I have purchase a 2004 S2K just recently, this car was stored covered in a climate controlled garage kept never been in the rain has 21K miles. The previous owner was meticulous with service. I want to know how deep I should go into servicing where fluids are concerned. I am considering removing and replacing Engine oil and filter, Coolant, Air cleaner, Transmission Fluid, Rear Differential Fluid, Brake and Clutch Fluid. I will inspect the Drive Belt and replace as needed. I will use Honda fluids where necessary. Unable to find any reference to cabin air filter. The car drives as if it were new, I can not find any thing wrong. Any advice would be appreciated ! Any thoughts on turning it over to a dealer? I plan to supervise the work with a mechanic I have had good experience with my other vintage cars. My plan is to keep the car as long as I can get in and out of it. Thanks in advance Chester

 

I purchased mine this last year with almost the exact same mileage as yours. Never stored outside etc. I replaced all the fluids, minus the coolant. I am doing that in a few weeks or whenever we have a lot of rain for days to clean the salt off the roads. I replaced the following.
Engine oil and new Honda filter and crush washer.
Transmission
Diff
Clutch and Brake fluid. It was so dark brown you couldn't see through it.
Also replaced the following.
New Honda engine air filter
New Honda cabin filter
Took the shifter out and replaced the crumbling foam insulator.
Cleaned and greased the shifter ball with the Honda grease. Helped a bit with the smoothness of shifting.
Replaced the accessory belt but probably didn't need to do that.
Didn't touch the plugs as it is so low mileage and they don't go bad like old used engine oil or brake fluid.
Purchased replacement straps for the soft top that help pull it all the way down when in the open position.

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head that I would do.

Update. Forgot the most important thing to change. TIRES! Mine were the factory ones it came with. 20 year old tires are dangerous

 

Did the seller provide any documentation on services that were done to the car? If you didn't receive any information, you should inspect everything and start doing recommended maintenance. This will give you a baseline to reference as you ownership progresses.

Here are a couple of links that should be helpful:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-ta...first-1020648/

https://www.s2000.club

The people here on s2ki.com are an excellent resource. There is a vast pool of experience and knowledge on this site.

Congratulations on the new S and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do mine!

 

Hi Cbaum,
You are off to a great start.
Changing all the fluids is good. That way you know the history of everything.
Use Dot 4 brake fluid for the brakes and clutch. Dot 5 is silicon based and won't mix with what is there now, making a real mess.
Change the brake fluid again and it will come out like honey color, and do it every two years from now on.
If the drive belt is a Honda part it will last almost forever and the aftermarket belts won't last very long.
I would adjust the valves on the loose side.
Since the cabin filter can be anything, you can use Rock Auto.
I would avoid Honda dealers since they don't know these cars, with very few exceptions, and you have a mechanic you trust.
Most of these things are easily done by you, and this would be a good time to start the learning process. That way you know things are done right.
I am probably a lot older than you and I get in and out easily.
Larry

 

Servicing the brakes would probably be a good idea for your cars to make sure everything is good to go. The original pads are probably still fine unless the cars were tracked or driven hard often. I had a rear brake calliper seize up on my first year car with similar mileage, so it was replaced with new pads on that wheel also.

 

Cabin filter, bit of a pain to change. They get dirty quickly. Faster than other cars it seems.


Engine air filter, don't bother. Even if a bit visually dirty, at your miles its still fine.

I would avoid Honda branded fluids. Not especially high quality, and bc buying from dealer, they're likely to sell you wrong stuff. One way to always get correct stuff, buy online Amsoil. Use their fluid lookup selector, which will tell you what fluids you need for any car model.

The oil filter, be sure to torque it down per specs written on filter. This cannot be done by hand. No one that could fit in the car posses that strength. Perhaps none on earth do.

Only the Honda filter has the gasket that allows torquing it, and only the one made specifically for S2000. It'll have numbers 1-8 written on base of filter, and instructions how to use those numbers to torque it (7/8 of a turn after initial gasket contact).

You should either use this filter, or use a filter safety wire kit. Failure to do either risks filter spinning loose, engine fire that destroys car. Many cars have had this fate.

9k rpm requires high oil pressure. VTEC steals a lot of oil flow. So pump has way more pressure and flow than most anything. Combined w vibes at 9k, its prone to forcing filter to spin off. Hence Honda designed special filter.

Be sure dealer sells you correct one. Standard Honda filter fits. Official Honda position is either filter is ok. Not for my S it isn't.

You'll need a filter socket to install, and remove filter.

 

Good info on previous post. Always used Honda fluids in my car and they were the proper ones because as the owner of the dealership I made certain they were. We also had several techs that were very accustomed to working on S2000s, as there were quite a number coming to our shop. The one exception for me was that I used a full synthetic oil of my choosing in my car during my ownership. I expect Amsoil have fine products, but I question if they are necessarily worth the added cost. If mother Honda figured they were good for a S2000, that was good enough for me. I changed these fluids based on time rather than mileage because of low annual miles driven however.

 

Never looked at cabin filter,so easy too !

 

I replaced my cabin air filter and while it wasn't horrible, it definitely needed changed. Also very easy access to it from under the hood. Unlike my 98 M3 where it is such a tight space under the passenger side dash, the filter is designed to bend and crack on the outside plastic so that it can fit in there. At 155k on that filter, it was NASTY!

 

Grab a digital copy of the Service Manual. All the maintenance requirements are toward the front. Note there are only minor model year differences.

While changing the engine oil pull a sample mid drain and send it to Blackstone Labs for an analysis. Results will be either reassuring or terrifying but probably the former. I change the motor oil when they tell me to, modern pure synthetics don't turn bad over time. Hydraulics are different and need changing based on environmental conditions. We haven't had a "What's the best motor oil?" discussion yet this week...

As noted few dealers know these 20 year old cars. I bought my then-37K mile 2006 model from a Honda dealer in 2014 and it had an orange Fram oil filter (shows how much the dealer knew about the engine)! I did a complete fluid change with the correct oil filter to set a zero-base maintenance level. Car has only seen a dealer one other time in my 10+ year ownership and that was to replace the little nylon thingies in the brake and clutch pedal switches as I'm no longer flexible enough to get out from under there any more. If you find these in pieces on the carpet you may not be able to start the car or cruise control won't work.

Tires. Tires. Tires. Yep, can't emphaize that enough. These cars are sensitive to tire pressure. Tire technology has progressed greatly the past 20 years but extreme performance summer tires are what the car deserves. Certainly no less than max performance summer tires. The extremes wear quickly. So what? You're not going to be daily driving this car. And we haven't had a "What's the best tires?" discussion this week either...

Enjoy the car. Beware this car dies not handle like a Civic on slippery roads or with sketchy tires. Oversteer was largely dialed out with the 2004+ cars but it's still there if you don't pay attention.

-- Chuck