Tempe is the closest to my house for service. Has anyone dealt with their service dept?
Are they any good? Is there a specific mechanic I should ask for when I need to take it in?

I do need an alignment Ever since I took delivery 2 weeks ago I've noticed the car pulls slightly to the right all the time. I already know that Tempe would bring it over to Midas down the street to do the alignment, but I just wanted to mention this. Did anyone else need an alignment done right after taking delivery on a new '02?

 

Check your tire pressures with a good gauge before getting the alignment. A few pounds difference causes consistent pulling.
Tanq

 

I don't know anything about Tempe Honda, but here's some information on alignment that I gleaned when I got interested in my first alignment. Have you made sure that your spring spacers are all removed? There's also a very long and informative thread on alignment at the top of the Under the Hood forum.

The S2000 suspension can be adjusted for Castor, Camber, and Toe. However each of these components is interrelated. For example when you adjust toe the camber changes. Therefore you must adjust the front/rear alignment whenever you adjust camber, caster or toe. Any four wheel alignment machine (i.e. Bear) can be used and will be satisfactory. If however you are a perfectionist the Hunter is the only way to go. In short, a four wheel Hunter unit will look at all parameters on all wheels at once, as opposed to "single element calibration" used by most, it is also much more accurate. The cost of the alignment is the same roughly so why not use the most accurate method on the market today? As for the CRT showing S2000 00/01....... this is loaded and stored by the technician (most likely from a previous S2000) where someone got the data and the saved the data as "the gospel" for the S2000. It should be validated, the following are the correct settings:

Front Caster= 6 degrees 0 minutes +/- 15 minutes
Front Camber=- 0 degrees 30 minutes +/- 10 minutes
Rear Camber Angle= -1 degree 30 minutes +/- 10 minutes
Front Toe In= 0 +/- 2 MM (+/- .08 inches)
Rear Toe In= 6.0 +/- 2 MM (0.25 +/-.08 inches)

In addition the "Turning Angle" should be checked:
Inward wheel = 34 degrees 0 minutes +/- 2 minutes
Outward Wheel: 29 degrees 0 minutes (reference)

The Caster can be adjusted very easily on the S2000. If the tech couldn't adjust Camber you either had a a very hard front end wheel impact (and bent an arm) or the technician didn't know what he was doing. Another possibility is the target machine data (loaded as noted above on a previous vehicle ) was in error, therefore the technician could not "bring the car in" to the stored data baseline. The most common error made by untrained technicians is Step One.......Check Tire Pressure. On the S2000 each tire should measure 32 PSI prior to alignment check. It should be checked with a gage with at least a 2" dial face (not a pocket wand like most owners and dealers use).

With proper pressure in the tire and a valid software dataset your car will do well on any four wheel machine, Hunter, Bear, or otherwise. Did you see the technician check the tire pressure?

Also you might want to consider the Honda (UK) alignment settings posted here:
http://www.mike.rich1.btinternet.co.uk/ima...mages/photo.jpg

 

I would check the tire pressure as noted by Tanq and if that does not work - bring it back to Showcase.

I have seen some "don't go to Tempe Honda" comments by others in the forum.

 

NO one recommends Honda of Tempe.

 

My car just came back from Honda of Tempe. Here's how my experience went:

For approx. 8 hours worth of work it took them nine days. They fixed my driver's window but forgot to tighten the two bolts that hold the regulator in place. Thus it rattled horribly until I fixed it. They scratched my spark plug cover doing the tsb. The put two scratches in my hood. They tried to tell me that the gas gauge is not supposed to be accurate and therefore they shouldn't have to fix it. They tried to sell me $1100 worth of service that I and my friend (an Acura/Honda tech) felt I didn't need. They improperly installed my airbox and left bolts rattling around inside of it. My car was clean when I dropped it off and filthy when I picked it up.

When I complained they threatened to void my warranty.

Do not go to Honda of Tempe, ever!

 

I think we're pretty much SOL whereever we go. SCS2K's experience is akin to my experience at Flagstaff Honda. Of course, Arrowhead didn't wreck anything (they also didn't fix anything.) But they did manage to lose my keys, not think it was really a big deal, take three weeks to get me replacements, and didn't offer any apologies for any of the inconvenience.

Thanks for sharing about Honda of Tempe. I'll be sure to avoid them as well.

 

Don't go to Honda of Tempe! This is where I bought my car and started my initial service before we made the agreement with Showcase. Bad, bad, bad! There is not enough disk space on the S2KI server to hold the list of stupidity that I had to endure with them.

Tom

 

Now an S owner, I brought my Civic to Tempe Honda a month ago...it shorted out on the freeway, basically went into accessory mode, and Tempe Honda was the closest dealer. They did not keep me informed, promised and broke the 'done by time' three times, the car came back FILTHY, and they drove my car 50 miles, which was not necessary to fix the short in my ignition!!! Won't ever be going there again!

 

Wow... and I was thinking that Bell Honda wasn't very good because the service reps didn't "hop to" as soon as I pulled in and the wash job was streaked! Makes them look pretty darn good by comparison. I've had my S in twice and the car has been done when promised both times. Biggest problem was getting a service rep on the phone! I guess I've been spoiled by Bell Acura. When I take my TL in there, I get very fast and personal attention. And the wash after service is always thorough. Bell Acura claims they have an S2000 qualified tech on staff but I'm still a little leary of taking my S there... not sure why, should be pretty much the same!