A lot of the clips and bolts are not treated on the S2000.

If it's been used as a motorway hack through the winter (as mine had been) and the mileage suggests that might have been the case, it will not be uncommon to find rust on certain parts.

These were my Rad mounts when I bought the car at 3.5 years old.

Before



After painting...



Only thing I would say is that you need to get your suspension bushes checked (and greased) before buying. Mine had started seizing after 4 years and by this time next month I will have changed 4 arms.

 

As others have said the red paint flaking is a bit of a worry, I've not seen that on any other S, could be over heating.
Don't panic on the chalk marks two of mine have had that, factory marks I'd guess.
The rust thing worries me. Not even early cars rust there!
Temp gauge is normal for the +3 revsion cars.

IMHO walk away and look for a better example!

 

Markings on the engine in either chalk or paint can also mean that engine has come from a breakers.

 

Again, my car had this at 3.5 years and 60k miles

Now at 93k miles and 8 years without any problems (except suspensio arms)





I wouldn't worry about it. Chalk markings are odd though.

 

Redun - good point on the breakers!
Bass - fair point but not common

 

Mot testers are the only people I see using chalk on cars....
Or perhaps the engine has been out?

Leave it alone, far too much choice to take chances.

 

Thanks for all the replies folks, I reckon I'm going to hang on and try and find one with no (or at least fewer) potential issues.

The red paint wasn't just a small flake missing as in Bassoctopus's pic, it was a discoloured patch (darker) right in the centre maybe slightly smaller than a credit card. It had the same rusty rad mount as pictured and also a bigger more worrying patch down by the airbox housing.

Ah well, the hunt continues!

 

Once the red paint starts to flake, it is easy to flake more off.

The ATRs suffer from this too. I think all Hondas with red finish do to some extent

 

There are plenty of cars for sale on here, Jack...

 

i've just spent the winter swapping the non treated honda bolts for stainless ones

http://www.a2stainless.co.uk/ is the cheapest i could find