Hi all! I am new to this forum and getting ready to purchase my first S2000 -- I am looking at low-mileage stock AP1s. (I daily a '19 MX-5 club, so the S2000 will be a weekend/fun car. I am eager to join the S2000 ranks soon .

The seller of an '02 with ~29k miles sent me these photos of the underside. Carfax says it spent much of its life in PA (and was driven ~1.5k miles/year on average), and the last year in FL. Based on what I've read on other related threads on this forum, the important parts to check for rust are the bolts/washers in the engine bay & the underbody, the control arms, brake lines, and the subframe (though I might be missing some!).

Here's what I observe so far (again, based on previous related threads on this forum), and would be curious to get some additional perspectives on the quality of the underside of the car:

1) little to no rust in the bolts in the engine bay
2) front and rear lower control arms appear to have virtually no rust, perhaps just a little surface rust, but not enough to be a concern.
3) the part of the brake lines that are visible in the photos appear to have virtually no rust.
4) many of the underbody bolts have little to no rust. Some do have rust but not enough to be a concern.
5) the left driveshaft joint (and probably the right one too, would be my guess) appears to be coated in quite a bit of rust. Is this a concern?
6) catalytic converter appears to have surface rust (or is this possibly the lighting of the photo?) Either way, is this a concern?
7) There isn't a good angle of the middle part of the underbody liner (the parts on the left and right side of the car between the front & rear wheels). It could just be the lighting, but I am wondering if there are signs of surface rust there.

Overall, what shape would you say this car's underbody & engine bay is in? I greatly appreciate the help!

 

Overall, I'd say it looks really good.

Point 5) it's a non-issue
point 6) it's the lighting
Point 7) can't say but based on the rest of the pics, I doubt there's any rust

IMO, if there were any significant rust developing you'd see it on the nuts and bolts, which appear to be in REALLY good shape.

The last pic there appears to be some oil/grease residue along the trans/oil pan bottom. You may want a better picture of that. Probably just overspill from changing oil.

And congrats! I'm thinking about picking up an ND2 RF for a daily once leases start getting returned.

 

Looks like my car. A new england car that's been driven in the snow only a handful of times when it was an emergency or something.

I'd say this isn't rust it's mostly surface rust and you can resolve it easily by brushing it off

 

It probably got driven in dry salt in winter or damp salt too early in the spring/too late in the fall. Or maybe stored improperly.

But overall looks pretty good.

You may run into some frozen caster bolts for an alignment or a stubborn subframe bolt if/when doing a clutch.

But overall...pretty clean underneath.

The CV axles are uncoated. So....they rust up pretty quick even if driven in rain - that's normal.


Dirty brake fluid tho! Nothing some maintenance won't fix.

 

A good tell tale sign of a car driven in salty roads is certain uncoated engine bay bolts/vtec solenoid will corrode heavily. The car you listed looks cleaner than my well maintained northeastern car(driven a handful of times in the rain but never in salt/snow).

 

I re-read the OP and saw that I missed the fact that it was in FL for some time.

That explains the surface rust on the VTEC solenoid, diff mounts, and front shock threads.

Them cool cool island breezes, bwoy.

Anyway, this thing is clean enough to buy for sure.

 

There's no "rust" on that car.

 

Thank you so much everyone! This is very helpful. I have made the seller an offer for the car.

 

Good luck, looks like a great find!

 

Thank you!!