Honda S2000 (AP1/AP2) Coilover Installation, Front and Rear
- Never work under a car held only by a jack; use four jack stands on firm ground.
- Spring compressors can store dangerous energy. Use a quality tool and keep your face out of the line of the spring.
- Do not let the brake hose take the weight of the knuckle or get stretched while a damper is out.
- Torquing bushing bolts with the arms hanging at full droop will pre-load the bushings and shorten their life.
Introduction
The S2000 uses double wishbones at both ends with the damper bolted to the lower arm, so a coilover swap is a bolt-in job that most owners finish in an afternoon. The fiddly parts are getting the front damper past the upper arm and reaching the rear upper nuts from inside the trunk. The rule that matters most is to snug every bolt with the car in the air, then load the suspension before final torque, or the bushings get pre-twisted. Measure and write down your ride height (wheel centre or tyre top to fender lip) before you start so you can compare afterwards. Adapted from a community writeup by lazykiwi on S2KI (https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/441565-tein-flex-coilovers-diy/).
Procedure
14 steps-
Step 1: Measure, loosen and lift
Record the ride height at all four corners. Crack the lug nuts loose on the ground, then lift the car and support it on four jack stands under the factory lift points. Remove all four wheels.
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Step 2: Free the front brake line and ABS wiring
At the front, unbolt the bracket that holds the brake hose (and ABS wiring) to the damper so the hose cannot be stretched when the damper comes out. Note how it was routed.
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Step 3: Disconnect the front sway bar end link
Unbolt the front end link so the lower arm can droop freely. This makes lining up the new damper much easier.
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Step 4: Remove the lower damper bolt
Remove the through-bolt that holds the bottom of the front damper to the lower control arm.
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Step 5: Unbolt the front upper arm
Remove the two bolts that hold the front upper control arm's inner mount to the body. Swinging the upper arm out of the way gives the damper room to come out; you do not need to separate the upper ball joint.
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Step 6: Remove the front damper
Support the damper, remove the two nuts on top of the tower and lift the assembly out. If your coilover kit reuses the factory upper bracket and large washer, compress the stock spring safely and transfer them now.
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Step 7: Fit the new front coilover
Put the coilover in place and start the two top nuts by hand only, so the body can still move. Use the jack under the lower arm to line up the lower mount and push the lower bolt through, hand tight. Refit the upper arm bolts and the end link loosely.
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Step 8: Prepare the rear (trunk side)
Remove the spare tyre and the trunk lining clips. Fold the left trunk lining back and tape it out of the way so you can reach the damper top nuts. Block the gap in the wheel well with tape so a dropped nut does not disappear into the body.
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Step 9: Remove the rear damper
Remove the rear lower damper bolt, then the two upper nuts from inside the trunk. lazykiwi found it easier after removing the bar behind the trunk lining (two bolts each side), which gfacter calls the rear chassis brace. Another owner unbolts the two nuts inside the fuel door and moves the filler neck aside for better access. On some cars the rear sway bar end link must also be disconnected: hold its ball stud with an Allen key while you turn the nut. A helper pushing the lower arm down makes the damper easier to extract.
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Step 10: Fit the new rear coilover
Transfer the upper bracket if required, install the coilover, start the top nuts by hand, line up the lower mount with a jack and fit the lower bolt hand tight. Refit the end link and the brace loosely. Repeat on the other side.
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Step 11: Load the suspension before torquing
Put a jack under each lower arm and raise it until the car just begins to lift off the jack stand (about half an inch). Only then do the final torque. Figures from lazykiwi's writeup: damper upper nuts 36 lb-ft (49 N-m), lower damper bolts front and rear 47 lb-ft (64 N-m), front upper arm inner bolts 75.9 lb-ft (103 N-m). For the sway bar end links, gfacter and Energy Suspension's S2000 sheet give 28 lb-ft at the bar and 22 lb-ft at the arm. Check the brace bolts and anything else against the factory service manual.
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Step 12: Reattach brake lines and ABS wiring
Reinstall the brake hose brackets and ABS wiring clips on both ends of the car. If the coilover body has no bracket tab, secure the hose with a nut and bolt or zip ties so it cannot rub on the spring or tyre.
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Step 13: Refit wheels and set ride height
Refit the wheels, torque the lug nuts to the factory figure, lower the car, roll it back and forth and bounce each corner to settle it. Measure ride height again and adjust the collars evenly side to side. One writeup quotes spring preload of roughly 55-80 mm front and 40-65 mm rear for its kit, but follow your coilover maker's figures.
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Step 14: Align
Any ride height change moves camber and toe on this chassis. Get a four-wheel alignment (and corner weighting if you can) before any hard driving.
- Do not run the top shaft nut down with an impact gun. It spins the damper rod inside the body and can ruin the seals; use a hand wrench.
- If a bolt hole will not line up, raise or lower the arm with the jack rather than forcing the bolt.
- Sources disagree on the front upper arm bolts. lazykiwi and Energy Suspension's S2000 sheet (https://sdda.semadata.org/Standard/Energy%20Suspension/17581.pdf) give 75.9 lb-ft, while gfacter's S2KI notes give 97 ft-lb for 'upper a-arms', and a separate S2000 bushing guide gives 98 lb-ft for the rear upper arm. Check the factory service manual for the arm you are tightening.
Related procedures
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