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UK & Ireland S2000 CommunityDiscussions related to the S2000, its ownership and enthusiasm for it in the UK and Ireland. Including FAQs, and technical questions.
After seeing Brian Marshall's spotless engine bay last week, the time has come to sort mine out. I've bought myself the Autoglym cleaner that Brian recommended and intend to start cleaning as soon as my hosepipe tap has thawed out, with my new Xmas pressure washer
The only problem is the radiator brackets are really rusty and will ruin the look of the engine bay, so I've bought myself some coarse steel wool to try and smarten them up a bit...
Does anyone have any advice on this? Can I remove the brackets (one at a time) to clean them? If I do will the radiator move? Is there an easier way to remove the rust than steel wool? Or should I just get some new brackets from Honda?
The radiator shouldn't fall out - the hoses will hold it in place. Just don't forget to put them back before driving.
Better option than new ones is probably to paint them black - clean up with a wire brush, then something like Smooth Hammerite would be the simple option. For a better finish, use some rust neutraliser, then prime, paint, and clear coat. For cleaning up the easier option is a shot blasting.... but not many people have blasting cabinet's unless they're retoring an old car.
Nigel (biker1) has painted his black. I've not done mine yet, but I do think they look better in black.
Originally posted by neil_s2k
Do you know how the black plastic fastener comes off? Seems to have a criss/cross design
It's not a fastener, it's a post built into the radiator. It locates the radiator into the rubber bush in the bracket. Just undo the bolt holding the bracket, and lift it.
do you live in quite a damp/moist area?....my M3 was parked up near the Thames for a while and although quiet new had similar amounts of rust on brackets like that
neil_s2k well done for having a go at brightening up your engine bay it certainly pays off.
The quality of the Jap nuts and bolts etc is not much good especially the un-treated ones.
If you notice in your engine bay area there are bolts that are silver (un-treated) in colour and bolts that are black (treated-Japanned) You will find that most of the un-treated bolts are the same thread and length as the black Japanned ones, another worth while tip is to replace the un-treated ones with the Japanned ones.
These can be easily got from your local Honda dealer, just count up how many you need and take a sample in and they can order them up, cost is no more than
Originally posted by zero_to60
do you live in quite a damp/moist area?....my M3 was parked up near the Thames for a while and although quiet new had similar amounts of rust on brackets like that
I don't know as I've only had the car for a couple of months. It was a daily driver and I don't think the engine bay had ever been cleaned so I guess it was just road salt.
