly altered looks and couple of useful additions.