Hey, I've been looking for an s2000 for a bit now and have pretty much realized that I will be looking at cars with at least 50,000 miles. That is fine to me, especially with service records. My question is: at what point do these cars start falling apart?

I know Honda has a great reputation for long term reliability, over 100,000 miles easily. Does this hold true for such a strung out, high performance engine and chassis such as the s2000? Would an s2000 with over 75,000mi be a tired car and much more prone to problems?

I see that Honda's maintenance intervals are only drawn out to about 105k miles, which is a bit odd, but probably not that uncommon, but it does make me wonder what the intended service life is for an engine like the F20c.

Who here has lots of miles? How does the car run as compared to new? What are the compression and leakdown tests like? And most of all, at what mileage would you start to shy away from a used s2000?

Just for the record, I do all my own maintenance and can do major maintenance, but one of the reasons I'm looking at an s2000 is because of the reliability factor.

 

More and more owners hitting the 100k+miles now a days... I think in terms of reliability, if the maintenance and TSB's have been done it should last you a long time.

You should however be able to find a well maintenanced S with a little less miles <50 for a good price.

Tim

 

If you can factor the price of a new(JDM used) motor swap in to the car purchase, you have nothing to worry about...

 

Certainly can find the cars at a good price with under 50k miles, but whether that good price is in my range or not...

Thanks for the input. I know that there has to be a good portion of members here that drive their cars constantly and should be able to give at least a decent overview as to the true long-term reliability of the car.

Are there any maintenance items (clutch replacement probably, timing belt, etc etc) that are necessary to have done around or before the 100k mark? Basically, what should I look for in terms of long term maintenance on a high mileage car?

 

Plenty of miles here. 107k to be exact.

Car runs like a champ (knock on wood), and pulls just as well as the day I got it. Besides regular maintenance, the car is a rock and I take it into VTEC every day. I have minor (typical) oil consumption of about .5-1 qt per service interval, depending on how hard I drive it.

Brakes went til 75k and I opted to change them with meat still on the pads because I added slotted rotors.

Clutch went til 84k with 1 lifetime clutch dump and no auto-x or track days. I do however drive the mountains and canyons a bit.

Basically, the car is one tough little customer.

Best of luck in your (used) purchase. Talk to the original owner if possible for maint/service history and have the motor compression tested at least. BTW there is no timing belt on this car, it is a chain. And the valves get a scheduled adjustment at 105k per the manual, while some choose to do them earlier.

I Luv My S!!!!!
Hockey

 

Hockey: Congrats on such high mileage trouble-free car. Let's hope it stays that way too!
One question: (don't mean to hijack thread) IF you switched to synthethic oil,
At what mileage and what kind of oil do you use?
Thanks

 

Mmmm sythetic. I'd like to know too. I'd assume most owners switch after the break-in period, right?

 

Thank you. I didn't switch to synthetic until pretty late in the game (60k). Mostly because I didn't know any better. I never burned Dino oil, but I do burn a little Synth and always have. Oil consumption has not gotten any worse over time.

General consensus is to switch anytime after 10k miles.

 

Hockey: I am at 15,000 miles now and because of stories of INCREASED oil consumption when switching to synthethic, and also because of a Honda bulletin years ago that warned about switching to synthethic too early (before 7,500 miles if memory serves) I have stayed with dino, but the oil consumption in mine seems to be decreasing and clearly related to VTEC time (Less VTEC=Less oil consumption) so I think I'm switching soon.
What brand of oil do you use?
Thanks

 

Mobil 1 10w30.

Readily available and priced well.

...and yes more VTEC = more oil consumption.