I have 12,171 miles on my S. After the Ohio Buckeye VIntage meet Adam and I decided that it might be a good idea to replace my rear tires. I think I could have pushed them another 1,000 miles, but they don't feel as grippy as they used to and they are pretty well worn.

Earlier in the week I ordered a pair of rear S02s from TireRack. They arrived today.


I am reluctant to let anyone touch my S (except me and Adam), so I called my Honda dealer and asked if I brought the wheels and tires to them on Saturday morning would they mount them while I wait. They said they'd do it, but I'd have to leave everything with them. If I got them there on Saturday morning at 8:00 I could pick them up at noon. That sounded reasonable to me and as long as I have the car on stands, I decided that I will change the diff, tranny and engine oil too.

So, the first thing I did was to drive (in my garage) onto my homemade ramps so that I could get the floor jack under the car to put it on stands.


With the front on stands, I jacked up the back.

Put it on stands and took off the wheels.

I marked the wheels so that I could put them back on the same side.

And, in fact, I really was near the end of the tire's life.

Anyway, the tires are loaded in my 4Runner for the trip to the dealer tomorrow morning.

I'm going to get the transmission fluid, differential fluid, and 4 washers at the dealer (I already have an oil filter and Mobil 1). I have to go to Sears to get a 23mm combination wrench and a 24mm socket. After that Adam and I will take on the project.

More tomorrow as we progress.

 

I had new S02's put on in April, about 10k miles, really improved the ride. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

Wow, I can't believe you are changing the tires already, those bad boys are just starting to look good. I don't change mine till they are almost completely out of tread, and the last couples thousand miles are some of the most fun.

Do not rely on your markings on the wheel to remount the tires back on the car!!! If the dealer mounts the new right tire on the old left wheel and you follow your markings you will have the directional S-02s going in the wrong direction, and that would be scary as hell in the rain. The only thing you should pay attention to is the markings on the sidewall of the tire that say what the direction of rotation should be.

 

I agree. This morning at Honda I told the service people that I expected the tires put on in such a way that I could put the wheels back on the same side, but, I know that I might be expecting too much. I am going to follow the rotation marks on the tires.

 

We got up bright and early this morning in order to take the tires to Honda. We dropped the tires and wheels off and made a point of telling the service rep to make sure that they were mounted with the right rotation. While there, we stopped at the parts counter and got Honda Manual Transmission fluid and the washers (I had a 10% off coupon so I bought a few extra oil filters at the same time).

Next stop was "Mother's Speed Shop" for a quart of Amsol Synthetic 75W-90 GL5 gear oil for the differential.

We went home and drained the diff, the transmission and the engine oil. After about an hour, we put the plugs back in and refilled them with the proper fluids. That took about an hour and a half.

We went back to Honda after lunch and picked up our tires. They were properly mounted so we thanked the service people, paid and left.

The final step, of course, was to put the newly mounted tires back on the car. We did and torqued the lug nuts.

Adam is torquing the lug nuts.

We lowered the car and took a test drive. The car felt great. The new tires feel like, well, new S02s. They grip the way I remember my originals gripping 12,000 miles ago. The car is running really well.

I posted this for three reasons. First, it is sort of a celebration in that owning my S has allowed me to rediscover how much I enjoy tinkering with the car. I haven't had this much fun working on a car since my MG-TD.

Second, now I have a helper, and part of the fun of all of this is working together with my helper. I like sharing this whole sportscar thing with him.

Finally, I wanted to show everyone just how easy all of this is to do. You can maintian your S and have fun and satisfaction at the same time.

 

Good job Rob Nothing like doing it yourself

 

I have been going through "mental gymnastics" for the last few weeks about what to do about my tire situation as I had been getting conflicting reports from several different tire dealers about S02's. Some of them were telling me that they have been discontinued and are no longer available. Tire Rack was showing them as back ordered, etc.

My concern was if I replaced the rears now with S-02's that when I need fronts and if they were no longer available that I would then have to buy four S-03's to keep them matched even though at that point the rear S-02's would have still been good.

I have now been told that S-02's have been discontinued in every other size but the the OEM size for the S2000. Bridgestone will continue to manufacturer the OEM size tire only for the S.

 

Rob,

On scrolling back through your post I noticed that you jacked the rear end up by placing the jack under the differential? Anyone have any thoughts on that? Supporting the weight on an aluminum housing?

If it is not a problem, It would be good to know as one of the tricky things that I have done was to jack up my entire car to change the tranny lube. It got a little weird going from one side to the other, when the jack stands started leaning a bit.

 

Matt,

Yup, the rear diff is a central jack lift point for the rear. There is a central front lift-point as well, and it's actually pretty obvious when you're under there.

Rob,

Nice work there. I need to do my tranny soon. Smart move on your part to do the tranny and diff. Did you clean the drain plug of magnetic goop on the diff? FYI, a bunch of us up here are using the LE607 diff oil. I'm sure the Amasol will be fine.

 

Matt

A while back, in one of his technical posts, xviper said that the diff was the central jack point for the rear. Once you get under the car and look at the housing you get a better idea of why this is so. By the way, I went to Home Depot and got a few carpet samples (5"x 7" cuts) I put one on the jack and one each on the jack stands to prevent them from scratching and dinging the car.

As for the tires, according to everything I've read, the rears wear in about 1/2 the time of the front, so the next change should be all 4. Unfortunately, you were right about the price increase. The S02s have gone up in price, but they are still available.

Chaz

I am sure the Amasol will be just fine. It is 75W-90 weight and carries the GL5 designation. I was delighted that it was synthetic.

I put the car on stands because I had to take both wheels to Honda for the tires. I felt that as long as the car was in the air, I'd do the work. If I only have to change the diff and tranny fluid next time, and not the tires, I won't put the car on stands, I'll leave the wheels on and use my homemade ramps. All I need is about 3 to 4 inches of height.

I did clean off the magnetic drain plug. I was surprised to find as much on it as I did.

I read x-vipers directions and the only places where I disagreed was in putting the new fluids in. I found it impossible to do without a pump. Of course, he jacked up one side of the car for the tranny, and I didn't.

If you do this you will need a 23mm combination wrench, a 24mm socket and a 3/8 square drive (for the transmission drain bolt, a ratchet wrench is perfect). It would have been very difficult to do without. I didn't find any "metal adhesion" at all. A sharp rap with my hand to the wrench was all I needed to loosen the bolts