hi everyone,

just joined the s2000 owner's club and i have to say i'm a happy camper!
this thing is awsome in every single way!

it's a 2004 with 45k miles on it and besides the wheels it's all stock. but that's exactly the problem i'm having with the car.. the wheels. the previous owner put some crappy cheap "chrome" wheels that are now flaking and have to be pouder coated or thrown in the garbage i'm still deciding. but that's not the biggest issue either..apparently the guy put some "bricks" in the suspension i noticed them when i took the car at a mechanic prior to purchasing the car and noticed the things in the springs. the suspension on the back was pretty much done and one strut was leaking badly. i agreed all 4 struts be changed before i would purchase the car and the bricks removed but aparently with the bricks removed the tire would rub badly on the wheel arch so they had to stay.
now it clunks and feels like i have rocks in the suspension i guess because the spring doesn't have enough room to move and i fear it's just a matter of time before the struts go again.

i was told to try and get low profile tires. i'm actually thinking of just going back to the stock wheels which i imagine should be easy enough to find second hand, remove the bricks and problem solved but then i looked at the tire size and it looks like it's stock so i'm not so sure that will fix my issue.

i could just be wrong as i'm completely new to this so please give me a hand in troubleshooting and fixing the issue.


here's my current size on front and rears:

Rear: Fierce 245 40 ZR17 91W
Front: Fierce 215 45 ZR17 91W

by the way is Fierce a good brand?

since i believe this is the stock size why did they needed to leave those bricks in there?
the thread on the tires is pretty good i could probably run on these tires another 8-10 months so don't want to get rid of them if i don't have to (i could just powder coat the wheels it will be cheaper) but at the same time i rather change them then destroy the suspension again.

any sugestions would be appreciated! i believe i'm in the right place for help and advices.

thanks in advance!

Cristian

 

I am going to try to decipher this post. If I understand correctly, the previous owner put low offset wheels on the car. In order to stop the tire from rubbing the fender, he put spacers between the springs to keep the suspension from compressing? That's just plain stupid if that is the case. It sounds like you need a fender roll if you want to keep current wheels. Tire sizes are fine, no issue there.

As you mentioned, I would just get some used OEM AP2 wheels. You can find them used with or without tires for fairly cheap. Also, there are a lot of stock suspensions out there if you wanted to replace that as well.

Hard to believe the stock spring spacers would still be installed on a 2004, but maybe this happened to you: https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/440...spring-spacer/

 

^do this. Throw that crap away and buy some oem suspension and oem wheels. Look to you local forum first and see if you can buy it local.

One thing to mention some of the first ap1's were delivered with the brick thinkingabout you are describing to keep the car from bouncing around to much on the transport. I doubt these are the original ones from when he car was shipped but it may be possible.

 

i don't believe those are the stock spring spacers because they don't look like the ones in the thread you reference mine are inserted horizontally into the springs, kinda like a metal rod.. considering the wheels are cheap metal with chrome on them the guy probably found a cheap solution for the suspension to stop the wheels from rubbing. The suspension i have now is fine so i guess i just need to find some OEM wheels and i'll be all set! i don't like the current wheels anyway so i won't use a fender roll to fix it.

one last question: because the tire size is stock the existing tires should work fine with the OEM wheels right? that way i can get away with just buying the wheels.

thanks for all the help and the fast response you guys are great!

 

i'm going for OEM wheels, the suspension is already stock so i should be fine.

thanks a lot for the help!

 

But if it is leaking and what not it probably needs to be replaced.

 

oh they were leaking but were already replaced by the dealer before i bought the car, all 4 of them.

any ideea of where i can find some original OEM 17" wheels?
i live in Miami FL

i've been looking around but keep finding these replicas that i want to stay away from.

 

A quick scan of Florida classifieds shows a few sets available: https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/forum/194-florida-for-sale/

 

Oh got ya. Then yeah toss the crappy chrome wheels and buy a used set of OEM and you are good to go.