xpressive

I did search and did not find a thread which posed this question.

As owners of the Club Racer (CR), do you keep the car(s) maintained at the dealer or do you use an independent or self-maintain the cars? In the past, I have always self-maintained my vehicles and keep receipts and record the maintenance on an excel sheet. Many car enthusiasts do not trust the dealer however when it comes time to purchase a vehicle it seems as though a dealer-maintained vehicle is sought after. What are your thoughts and what do you do?

adrs2k

I do my own maintenance, i keep all receipts, or if I need to, I use SOS.

jca24

Dealer, na na I say! Do it yourself of find a good trusted shop that has worked on these babies before.

FurY

IMO, someone who is after a CR should expect that the owner cares for it deeply and wants only the best, which a lot of times means doing the work yourself or a trusted mechanic, and not handing it to a dealership. I've had times that I've gone to the dealership in my CR to pick up some items and most of them didn't even know that Honda sold the CR or had never seen one... not exactly inspiring to have my car serviced by them if they aren't even familiar with it (even if the CR is more or less the same as a base with a few changes).

Record keeping is the most important to me... you can at least see what has been done to the car and when. If someone has maintained the car themselves, you do have to have some faith/trust in their ability to wrench, a PPI is always advisable to ensure everything checks out. I do all of my work on my CR, if there is something I cannot tackle, I utilize a local NSX shop nearby (Source 1 Automotive), they are very knowledgable being a specialty shop and I don't run the risk of my car being serviced by someone at Honda who spends the majority of their day on Odysseys and Pilots who may or may not be as familiar with the S2000. Just my $0.02

Mocky

I think it depends on the dealership. We have two dealerships that I can trust with my car. Actually one dealership knows a few of us so well that they know we only want one guy working on it. He has probably had 50 of us come through there. In fact, I know of a motor that blew up at the Dragon and the owner had it towed here. (He lives in TN btw).
So, I think it depends on the mechanic and the experience that they have with the car.

Vanishing Point

Seeing as I now live in Tennessee can you post the dealership and the Tech.'s name Mocky? This would be helpful..... just in case.

Chuck S

CR maintenance is identical to all other S2000 maintenance and consists primarily of fluid changes and a periodic valve adjustment. Nothing special. There are photo and video essays in the maintenance sections here on all this. If I can do this, anyone can do this. The Maintenance Minder in the instrument cluster specifies what and when. These are Honda, not fragile Italian cars. The CR model is a rare care, but it's not an exotic.

-- Chuck

Mocky

^ I agree with that. That being said, some people are not willing to do the work or honestly, insecure without someone talking them through it. Ganley Honda used to host tech days and would walk through some of the basic maintenance. Having a tech show you how to do things helped.
Fluids is fine. We can all watch and learn that but a window isn't set properly and needs to be adjusted? I don't know how even though I have the manual. The dealer tech took me in the back and showed me what he was doing. I would have spent hours figuring that out.

It's no Italian exotic like you said, but it's our baby and we want it to be in the best hands possible when it's something we can't do.

Oh, tire mount, balance, and alignment is in the same boat. I have one dealership I'll let them touch my wheels. Same place that walked through alignment. Even made some suggestions on changes which I took.

s2k4life_az

I do my own. I'm fortunate to have SOS nearby and knowledgeable local owners that will lend a hand including a good friend who is a master trained Honda mechanic. Personally, I wouldn't put that much weight on a dealer maintained car after what I've learned from routine maintenance, repair, or replacement projects. I would much rather buy a car from someone who had the passion and knowledge to keep the car running well even if it had a few bugs to work out. Plus the money you save in dealer costs can go towards mods.

s2k4life_az

Agreed. Helms manual, some basic tools, an OBDII scanner, and much can be accomplished. Plus I find the engine compartment of the S to be one of the easiest to access and wrench on.