Hi everyone, bought my first S2000 a couple months ago. I've always wanted one of these and now I have one!! It’s an 05 with 113k miles. It’s largely stock and I’m working on a few things that need to be addressed. One of them is the shifting.

The shifter does not need to be pushed down in order to go into reverse. Because of that, when shifting to 5th, it’s easy to overshoot it and go towards reverse. I must be very careful and deliberate when shifting to 5th in order to not miss it.

A search through the forums hasn’t given me a good answer on what’s causing this and how to address it. Any recommendations?

 

Someone may have put the shifter mechanism together backwards or really badly. The reverse spring and lockout may be missing.

....also why is your reverse anywhere near 5th? Reverse is full-right and then move the shifter backwards. Do you mean the shifter moves too far over to the right and you can't get into 5th?

You can inspect the shifter mechanism by taking off the shift knob/center console and then unbolting the shifter mechanism. Be careful not to break any clips (though the previous person may have been careless there too).

Youtube "shifter rebuild" for the procedure

Did someone do a clutch or a shifter rebuild before you bought it?

 

Perhaps I worded it poorly - I meant what you said. The shifter goes too far towards the right and I'm blocked from getting into 5th.

Unfortunately I don't know much about the service history on this S2000. It's bone stock except for aftermarket motor and transmission mounts, which are going to be swapped for OEM.

I've seen LHT's video of the shifter rebuild and was thinking about ordering their kit and tackling that project.

Thanks for the reply!

 

The LHT video is excellent. I've had all the parts for this for a couple of years but have never got around to it.

You can get the parts at any Honda dealer but, perhaps, the kit is a convenience. There are also some aftermarket "JDM" parts for the tip of the shifter that are claimed to be smoother or better lasting.

There's also a foam baffle (or whatever) that goes in that area as sound and heat insulation.

-- Chuck

 

Just motor and transmission mounts were changed out? Not really sure how common that is to just do that, or were a lot of things done to the car and everything else brought back to stock? The car looks beautiful but the bottom of the door panel alignment kind of jumps out at me, just sayin. If all the vins are there probably a non issue.

 

Motor mounts break. All rubber parts on that car are 16 years old. Transmission mounts are cheap and will likely be replaced at the same time as motor mounts. I did that because they were about $80, if I remember correctly. The reason I knew my motor mounts were bad (around 100k) is that I had a mis-shift. From my GoPro, I could see my shifter moving side to side around turns. Put a prybar on it, and sure enough, tons of motion. I state that because I do not think the OP needs to worry about anything odd with his car. Motor mounts go bad with age + use. It is not remotely abnormal to have bad motor mounts in these cars. Most people street driving just won't realize it until they are split in half. Even then, probably not.

I think the door gap is normal. Maybe more than you'd prefer but I think it looks standard. Nice looking car.

 

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I have ordered the shifter rebuild kit from LHT and hopefully this fixes the issue.

I agree that the engine mounts probably just wore out as they tend to do. It seems that one of the previous owners went cheap on replacing the mounts, going with solid ones that have resulted in a lot of vibration and noise in the cabin. This is a street car (for now) so I'm going to opt for the comfort of OEM mounts.

 

Update: I finished the LHT shifter rebuild yesterday. The shifter had been installed backwards and was missing the rubber boot. The issue is now fixed and it shifts perfectly!