Hi all. First post here. I recently bought a 2005 S2000 with about 85k miles. I was looking for a stock AP2 and was lucky enough to find one. Over the last few months I’ve been replacing a number of parts and doing general maintenance. Nothing major but all new rotors, calipers, pads, filters, fluids, etc. The one issue (aside from 6 year old Michelin Pilot Sport AW tires) was that one of the rear shocks didn’t seem to be rebounding correctly and would make some noise over bumps. Committed to keeping the car all stock, I decided to buy all new OEM Honda shocks and had a shop install them. After driving the car for a few hours, I noticed something odd. While the ride is noticeably smoother over bumps, I’m getting unexpected body roll in the rear at high cornering speeds. I can feel the weight shift somewhat abruptly in the rear, making me feel like I was going to lose the rear completely. Having only driven the car previously on shocks that I’m convinced were failing, I’m wondering if what I’m now experiencing is actually normal and just takes some getting used to? I’m cognizant that my tires are crap and are making the whole ride unpredictable. I have new Pilot Sport 4S tires getting installed next week so I’m sure that will at least make the handling more predictable. But any thoughts on the body roll? Have any of you experienced more body roll on new shocks? That seems counterintuitive to me but I’m not a suspension expert and I’m still relatively new to this car. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

Did you check the alignment?

Also during installation, if they took off the rear upper control arms, for whatever reason. If they used a hammer to pull the ball joint from the knuckle, there's a chance they pushed the ball joint out of the upper control arm. Check the boot, torn boots on the upper ball joint is a sure fire indicator someone has been smashing stuff.

 

As above & put your new tyres on and get alignment done.
They will check for broken links ect

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I have new tires going on and I'll follow that up with an alignment shortly after. I'll see where that gets me. In the meantime, I did exchange notes with the shop that did the work and here's what I was told:

One thing I noticed while installing the rear shocks was that the driver's side was much more stiff than the passenger side. When you remove the shocks you have to press down on the control arms to gain clearance to remove the shock. The passenger side was fairly easy going but the driver's side I had to put quite a lot of pressure on it to gain the same amount of clearance to remove the shock. Couple things can have an effect on that like the control arms themselves, when you tighten them down for installing purposes they need to be as level as possible, almost "clocked" into position. If they are not correct it can cause more stress or flex on the control arm bushing. The control arms also have the alignment pins holding them in. Might suggest getting the alignment done to see if that helps the body roll.

So it seems like he did not take the ball joint out of the control arm on either side. But it's slightly odd that he experienced such a difference in control arm tension between the two sides.

 

no need to remove them,just top mount and lower on damper and lever arms down,clock bushing may help if not seized up,then you may have probs adjusting.Had to cut most of mine of with saw =

 

The sway bar makes it hard to push down on the arm. When you push down on one side, the sway bar will resist by lifting the other side. Maybe op has worn sway bar end links?

 

or broken

 

Sounds like something is binding up in that one corner (which will def affect the handling, normal drivability and probably be dangerous to drive)... I'd check all the bushings, bolts, mounting flanges/points, balljoints, arms and links, swaybar end-links, etc.

Everything should be free and not binding.

I'm sure a good alignment shop can easily find it and fix it.

 

Bushings do need to be clocked. Loosened, then tightened with the arms at ride height. So when mechanic realized there was something off with how much resistance there was on arms one side vs other, that was his signal bushings needed to be clocked. Yet he ignored the signs.

I would clock the bushings, and check the swaybar. Most shops aren't going to know what clocking bushings is, as it normally only needs to be done if you change ride height, andmost shops don't even know it needs to be done then.

So getting a shop to do this will not be easy.