Hello all

Proud first time owner of an '08 AP2, picked her up 2 weeks ago.

52K, Chicane & Black

I'm an old Toyota man and am completely new to the S2K community

Former MR2 owner of 19 years (4 cars - 85 NA / 91 NA / 91 Turbo / 92 Turbo)

Sold my last MR2 11 years ago to start a family and I've been cruising a Honda Odyssey for over a decade now.

It's literally been that long since I've shifted gears and let me tell ya, it's felt SO good to be back and I'm absolutely loving this car.

If somebody could point me in the general direction for tire selection and a few good beginner or New Owner Stickies I'd sure appreciate it.

 

The standard recommendation is to set a zero base for normal maintenance Which includes changing/replacing ALL the fluids according to the specifications. The 2008, like my 2006, does not have a maintenance schedule (!) it has the Maintenance Minder on the instrument panel which will signal when to to what. Download the 2005 Owners Manual which predates the Maintenance Minder and has the schedule. This is also available in the Service Manual <--- click me. Many items like brake/clutch fluid and coolant are time, not mileage specific your car is probably well past due for these changes. The specific S2000 oil filter is an article of faith here -- use one, not the oil filter some dealers will tell you "all Hondas use this filter."

The DBW cars are known to run lean -- some excessively lean which can burn the exhaust valves -- so a valve adjustment is highly recommended. Tutorials are in the library here. Simple albeit back breaking Saturday morning.

Differential oil spec should be noted in your owner's manual. Engine oil is 10W-30 -- there are probably hundreds of pages of "best oil" posts. Honda Manual Transmission oil is standard -- recommendations for this also abound.

"Best engine oil" and "best tires" are prime subjects here and there's no definite answer -- if only Amsoil made tires it'd be so simple (for some folks). Car is a sports car but doesn't really need TW200 Extreme Performance Summer tires but likes them a lot! But they also scatter every piece of gravel they can find all over the bottom edges of the car and are skittish in the rain. Max Performance Summer tires have been good enough for me the past few years after a couple sets of Extremes. Car likes matched tires -- same brand and tread pattern on all 4 wheels. Depending on how old your tires are they can wait until all the maintenance is up to date.

The car really doesn't take much maintenance and what it does is DIY for the most part. And is part of the ownership experience (for me anyway).

-- Chuck