Big Ben

I want to post this poll to get an idea of how many miles your stock S02 tires last.


Here is why:

To make a long story short, My transmition failed about 1.5 months ago and my Honda Care extended warranty covered almost $2000 of it and I covered the $50 deductable. Three gears and three synchros were replaced and the transmition was fine.

Fast forward only 3 to 4 weeks. Now it is March. My transmition starts VIOLENTLY throwing it's self out of first gear. So VIOLENTLY that it felt like someone had hit me with their car. This continued in the comming weeks getting worse and worse. Then it would throw itself out of 1st gear, but the gear was obviously worn and it wasn't quite as violent anymore. Then reverse became very hard to engage.

I took the car to the dealer on Monday, March 15th, for them to repair it again for the second time within 2 months for the transmition. They called me back on Tuesday and told me that the company that runs Honda Care was sending a third party inspector to take photos of my car to see if the damage was from driver abuse. (Honda Care is still owned by Honda, but it's a separate entity)

My service guy said that since the car has a Spugen Dual Ti exhaust, and the tires are bald on the inside, they may have reason to think I am abusing the car.

Ok, I'll play along.

The stock S2000 has 200hp at the rear tires. The Spugen Dual Ti only adds 3 to 7 horsepower. hardly enough to even make the tranmition even blink at it. The exhaust was installed after I got the car out of the shop the first time. It was on for about 3 weeks before the car went in the shop again.

Now for the bald tires. I bought my car in July of 2003 from a man in Phoenix Arizona. He replaced the rear tires with new S02's about 1000 miles before I bought it. I even have the documentation from the dealer where he bought them and the mileage the car was at. I bought the car at a little over 27,000 miles. I have not bought new tires since then. I now have approximately 43,000 miles on the car. That is a total of approximately 16,000 miles on the rear tires that he bought.

I lowered the car by 1.3" when the car was at about 38,000 to 40,000 miles. I also didn't have the camber corrected simply because I never had time and never got around to it. So the insides of all my tires are pretty much bald. There is still about 20% tread left on the outsides though.

I have never autocrossed my car since I have bought it. I can provide registration sheets for all the local autocross meets if they want. These things are documented as all of you know.

Thank you for all of you that participate in this poll. I don't know if they are not going to cover the transmition or not. I find out today, but I am preparing for the worst case senario by starting this poll.


Moderators, please leave this poll in S2000 Talk so it can get lots of views.

Thanks,
Ben

AceRN

good luck!

cyber_x

I voted 13,000-15,000. My rear S-02's probably actually lasted slightly more than 15,000 miles, but they were bald as hell by that time, and should've been changed several thousand miles earlier. My car has stock suspension and alignment settings, and the S-02's also wore from the inside edge. Later on, I switched to Kumho tires, and those also wore from the inside.

I don't race my car on the street or the track. It's used primarily as a commuter. The car simply goes through tires quickly, and the stock S-02's wear particularly quickly. There's no way your tires are a sign of abuse.

Btw Big Ben, I made a bunch of calls yesterday regarding my own transmission failure. One of the service advisors I spoke to mentioned some sort of service bulletin (not sure if it was an actual TSB but it was some sort of service advisory in their system) involving difficulties with 1st gear and Reverse. I didn't get any more details on it, since it wasn't the problem I was having, but maybe it's somehow relevant to yours?

joe_s2k

To answer your question, I get close to 6-9k on my rears without abusing them (ie. No clutch dumps ). After 96k miles, I've firmly believe that maintaining proper tire pressure is key.

On a side note, good luck with the Honda Police. Their first step is to place the blame on you with the "ABUSE" card. When my engine spun a bearing, they were trying to the same thing to me. The dealership service manager told me that HondaCare specifically asks them if the car in question has been modified. A YES will cause you to fall into the "guilty until proven innocent" realm.

If they decline your warranty request, get your CASE # and call HondaCare directly. They are people too and can be swayed to change their mind if they can see that you are verbally truthful. However, I have heard many stories where they stuck with their initial decision.

Good luck!

afetsman

Awaiting the final decision...I voted for 13k-15k miles BTW. I must drive like you do to get that many miles . You are definitley not abusing the car.

Scrapin 240

to get that many miles out of S-02s is great. They are sticky and I am surprised they last that long.

But for the transmission. Do you keep your hand on the tranny all the time while driving, ex. while on the highway?

Presidente

my rears lasted only 11k!
while my fronts are decent with 17k

jeffxyan

The setup for the car causes any tires to wear from inside out. Or this is what I heard from local members here in ATL. And by the way who has a honda that hasn't been modified?

Big Ben

Thanks guys, keep the votes coming.

Nope. This is my 5th manual car I have owned in my lifetime. My first car was a stick also.

I just don't understand how they can repair the tranny, then one month later, I have more problems. I honestly think that something wasn't done correctly when re-assembling the transmition the last time. I have put less than 2000 miles on it since the repair. If they inspected all the gears and there was no problem with 1st and reverse, it is virtually impossible to damage 1st and reverse in only 2000 miles. Especially when my car is essentially at the stock horsepower levels. And my rear differential is stock.

They have no leg to stand on. And they had better realize that. But until I hear for sure, I'm sitting here sweating bullets.

Thanks Honda.

s2kruisin

I'm only at 9600 now but I estimated 12-13K based on how much tire I have left. I've had MY03 in twice to the dealer for 2nd gear problems, not the grind I just shift slower and haven't had a problem with that, after a freeway drive on a fairly hot day my 2nd gear would not engage at all. This happened about 4 times, took it to 2 different dealers and they could not replicate the problem and said it had to be the way I drive. I said it gave up on the dealer.

Except for eyelids MY03 is stock, never auto-x, never drag raced.
Now that I think about it the dealer probably saw the eyelids and everyone knows those add 15+ hp and directly effect the drivetrain.