The shifter in my S2k is feeling a little sloppy. It's an '03 with 60k miles on it, so I guess that's to be expected. What parts should I replace to get it back to it's factory goodness? I'm assuming the cap that's at the bottom of the shift lever, but what about the plastic housing that it sits in? Could that be getting worn as well? Here's a pic for reference. I'd definitely get some grease and shin etsu per the shifter greasing DIY.

 

No need to replace them unless they are cracked. Regrease it, make sure the spring is still in there and installed correctly and put it back in and bolt up.

 

When I took mine apart, I discovered that the foam insulation piece that sits around the shifter base was disintegrated. I replaced it for a few bucks from Honda and could tell a drop in noise and heat coming through this area. Also, my big plastic housing piece was cracked, so I replaced that. Pack that B full of high temp urea grease and let er rip!

 

This poster may have had a few of these apart in his day . Good advice here. Make sure you use High Temp Urea grease. if you need a short shifter in the future Moddiction sells a great one!

Utah

 

I've done the shifter regrease twice. The first time I just regreased it and noticed a small improvement. The second time I bought both plastic pieces (they're cheap!) and installed them along with the regrease. This made a big improvement in shifting. I highly recommend replacing the plastic parts.

Mine had about 1mm of vertical play in neutral. Wiggle it side to side and then pull up on it. Now that play is gone and the shifting is much more direct. It's surprising how much of a difference it made, because I didn't think the shifter seemed that bad before.

 

Thanks, even if it doesn't make a difference, if they are cheap I'm not going to worry about it too much. I think it will though. I remember my last S2000's shifter being a lot more precise.

 

I've wanted to do this, have the parts, but the previous owner removed the lock nut and just torqued down the shift knob...i've got a bit of a job ahead of me now...i hope he didn't use epoxy on the oem shift knob.

later
darcy

 

Warm-up the plastic parts before installing.
When I replaced them I put them in a thin plastic bag and submerged them in boiling water for a while.
This will reduce the chance the new parts will crack, especially the small cap.
I put them in a bag to keep them dry.

Did the OP clean the shifter?
I mean, if it was this clean (= without grease) it is very possible the plasic parts have some play.

I would no use any solid components grease, like molycote here.
The solid additives tend to dry out and make it worse.