u/keddyr

It’s not super bad but within the last few hundred miles the clutch started to feel sticky on release at the very bottom (clutched in all the way). Car has about 50k miles

Clutch fluid is less than a year old, and so is transmission fluid (doubt it matters)

Any ideas?

I’ve been so blown away by the effects of alignments on this car, even at low speeds. On feel, handling, balance. I wanted to start a thread just to see what people’s favorite alignments are for different settings and share what I’ve learned a little bit.

For context: I have a 2004 AP2 S2000 and I've had it for the past year. I've put about 9,000 miles on the car, and I switched from OEM suspension to Ohlins about 6,000 miles in.

1. When I got the car, it had about -0.5° of camber up front and -1.5° in the rear. OEM toe / caster specs.

• I found this setup to be fairly understeery. There were definitely moments where I could get the rear to come out but it was more when I was really pushing it. Most of the time it would understeer on corner entry and then convert into oversteer on exit.
• After autocrossing once at the unlimited laps event in Sonoma, I found that the car was pushing far too much for me to really enjoy it. The only time I was really able to get the tail out was once the tires got greasy and I was able to power oversteer

2. My second alignment, I just added a little bit of front camber. I went to -1.3° front camber and -1.8° in the rear. Everything else stayed the same, more or less. This was mainly to have some more fun at autocross.

• Immediately some backroad corners where the car would push now turned into oversteer on exit with the same driver input with no understeer. Harder to push for sure, but still possible.
• Autocross became significantly more enjoyable where I was able to induce oversteer on basically every exit very naturally.

3. I had Ohlins DFVs installed (10k front / 8k rear). I took the opportunity to try something a bit more tailhappy as the DFV spring rates are a bit more understeer biased than OEM. Tried out -2° all around, with 0.06° rear toe in. 0 toe up front, 6 degrees caster.

• To my surprise this is when I started to notice a decrease in on-center steering feel especially on the highway. This was kind of sad for me because I actually think the S2000 has a pretty decent EPAS rack where there's very little slop on center.
• This was a great alignment though. It could still push if you really came in hot but generally I found that if there were corners I took too hot, the rear would kick out, probably mid-corner or on corner exit, rather than it pushing on entry. Definitely not the safest setup I've had but really fun. Felt a bit more like the driver could choose understeer or oversteer.
• Autocross is a dream.

4. I messed with my coilovers setup a little bit, adjusted right height and whatnot, and decided to try out an even more aggressive alignment just to see what it feels like (this was today). I don't have a square setup so I wanted to see if I could get the car to feel a little bit like it was on rails in the front. I tried adding 0.4 degrees of negative camber to the front, putting me at -2.4° in front and -2° in the rear, with zero toe up front and -0.06 degrees per side in the rear.

• I am shook with how much of a difference this made. Within 2 minutes I could tell: my steering is even more numb on highways - especially on center, but once you get to start putting weight on the front tire into corners, the steering load up is the best I've ever felt in a corner. Pretty bad on highway though.
• This car now basically feels like I have the grip of God up front and my rear is just sitting in the air, ready to kick out whenever I want. It's kind of crazy. I haven't spent too much time with it yet but I'm kind of stuck on whether I like this or the previous.
• Can’t wait to try this at autocross

The main reason I wrote this is because I found going through the forums and scouring every person's alignment in 20 different settings very overwhelming when figuring out what kind of alignment I wanted. I figured this could be a nice starting point for someone a little bit newer to the platform.

This has been a big reminder to myself that you have to take what you read about people's experience on steering feel and weighting and things like that with a grain of salt because everyone has completely different setups.

Also curious if anyone has favorite alignments they like to share!

Or you may bend your alignment cam bolt bracket on the subframe.

…ask me how I know

So I picked up some used 1-way JRZ RS Ones for my s2000. Got them for a good deal ($2250).

They have a proclaimed ~7k miles on them, and are from 2019. Owner claims they’ve never been tracked, and they’re generally in good condition. Not new, but don’t look 7 years old!

Do yall think I need to rebuild? Is there a way to get them checked out for whether a rebuild is even necessary? Or should I just install them and try em out?

EDIT: I spoke with Frank at JRZ. He said it’s possible to dyno them to check their damping effectiveness, but if there’s no leaks and they don’t just sink when compressed without a spring like regular oil shocks then they should be good to go.

My trigger finger got the best of me yesterday… and I purchased some lightly used JRZ RS ONEs (1 way adjustable) with 12k front / 10k rear spring rates, for what I think was a steal.

But there’s not much online about these coilovers.

Have people run these? How do you like them? Especially compared to standard Ohlins DFV (10k/8k).

Considering buying some used Tillett B5s for my S2000.

Who has mounted these, and what seat rails do you use? I’m looking for someone that does NOT require cutting or drilling.

Also would love to hear about people’s experiences with this seat

My PS4S are completely bald now, and I’m looking to replace them on AP2. But 215/45/17 are discontinued, and I don’t think I want to upsize to 225.

Wondering what people think about some of the alternatives?

I’ll be honest I absolutely adore the PS4S, most notably for their steering feel and their phenomenally consistent grip even as they wear down.

I briefly drove a friend’s s2k with full tread ECS02, and the grip was amazing - but I felt some on center deadness + not as much mid corner load up compared to my balding PS4S, which was surprising. I know I’m getting quite nit picky at this point, but steering feel matters a lot to me as a primarily street back road car.

I also have a set of Advan V601s in 225 square that I ran for a bit - steering feel is quite awful on this setup. tons of on center deadness, and near zero loadup mid corner. and yes I know 225 in the rear is comical, I was just testing out things to learn.

Curious what other people think about the two alternatives or if they have other suggestions?

Also wondering about the new Indy500 V2s if anyone knows much about them.

TIA!

As title says. I love the OEM wheels but want better fitment. Primarily drive this car on backroads / planned light track duty.

Spacers have always scared me honestly.