T10000000's Journey to the S2000

[jdm.itr]

Looking forward to updates on this thread, I too came from a dc5
Clean car man!!


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[T-10000000]

August 2014 – Purchased 2007 Mazda MX5 Limited Edition
Before buying a new car, I wanted to sell my DC5 first as I didn’t think I would be able to sell it for what I wanted and I didn’t want to be in a position where I was paying the running costs for 2 cars when I would only be using 1. I soon found out what a mistake that was. After selling my DC5 I started looking for a car while carpooling and catching the bus to get around. Coming from a DC5, the next logical upgrade was to an S2000 which quite a few CITR members have done. After waiting 4 months for a good S2000 to come up for sale, I wasn’t able to find one that I was happy with and bought a 2007 Mazda MX5 LE from Sydney. My brother owned a Mazda NB at the time and that was a fun car to drive so I thought, why not buy an NC. I knew I wanted an S2000, but it wasn’t the right time.

This variant of the MX5 had bilstein shocks, limited edition radiant ebony colour, 17” BBS wheels and a few other exterior parts not found on the standard MX5 NC versions. The one I bought had all of the factory options that Mazda offered and had just over 50,000kms on it. It was owned by an old woman but there were swirl marks all over and jewellery scratches under the door handles; nothing that couldn’t be fixed by a proper detail.

The driving position in the NC is fairly low compared to the DC5 and I was impressed with the OEM 6 speed shifter as changing gears was solid and had very little play. Driving with the top down was fun. Lowering the convertible top was a matter of opening one latch and pulling back the top until it clicks into place. Pulling it back up by yourself, you needed to be a little bit flexible to grab the handle of the top, pull it up and lock the latch.

The only modifications I did to the car was a Goodwin Racing RoadsterSport II muffler from the US, Whiteline front and rear sway bars and project mu HC800 front pads.

It was a good first rear wheel drive car to own and after 6 months of ownership, I listed it up for sale in early March. 2 weeks later, a mature aged man from Sydney picked it up.

[T-10000000]

January/February 2015 – On the hunt for an S2000
Towards the beginning of 2015, I started looking for an S2000 again. This time, I wasn’t going to sell the MX5 until I had another car. I was happy with any colour but it had to be clean and <120,000kms. In my search of an S2000, I asked a number of questions due to the common issues and things you read about when owning one of these cars. I had a set of questions that I would ask the seller to gauge what kind of life the car has had, how it has been maintained and get a ballpark figure on how much I would need to spend fixing parts where necessary; hopefully they might come in handy for any potential car buyers out there.

General:
How long have you owned the car?
Why are you selling it?
Where has it been serviced under your ownership and the previous owner? Has a major service been done and what was included in this?
Is there any work that needs to be done to the car as it sits?
Has the car even been to the race track/drag strip?
How old is the main driver of the car?
Does the car come with the OEM parts that have been modified?

Engine:
Mechanically are there any issues?
Has the clutch been changed?
Has a compression test been done on the car within the last year or 2?
Are there any unusual noises when driving the car?

Interior:
What is the condition of the driver seat bolster?
Are there any tears/rips on the seats?

Exterior:
Has the car been in any minor or major accidents?
Have any panels of the car been resprayed?
Are there any cracks in the front or rear bumper?
Do the front/rear bumpers line up with headlights/tail lights?
What is the condition of the soft-top? Any tears, leaks, faded?
Are there any marks on the car (scratches, dints)?
Are there any paint chips on the car?
Are there any signs of paint cracking on the car?

With very few S2000’s for sale in Canberra, most of them were located interstate and I wanted to know as much information possible before physically going to inspect a car. You can generally read between the lines of a car ad, and the pictures themselves can give a lot of information if you look closely. I looked at a few locally and interstate but the majority of them either had accident history, high kms, poor maintenance, rips in soft top, over-priced etc.

[T-10000000]

March 2015 – Purchased 2002 Honda S2000
I came across a Spa Yellow 2002 Honda S2000 on Carsales in Sydney owned by a mature couple that had just under 110,000kms. I ran a CarFacts history report on the VIN and was happy with the results. I inspected it one weekend, and drove it back to Canberra the next. Being a 2002 model, it had the glass window soft top, chrome tail light housing, clear side indicators, door cards with tweeters, silver radio cover and leather centre console trim.

It had a number of modifications and extras already done when I bought it but it didn’t come with any of the OEM parts that were swapped out. The Carsales ad only listed a few of the modifications but on close inspection, you can see what isn’t OEM. Here’s a list of modifications that came with the car:

OEM Hard Top
OEM Front Lip
OEM Side Strakes
OEM Rear Spoiler
Cusco Oil Catch Can
OZ Racing Ultraleggera (F: 18x8 +48, R: 18x9 +55)
Rolled Guards (Front)
Buddyclub N+ Coilovers
Top Fuel v2 Carbon Intake
High Flow Cat
Exedy Sports Tuff HD Clutch
Slotted Rotors + Brake Pads
Window Tint
Modifry Glove Box Organizer
Headlight Eyelids

Here are a few of the pictures from the original carsales ad:







The car wasn’t perfect when I bought it but there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed or lived with. Mechanically it was sound and the paint was in very good condition. The bad things were:

• Low on oil when back to Canberra. The previous owner used Honda FEO ultra oil which I’ve read tends to burn more than others in the S2000.
  Changed the oil to Penrite HPR 5W40 once back in Canberra and monitored
  
• Noticed the oil cap had a small chip and as a result didn’t have a proper seal. You could see a light residue of oil spray on the back of the engine bay.
  Replaced with a new OEM Oil cap that fixed it
  
• Mis-matched colour on the front lip and side strakes. The yellow wasn’t a perfect match to the body of the car.
  Will get resprayed to match at some point
  
• Paint chipping on side strakes
  Will get resprayed to match at some point
  
• Paint chipping on side strakes
  Will get resprayed to match at some point
  
• Mis-matched tyres on the front and rear wheels. The fronts were running Bridgestone S-04 and the rears were Yokohama EP400.
  
• Minor damage on the rear bumper (trolley hit)
  Will touch up with paint at some point
  
• Passenger door has been resprayed from someone reversing into it
  Colour match is spot on.
  

[Toddxxx]

Finally, the s2000 part of the journey. Nice buy man. Car looks very nice with all the add ons.

[plAythiNG]

Like this vuild so far as its just building up to the S2000! I believe from memory one of the front guards were mangled too from the wheels. I think it was passengerm but overall a very clean car. And yellow!

[T-10000000]

Finally, the s2000 part of the journey. Nice buy man. Car looks very nice with all the add ons.

Thanks. I really like the OEM look with the lip, side strakes, spoiler and hardtop; simple and clean.

Like this vuild so far as its just building up to the S2000! I believe from memory one of the front guards were mangled too from the wheels. I think it was passengerm but overall a very clean car. And yellow!

Yeah the front right is pretty bad when close up. The fender line on the exterior isn't completely straight and the paint cracked on the edge which has been touched up. I'm guessing they started rolling the front right first and got better with it when doing the front left guard as that side looks pretty good.

[T-10000000]

March 2015 – Expenses Spreadsheet, On-road Expenses, Maintenance, S2000 keyring
For my last 2 cars, I’ve been filling in a spreadsheet to keep track of all the things I have done on the car. It’s a good way to track what has been done to the car in addition to the car logbook and how much I’ve spent. Here’s a screenshot of how it looks; happy to send through the excel spreadsheet if anyone wants it:



Before picking up the car, I looked around for the best value options for full comprehensive insurance. Being under 25 (24) with a clean driving record, my options were still fairly limited. With the S2000 being a P plate legal car in many states, it has a fairly big premium and from what I’ve heard, it’s a high risk car. The only companies I found that would cover for me for <$2,000/year were AAMI, NRMA and Just car. NRMA was ~$2000/year for full comprehensive valued at $18000 and Just car was ~$1500/year for full comprehensive valued at $19,000. I ended up getting full comprehensive with AAMI valued for $19,500 for $1250 a year with the car hire option. Hopefully next year when I turn 25, this will open me up for more insurance companies that insure 25 and over drivers only and increase the insured value.

The registration rules in the ACT are different to what you find in NSW and VIC. For cars older than 10 years old, you need to pass a roadworthy inspection and/or if it’s modified in any way, it needs to go through the Dickson Pits before it can be registered. Here, the car must meet all Australian Design Rules and for certain types of modifications, they need to be engineered. They’re known to be very strict with what is and isn’t allowed in terms of modifications. Once passed though, there is no requirement for blue slips every year like they do in NSW unless the car is registered in another state.

To pass the inspection, we gave the car a good clean and raised the height to meet the 100mm rule. To determine if the wheels and offset are legal, they use a specific formula to ensure that the wheel/tyre diameter or ratio is within X% of the OEM spec and that they don’t poke past the fender. Luckily the OZ Racing wheels, catch can and coilovers passed with no issues, and the intake was fine as well since the filter is covered and isn’t exposed.







The first maintenance item we did was an oil + oil filter change, new OEM oil filler cap and replaced one of the seals for the catch can. I had a bottle of Penrite HPR 5W40 from the MX5 and decided to use that along with a HAMP short filter. We noticed oil on the back of the engine bay and replaced the oil filler cap with an OEM one which cost ~$20 from the local Honda dealership. Luckily, this has fixed it and there is no longer any sign of oil spray or residue. The seal from the catch can to the engine didn’t sit properly either so we replaced that with a $5 one from Honda.



I bought a couple of S2000 keyrings from ebay US to give the keys a better look. I started with the double sided keyring and F20C keyring but it was too bulky, so I started using the opal keyring a few weeks later.

[jv-st]

Do you by any chance have a Flashpoint alarm system installed by any chance ? I've got an identical security put-in-before-the-alarm-goes-off key. Good stuff with the expense report too, I've got one accounting for all money put into the car as well.

Interesting insight into inspections in ACT. I never knew that before. Anyway, clean S2K man! Love the hardtop look

[Toddxxx]

I do not want anything to do with your spreadsheet. Not knowing what I've spent on the car is better in my opinion :P

[T-10000000]

Do you by any chance have a Flashpoint alarm system installed by any chance ? I've got an identical security put-in-before-the-alarm-goes-off key. Good stuff with the expense report too, I've got one accounting for all money put into the car as well.

Interesting insight into inspections in ACT. I never knew that before. Anyway, clean S2K man! Love the hardtop look

I actually don't even know what brand or model the alarm is since the car didn't come with any paperwork for the alarm. I've had a look on the siren but that didn't give me any better ideas. All i know is that it's integrated with the OEM remote and there is a slot in the car that i can plug the alarm key into. I've had it go off before when i opened the boot before unlocking the car, but the unlock button was enough to stop it from going off.

I do not want anything to do with your spreadsheet. Not knowing what I've spent on the car is better in my opinion :P

Haha i bet!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Interesting update regarding registration in the ACT, never knew that. And the spreadsheet is a great idea, I use something similar for my car too. Really like the OEM hardtop! Do they come with the OEM latches that makes removing it a breeze?

I do not want anything to do with your spreadsheet. Not knowing what I've spent on the car is better in my opinion :P

Ignorance is bliss eh? Haha.

[Toddxxx]

Ignorance is bliss eh? Haha.

You betcha!
I already know it's too much :P

[T-10000000]

Interesting update regarding registration in the ACT, never knew that. And the spreadsheet is a great idea, I use something similar for my car too. Really like the OEM hardtop! Do they come with the OEM latches that makes removing it a breeze?



Ignorance is bliss eh? Haha.

I haven't looked into it too much but i'm pretty sure the front catchers (i think that's the correct term for them?) are the standard ones for the OEM soft top that also work with the hardtop and the rear has 1 OEM latch on each side that locks in the hard top. I can take pictures if you're interested to see the setup, just let me know. Taking off the hard top is simply un-doing the front catchers, then unlocking the rear latches. I'd say its a 2 person job to take it on and off safely but it's really easy (<2 min).

Putting it back on though, I've heard that you can make many adjustments with the OEM hard top hardware but i am yet to play around with any of these. When i first put on the hard top, i noticed there was a small leak on the driver's side window. After re-seating it and putting some force on the front right of the hard top before locking the catcher, there were no more leaks.

[T-10000000]

April 2015 – Blind Spot Mirror, Personalised Number Plates, Lug Nuts, Michelin Tyre Pressure/Tread Depth Gauge, Blind Spot Mirror
Visibility when driving the S2000 with the soft top is fairly restricted as the rear window is so small and with the hard top it is slightly better. I decided to buy some blind spot mirrors for both sides to give me better visibility. I bought these from SuperCheap Auto and chose to go with the ones with the blue tint.



In March, I ordered a new set of number plates. In the ACT we use a different system for personalised plates and have fairly limited options. The most common combination types are AA 111 (A = letter, 1 = number) for ~$500 or unique plates (any combination of numbers and letters up to 7 or 8 characters) for ~$2700. Once you buy the combination, you own them and don’t need to pay yearly fees. The standard plates in ACT are in the format YAA-11A and they all start with Y. I called Canberra Connect and found out that you can buy plates out of sequence based on this format as long as they aren’t already in use and were priced at ~$440 remade into plastic.

I decided to go with YYF 20C in a white on black colour combination in plastic as it’s subtle, suits the car better than the standard blue on white tin ACT plates and only people who know S2000’s would get the reference. I’ve read that the plates are made at a jail near the ACT and it took about ~8 weeks from ordering them at the counter. There was a small mark on the front plates that bugged me but I wasn’t keen to wait another 8 weeks to get them remade.

You get the choice to have pre-drilled holes or no holes in the number plates. I opted to get the number plates with no holes as I think it looks much better without them and gives the car a cleaner look. The front number plate is held on by a plastic washer, custom metal bracket, screw, double sided tape and then finally the number plate. The metal bracket is just a thin sheet of metal that is ~2cm smaller than the dimensions of the number plate itself. The double sided tape is placed on the sheet of metal and the number plate is stuck on top. The rear number plate is simply stuck on using the same double sided tape onto the rear bumper. It is very strong and would take quiet some effort if I ever have to take them off.







I purchased Project Kics R40 Neochrome Lug nuts from RHD Japan and it took ~5 days via EMS to arrive. I used paypal to buy them and they charge a conversion fee from Yen to AUD of I think ~3%. The neochrome colour looks great in person. The package included 16 lug nuts, 4 lock nuts, lock nut key and a standard lug nut key to minimise the chance of marks/damage to the lug nuts.



I also bought a Michelin Pressure/Tread depth gauge off ebay to later on use at the track. Its digital and gives readings to the nearest 0.5 psi which is accurate enough for what I was after. The tread depth gauge is also good as I always find it interesting how people mention tyres have X% tread left rather than providing it in millimetres.




May 2015 – Meguiars/Cleaning Products + Jerry Can

SuperCheap Auto had a catalogue sale for 20% off all Meguiars products. The SuperCheap ebay store also had a separate 20% promotion so I stacked them up and bought a whole bunch of Meguiars products at 40% off! They also had 20L jerry cans on sale for half price so I grabbed one of those to use for the track later on.