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Well... in my continuing effort to find all the weak spots in the S2000, I uncovered one more this last weekend. Under some hard braking at an autocross I tore half of the driver's side front, upper A-arm bracket off from the frame. Well, not completely off, but mostly off. Off enough that I sure didnt want to drive it too much without getting it fixed.
I had actually noticed some cracks forming over the last few months on both side of the car, on the "trailing edge" of the bracket where it meats the frame/body. I didnt worry too much at the time, though I suppose I should have. At first I didnt really realize what was causing them. Were they there the whole time and I just never noticed before? Were they getting worse? (they didnt seem to be) Were they caused by my off at Laguna? (That didnt seem to make sense based on the nature of what I was seeing). I suspected maybe they were caused by fatigue from repeated heavy breaking with sticky tires over the years... but wasnt completely sure. After last weekend though, I'm pretty convinced that was the case.
This of course now begs the question... am I going to be the only one? Or just the first?
So, for all you who regularly track or autocross your S2000s, you might take a close look at your front, upper A-arm brackets. Look for cracking on the trailing edge where it meets the body. Thats the edge closest to the rear.
Mine is all fixed now... the bracket has been rewelded to the body. I'm afraid I didnt get any pictures of it in it's "dangling" state... but I'll take some pics of the passenger side that hasnt been repaired yet and is showing the very early signs of fatigue. Its pretty easy to spot... and when it breaks off, you'll know it. It makes the kind of noise you'd expect from such a thing...
So where did you get this fixed? Did you go to your Honda dealer, and have it fixed under warranty? I would consider this to be a serious issue that should have the attention of Honda. Regardless of the stresses you put your car through versus other people (Honda knows a lot of us track our cars), this should not be something that happens. I'll be curious to see how many people inspect their cars and report that they're finding stress cracks.
You are running 225f & 245r correct? I wonder if the extra traction up front is what pushes the stresses over the limit. I have only ever run 205s up front and i track and AX my car regularly, yet I dont see the same cracks. I am mounting 225s up front today and will be tracking the car extensivly this month... Rest assured i'll be keeping a very close eye on those brackets.
After quite a few track events in the past two years and more scheduled for this year I took a look as soon as I had a chance today.
Once I got a light in there I thought I spotted the beginnings of a crack on the inside of the rear bracket.. but after cleaning it off and looking more carefully it looks more like a swab of the coating used in the wheel well that has been painted over. In fact the same thing shows on both sides.
Not sure I completely understand where the problem is occurring. It seems to me that the trailing part of the A-Arm would be in compression under heavy braking. I'd think the leading edge would be more susceptible to cracking under braking loads but maybe I'm thinking about it backwards........
This is a pic of the upper a-arm bracket on the passenger side of the car. The pic shows the rearmost bracket of the two that hold the a-arm to the frame. That yellow thing in the upper right corner is part of the spring perch on the shock absorber.
As you can see I've circled in pink the area you should be looking at... and in fact you can see some cracking going on... which is cracking in the undrecoating that covers the whole assembly. Its cracking because the bracket is lifting away from the frame. This is the side of my car that hasnt been repaired yet and think shows pretty clearly whats going on. You can imagine where this kind of thing is going if it gets much worse. The drivers side of the car was already much worse when I noticed all this, even before it failed completely.
I've got a large/huge front swaybar, buy I dont really see how that would contribute much to this problem... at this point I'm fairly convinced its a braking thing. Cornering forces might surely contribute, but given where the breakage is going on, if you picture the twisting forces from braking, it seems to make the most sense. (Mack, yes, I think you've got it backwards... the trailing edge will be in tension under braking)
Yes, I've used mostly 225 Hoosiers on the front of my car during is racing life... but also sometimes 245s (yes on the front). That said, I think that if you're using race rubber, the difference between a 205 and a 225 or even a 245 isnt *that* significant. Not nearly as significant as the jump from a street tire to a race tire. I wouldnt be surprised if you guys who only run street tires on the track never ever see this happen to you... then again, maybe you will.
03-05-2002, 07:06 PM
It makes the kind of noise you'd expect from such a thing...
