My stock air filter was quite dirty so I replaced it with the K&N filter. It was about twice as much as the OEM filter, but since it can be cleaned/re-oiled, has a lifetime warranty. There’s no noticeable difference in the sound and while it does feel a bit zippier, I think that’s mostly due to a new clean filter than any real differences between the two filters.
About 6 months ago, I noticed some dark brown oil that was leaking towards the rear of the car. Afraid that it was differential oil, i took a peak and noticed it was coming from the driver’s side rear differential mount. These oil-filled mounts have a tendency to crack and replacing them is pretty straight forward. It seems that the driver’s side is the one that cracks most often so I only replaced my broken one. In doing the replacement however, you need to remove both mounts so you might want to replace both if one is leaking.
Here is the cracked/leaking (actually since dried up… i drove on it broken for quite a while and honestly didn’t notice a difference)
Things you’ll need:
The design of this part of the car is pretty poor. If it was more thought-out, replacing this mount would be just a matter of unbolting and replacing. Unfortunately there are 3 things in the way of doing this, the exhaust, the sway bar and the lower part of the trunk. What we need to do is drop the exhaust (no need to remove, just unhook from the rubber hangers to lower enough), unbolt (again not remove) the sway bar to get it out of the way, and then lower the differential enough for the mount to clear the trunk bottom.
Step 1: Lower the exhaust
(I removed the two rear wheels for better access but I’m not sure if that was necessary or not, your call). Remove the two hangers that support each (left and right) exhaust cans. Use some wd-40 or liquid wrench to make this an easier process. I put a jack at the back of the exhaust can to gently raise it enough to make this simple. Once all 4 rubber hangers are removed, the exhaust will drop down about 3-4 inches (enough to give us the space we need.
Step 2: Lower the sway bar
The sway bar is also in the way of the mount, so now that the exhaust is out of the way, it’s easy to remove the 4 (2 on each side) bolts that are holding the bushings to the sub frame. Once these 4 bolts are removed, you can swing the sway bar either up or down to be out of your way.
Step 3: Unbolt both mounts
We need to unbolt the left and right mount because we need to lower the differential enough to get the mount off. At this point make sure to support the differential with a jack because we’re going to slowly lower it to pull our mount off and then we’ll need to raise it again to get it bolted back up.
Step 4: Replace Mount, Reattach Sway Bar and Exhaust
Remove the 19mm center bolt first and then the 4-14mm bolts second. Do this for both sides.
Once unbolted, you’ll notice that you can’t just slide the mount off, it’s still hitting the trunk space. With both L/R mounts unbolted, slide them forward so they’re out of the bracket, and slowly lower the differential until there’s enough clearance to slip the mount off and replace it with the new one. the left (driver’s side) mount is P/N: 50740-S2A-023.
With the new mount on, rebolt everything in the reverse order of removal. The 14mm bolts for the mount go on at 33 ft/lbs and then the 19mm bolt at 47 ft/lbs. The 14mm bolts for the sway bar bushings go on at 40ft/lbs.
Clean up, admire your work and go have a sandwich.
The s2000′s license plate light is a boring yellowish light that takes away from the astuteness of the car’s led taillights and HID headlights. Ever since I got the car I wanted to change the license plate light, although the few times I looked at it, it seemed inaccessible.
So this weekend I decided to figure it out and it turns out that it’s pretty simple. There aren’t any screws or bolts (which I had been looking for and that’s why I had been confused), the clear housing simply pops out and is held in by pressure tabs on the side. Using a knife, or some other flat object, you can just pry it out.
Once the cover is removed, you’ll see that there’s a single 194 light bulb.
This light bulb just pulls straight out and can be replaced with the light of your choice. I went with an LED hyperwhite light that I found on ebay for about $8 shipped (pair of two). Pop the new bulb in, just press the clear housing until it snaps, and voilà, no more dingy yellow light.
I absolutely love how well the Modifry Glove Box Shelf organizes that compartment and actually makes it useful. Before I was only able to stack so much junk before it would all just avalanche out when I opened the door. Now I can neatly store lots of different things and easily access them.
The problem I was having though, is that since the shelves were only press-fit, if I ever put something inside that fit too tightly, pulling it out would bring the shelves down. I easily remedied this by using 5-minute epoxy glue, and gluing the shelves together and lightly gluing the shelf assembly to the back of the glove box so that it would all stay together and in place.
The organizer is the third product i’ve purchased from Modifry, and like the other two, are quality products. The fitment of the organizer was perfect, and the installation was stupid easy. I don’t know what Honda was thinking with the original design of the middle glove box, because you can only stack so many things on top before they all collapse down when you open the door. Anyway, the organizer is a great product. $20 from modifry.com.
I installed the PanaVise bracket designed for the s2000 that bolts into the same holes that hold the stereo. The TomTom One GPS comes with a mounting bracket that has holes that perfectly line up with the pre-drilled holes in the PanaVise bracket, and the resulting install is beautiful. The GPS is in perfect reach to make adjustments to your route while driving, and the unit can easily be removed and taken out of the car when not in use.
I really don’t know why they switched from the all aluminum shift knob in the AP1′s to the leather-stitched model in the AP2′s, but i definitely preferred the original one. My buddy bought me the RSX-S hop-up shift knob, which is the same shape as the AP2 leather-stitched model, but all aluminum.
The knew knob gives me a feeling like I’m more directly connected to the transmission and the whole car. The RSX-S knob is about half the weight of the AP2 knob, but I’ve noticed no less precise shifts. The brushed aluminum finish also matches very well with the AP2 brushed aluminum radio door.
