New to the forum. Last year I finally found my S2000 a 2003 with 11,900 miles. I am about to purchase a new set of tires for the car, however I have been told that I should keep the original Bridgestone Potenza SO-2 tires as they appear to be the tires that came with the car as delivered. The tires are date coded week 44 in 2002. Although the tires still have considerable tread left, I am a little concerned about driving the car with tires that are over 15 years old. I am leaning toward keeping the tires but I would value other
opinions.

Sincerely

 

Replace the tires.

You can't replace yourself or anyone else if/when those tires fail.

 

Those tires are done. You need to get new tires. Consider getting an alignment at the same time.

 

Great find, as others said; replace those tires. Enjoy the summer.
Levi

 

Great find!

The tires were scrap circa 2007 just thru oxidation. New tires are called for.

While I doubt your car (or mine) will ever become so so collectible the original tires will be a factor it may be there in 50 years. If you're concerned about the tires what about the original wheels? Surely perfect wheels are important too. A quick solution to preserving both is a set of 17" OEM wheels and modern tires. The car will still look stock and have the improved handling provided by wider, stiffer sidewall tires.

-- Chuck

 

I did get new tires. People told me I should keep and store the old tires since they were original to the car.

 

Welcome to the forum! What tires did you end up getting? I didn't think they made S-02s anymore. Tires have evolved and I believe the current equivalent to the old S-02s is now S-04s. Not sure if they make them in AP1 sizes though.

 

Thanks I now have BF Goodrich G-Force Comp 2 A/S tires on the car.

 

Here we go again!
I followed this conventional wisdom two years ago when I was in the exact same situation as the OP. My MY02 ap1 had 8.5K miles. It came with a set of 15 year old S02 original tires on original ap1 wheels. I had to get new tires. Instead of just buying new tires, I was persuaded to "upgrade" to 17 inch ap2 wheels and tires. The short version is that I am now back to 16 inch wheels and modern tires for the 16 inch wheels. I definitely prefer this set up over the 17" set up for my street driving. Modern 16 inch tires have all the stiffness and grip you will ever need for great performance if you are driving on the street in a sane manner. Plus, the car is more lively and more enjoyable to drive with this set up in my opinion. Also, in my opinion, wider and beefier than oem tires (16 or 17), - especially in the front, - tends to take the life out of the car on the street.

The notion of saving the original tires is not something I would bother with. First, you can still buy the original tires. Second, if you are going to drive your car you are going to put miles on it. It is not a show car and its value will not be higher if you have the original tires. Maybe if you had a total time capsule with a few hundred miles and your plan was to store it for 25 years and flip it. Otherwise, no.

If I had this to do again, I would have bought a new set of tires for the OEM rims and driven the car like that for a season or two until I had a good feel for the car. Sounds like that is what the OP has done. Good decision. I have those same A/S tires on my original rims now. I like them. They do not give up much to the max performance tires. I use them to store the car and I use them in the early and late weeks of the season here in Vermont. Good choice.

 

Thanks for the input, I intend to keep the car original that includes keeping the original 16 inch wheels. I just wondered whether it was worth keeping the original tires considering the amount of space they take in my garage.