I Bought A Honda S2000 For £2000!

Say hello to my new high-mileage Honda S2000. It's certainly ropey, but at £2000, it's also the cheapest S2k in the country! Here's everything wrong with it.

[jdmfreak]

This car deserves nothing less than what Phil got.

[jonathansmith]

PLEASE do a full rebuild series on this S2000 🙏🏻 Tailor I’m sure can lend a hand…

[rockervdrive]

9:19 as a former S2000 owner, I knew EXACTLY what that sound was. My timing chain tensioner started making that noise around 80k miles. At the time, there were a few nice upgraded tensioners available. Easy fix. I miss that car so much.

[MUVMNT]

Have owned my '00 S2000 for over 14 years, 417, 000km on the clock and still going strong. Yes, it took a lot of looking after and regular oil changes, but it is such a beautiful car to drive. Wish you the best of luck restoring this one. All very manageable. Its actually not too bad. I've been through it all!

[VirtualGuth]

Here in the States it would be impossible to find a running S2000 for anywhere near that price. Apparently your market for these cars is lagging far behind ours. This has worked out to your advantage despite all of the work that lies ahead of you. The mileage wouldn't concern me though the rust would (I'll be interested to see how this plays out). Issues with the OEM timing chain tensioner are not at all surprising. Congratulations and good luck!

[Pianou]

Glad to see you have finally bought one of these and put your views aside. I have one myself and have just spent a fair bit on rust repairs as well. Based off what mine looked like underneath, definitely looks like you need new sills and arches, and also probably a new rear subframe. I had mine steam cleaned and that revealed it to be much worse than it initially looked. That noise from the engine is almost definitely the chain tensioner gone (a common issue with them), don't get a new OEM one as they suck. Get an aftermarket one like a ballade sport or similar which last much longer (please do your own research though). good luck!!

[FanatikBuilds]

I’d say you’ve done very well! Here in Ontario 🇨🇦 most S2000s are going for $20k-$50k depending on condition. Hope to see this one cleaned up properly ✌️

[AdamH]

Happy to see you changed your mind on the s2000. I’ve owned one for 2 years now and it’s one of my favourite cars that I’ve owned/driven. I always wondered if you drove a lemon all those years ago 😂.

You could sell the oem cat for 700 quid easy and you’ve got a £1300 s2000 right there 😮.

[valveBravoSpoonz]

finally! somebody has said you only need to polish up those headlights and not have to replace them with brand new genuine ones.
he seemed quite honest and didn't come across like you have to replace this and that because it looks "OLD".

[GentilsGarage]

What a find for that price. Years ago I bought a BMW 320i for £320 but it’s nowhere near as special as the iconic S2000. Looking forward to more on this one

[alexjfinch]

I'm SO glad you've had your head turned - I've owned a S2k for a couple of years and its a treat to drive in the summer when I get it out. I was gutted a few years ago when you decided you didn't like them and they were over hyped.

Timing chain is super easy on Honda engines in general, the front is easy to strip down and I believe there are marks on the sprockets to line up with the chain to do the timing (K20 there are colour links and coloured links, but these are slightly different) - so no funky timing tools!

I'd recommend getting on the forums and getting hold of a Billman TCT - they're reworked Honda TCTs but with added features to extend their lives. Original Honda ones do sometimes fail unexpectedly.

Also whilst you're at it, do the "AP2" retainer work - its undocumented here in the UK whether our engines suffer from retainer cracks like the US AP1 models (AP2 never came to the UK, we all have AP1s), but if you're stripping everything down and doing clearances, you might as well go for the full hog and swap them out. LHT Performance in the US are good to follow and I think Tegiwa stock the retainers.

Enjoy your new toy!

[rolandotillit]

The pipe sticking out of the exhaust after the catalytic converter is a quarter wave tube that is actually there to remove drone.

[si_h]

alex, i love a honda, i had a fn2 type r, those vtec engines are outstanding engines, i would love to see how this vehicle comes along with you and the gang fixing it up, will deffo be looking forward to more vids on this!

[paulworthington]

Can't wait to watch the restoration on this 👍🏻

[sdlausen]

That noise is just the timing chain tensioner. It's a 15-30 minute replacement. You don't need to change the timing chain!

[aye]

Nice purchase, mate. I hope you take us along with you on your Honda S2000 re-build. This is going to be a good one!

[pranavdubey]

honeslty I think you stole a beautiful example for the price

[coolhand]

Nice purchase! Love an S2000, timeless car.

[fullyrc]

I loved mine! I’ve had 2, I actually managed to blow my first one up and I mean blow it up, blew a hole in the block both sides, could literally look through the engine, it took out the starter motor and engine mount too! I later found out that the early ones (ap1) models had weak valve retainers, and they can crack and break up after lots of miles and high reving, resulting in dropping a valve at high rpm. I think that’s what happened to my first one as I was racing at the time, so I replaced them on my second s2k. Not a bad job to do just a little scetchy as the valve and drop into the cylinder while replacing them lol! Done lots to my second one, all the bushes etc etc, she was a track weapon! Excited to see what you do with this on!

[NewtonInDaHouseYo]

7:28 ... looks more like a Helmholtz resonator to me to eliminate some resonance in the exhaust system.