Bassoctopus

This was brought up recently on The Boy Wonder's thread and there was some very knowledgeable posting (as usual) by Turtle and Biker1. I checked these views out with my service manager today and he was of the same opinion.

Biker1 explains this far better than I can...
[QUOTE]I think as time goes on there will be many S2000 owners forking out a lot of money on this "suspension arm bolt work" when they go and get alignment work done and find the garage cannot achieve the settings because the bolts are corroded.
For those that don

euan

Its a design/manufacturing deficiency to have this happen on 3 year old cars, and it must be near the top of the list for pushing Honda UK on.


(This is one of the expensive hassles, not covered under warranty, which I wish to avoid by buying a new car before mine is over 3 years old - not every owner is lucky enough to be able to do that though )

Bassoctopus

TBH If I was buying a brand new S2000 now (which I may well do in 12 months or so) I would be asking for the bolts to be greased as part of the PDI. If they refuse I'll go and buy it elsewhere.

Pickers

Given the size of the potential bill, I think this is a worthy cause for the Owners Club to take up. As someone who confines all my car maintenance to those things I can do stood up, I shall be ringing my dealer to find out how much they'll charge to grease me up - perhaps Honda would agree to a special low rate for what is in effect, a design fault?

Bassoctopus

Added to Tech FAQ in Known Problems section

mikerich

This is getting alarming as my car ages - 3 on Dec 21st.
But knowing SFA - have 2 questions.

I had my geometry done for the first time during the 2-year service. I had thought with the low mileage (~6-7k/a) I do this was probably sufficient. The service guy said that I should have it done every year regardless.

Now question 1 is - if these nuts and bolts and bushes are twiddled every year - do they get a chance to corrode and solidify?

Question 2 - given that this looks a lengthy procedure - how much is your average dealer likely to charge to grease them up?

Turtle

Actually, its likely to be common on a lot of cars well before 3 years, but may not be detected until after 3 years.

I doubt Honda will do anything either. The top wishbones use splined bolts which stops them seizing - the same approach can't be used in higher load areas though. It's not an new problem either. I was helping out with some work on a Mk3 CRX last week - they use the same splined bolts for the upper wishbone.

It's simply a cost thing. It'd cost Honda to grease the bolts as they fit them. Much cheaper to use splined bolts where they can and don't grease at all. Sure, they'll rot and seize up, but generally after the warranty period...

-Brian.

Bassoctopus

Thanks Brian, original post changed to read

sammyc

Bbuuuuutttt, seeing as they were meant to remove the spring spacers during the PDI and didn't could you rely on this method for the greasing of your joints??

Bassoctopus

Good point