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yeah first visiting there during covid (and the subsequent international travel restrictions) kinda set the baseline for me. it was such an uncertain time for everyone, and daikoku pa felt like the safest open haven to socialize with all the car-centric locals while minimizing getting sick.

i still see them all the time circling akiba proper... i wonder if they'll ever finally switch out their white plates and finally go legit on their taxi service lol

truth be told i'm sorta indifferent of the change, since i honestly like geeking out to tourists who wonder what the hell i drive. but it has squeezed out the more interesting cars from locals I used to see. also it is kinda cringe seeing the same fast & furious livery on every 4dr base skyline lol

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went to daikoku PA after a loooong while. almost all the spaces taken normally by the locals are now occupied by sketchy “JDM tour” R34s. didn’t even see a single US military “Y-number” car. not that i’m OG myself, but shit’s hella changed compared to what i’ve experienced during start of covid lol

also i still have my s660. it’s doing fine. needs new tires though.

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Hope the swap works out smoothly for you! See if the starter can at least briefly be inspected while it's out, since the excess clutch dust when it goes bad tends to also foul up the starter's bendix solenoid and make it start grinding the flywheel after an engine start (speaking from experience😩).

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miraculously i managed to prevent getting that goop all over myself, despite the pointy gel nail on my index finger hella perforating my nitrile gloves at one point. that black OEM peanut butter crap that honda uses for affixing their weather shields is absolute viscous viciousness.

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

found more water ingress on my nugget of an S660, this time behind the driver's side door card. turns out the vapor shield lifted off the expired gooey-ass "honda butyl sealer tape" goop. ended up slopping on generous amounts of loctite DBR-100 to re-seal it. the interior reeks of toluene now lol🤮

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

closed strait killed off my favorite full synthetic store-brand engine oil from autobacs lol. RIP VantageSPIRIT SP 5w30 🇺🇸🗽🦅🫡

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no problem! the mugen hardtop pops up fairly often, and they usually hover around ¥200,000 (£950) for ones with typical outdoor wear. MSRP for a new one is ¥330,000 (£1560), so Torque GT must be making big fat margins on those things even with import duties considered, haha.

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my association with it came from when I visited philippines to celebrate Y2K new years, and seeing the pre-facelift ones EVERYWHERE in metro manila. since i was deep into norcal/socal honda tuner culture back then, my mind was hella blown seeing these tercel-sized hondas we never got in the states.

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I hear the indian market VTEC version is especially the hot one, as it has the least emission restrictions & uses a locally-made ECU tuned for performance rather than fuel efficiency. Me, I just want the more roudish pre-facelift LHD one from philippines, since it looks like a stumpy CD5 accord lol

as for secondhand parts, best place would be upgarage.com. mercari JP & yahoo JP (auctions & fleamarket) are also good sources, but those will need your importer to have someone living in Japan to do personal correspondence with sellers. 「s660 無限ハードトップ」 would be your search keyword for the hardtop.

ahh as for a clutch overhaul (read: just the dedicated clutch mechanisms themselves and not the master/slave cylinder lines), the dealer quoted me ~£132 for parts + ~£296 for labor. in america, even in an independent shop, this would run at least double this, so this took me by total surprise.

prices in GBP as (parts) / (labor)
values rounded from direct conversion (read: will have rounding errors)
alphanumeric soup next to part names are the actual part #s for reference

Friction disc: £50.16 / £280.19
Pressure plate: £54.06 / ---
Pilot bearing: £2.60 / ---
Release bearing: £22.98 / ---
Release fork spring: £2.08 / ---
Misc. common washers / bolts: --- / £15.59

Total: £131.88 / £295.78
= £427.67 grand total

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

had a nice chat with an S2000 owner from georgia state who had a better camera than mine, he took these cool shots

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

BTW congrats on getting yours👍 let me know anytime if you have any basic or intermediate questions about S660s; I've driven mine as a daily for ~140,000kms counting (out of ~170,000km on the odometer) & have done some DIY fixes, so i at least know what happens when various parts start getting worn.

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

hi. i had the clutch replaced on mine recently, and can confidently tell you it should have a discernible bite point when new. the pedal starts feeling heavy & linear when it's starting to go bad. how much mileage does yours have? if it's below 100,000km, your car has prolly been thoroughly hooned.

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

and like every 90s honda revving at 3AM, it has its own thriving tuner culture scene in every country it was released in. since it's an EF civic in EK sedan clothes, it has all the same aftermarket support and engine swap goodness. this dude totally sells it for me btw lol youtu.be/pO0QhwkZN_E?...

youtu.be

Honda City VTEC Type 2 - The Original | Faisal Khan

YouTube video by Faisal Khan

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

only released in south/southeast asia, not even japan. looking like a shrunken 6th gen civic sedan, it's actually rooted from the 4th gen EF civic platform. i remember sitting in the backseat of one when i visited philippines during Y2K new year & thought "damn, it's if honda made a toyota tercel"

rear portion of the car hella gives off toyota tercel vibes. yes those bumpers are three-piece for both back & front on the pre-facelift version; apparently it made it much more streamlined for their supplier at the time to ship them in separate parts.

a view i was most familiar with when traveling around manila and quezon city from ShoeMart to ShoeMart lol (though flip the steering wheel to the left side instead)

"HYPER 16 VALVE" - it's actually a ho-hum 1.5L SOHC D-series engine. though the Type Z version does come with a VTEC version that's still SOHC... but is stamped as "B15C2". SOHC B-series?!? whuuuuut

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

i dread the day i finally have to get a regular car to do regular stuff. but if i still had a choice to pick a so-called "weird car" to the western world that's still within normality, and didn't give a rats ass about modern safety… i present y'all with SEA's best kept secret: the Honda City SX8

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

my s660 brings all the catboys to the yard

tounyan danshi catboys gracing the nerd windows at atre akiba

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

the middle-aged guy who owns that very one was flexing it onto all the easily-impressionable kids in tiktok, and they started dunking on the dude hard when he essentially replied along the lines of "lol i ain't telling you how i got it in" dude should've been just enjoying his spoils on the DL tbh

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

that's an optional OEM honda rack that just happens to look like a wing, haha. the s660 has unbelievably minuscule storage space (arguably worse than even a honda beat), so that rack is semi-permanently mounted onto the targa frame and you're meant to tether your luggage on top with straps.

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

a honda s660 and a humvee walk into a concafe…

yes it’s an AM General military spec humvee something. i dunno which ones, but it’s not a Hummer. akiba never ceases to amaze me.

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

if i had an american analogy (esp. considering the historical aspect), i’d say it’s the japanese version of california’s El Camino Real… but the original alignment and minus the massive modern development that happened within its corridors. that and replace the missions with buddhist jizo statues.

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

now imagine it being a major arterial road out of simply spanning coast-to-coast, and therefore gets numbered like a US highway and gets full federal funding for maintenance... that's essentially this road lol

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

but what makes R152 interesting is it runs parallel w/a major tectonic line within the so-called “Japanese Alps”, making the soil absolutely dogshit for foundation use. combined with a wrinkled landscape unsuitable for typical human habitat leaves very few chances to detour from that lone bad road.

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

apparently this isn't even the worst national "highway" in japan; R418 (which also happens to be in the relative mountain range) is considered the undisputed "King of 酷道" lol www.youtube.com/watch?v=coGn...

youtube.com

国道418号湯谷橋〜町道分岐[酷道]

YouTube video by seirankai

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

i dunno what compelled me to go thru an infamous 酷道 (poorly-maintained national road) like Japan National R152 w/a low-height sports car in the middle of the night w/no cellular service, but i attempted to do the entire ~4hr trek DEEP in the akaishi range. i tapped out onto a detour after 30 mins

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

the most apt song change for the moment i guess this is the true feeling of what all the stereotypical spicy old couples with S660s in rural mountain villages go thru, the car really is perfect for this

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

my Mountain Day holiday in a nutshell... drawn like a pecan (and driven thru a figurative pecan)

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

i took a look at the usual going prices of clutch services in both dealer & independent shops in america lately, and was ready to pay equivalent prices for my own replacement. needless to say the actual quote from the dealer completely took me by surprise man shit got expensive over there dear gawd

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

the aftermath of my negligence, and the recovery yeah disregard all my little rants here & there about the S660’s clutch pedal “inherently being heavy with no discernible bite point by feel”, it’s really supposed to feel light like every other new MT honda haha wow fml lol😞

as you can tell on bottom-right, i skinned that clutch friction material all off to the very end.

as far as the mechanic explained to me, the loss of so much friction material pushed the release fork beyond tolerable limits… and thus the release fork spring eventually dislocated and rendered the clutch pedal completely useless.

the friction material dust buildup inside the clutch housing was so bad that it coated & fouled the nearby starter motor’s bendix mechanism. no wonder the damn thing would occasionally grind during startup.

new OEM clutch installed. yay.

honestly had i known the final quote for OEM replacements & service (out of the honda dealer no less) was this cheap, i would’ve gone ahead and spent the extra bones for an SSI lightened flywheel instead.

but i couldn’t find an independent drivetrain mechanic in the greater tokyo area in due time for my voluntary insurance’s courtesy tow offer, and considering i have no means to do my own intermediate-level DIY repairs in my own parking space, i just wanted someone to fix that shit stat.

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

babby’s new clutch for ~$660 USD total is so clutch honda dealer price even

i got my honda s660 back today with its clutch repaired.

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forgot to also mention the actual assessment by the mechanics themselves won't happen until at least a week from now... so they're essentially just holding it to i guess keep it outta my face in my garage? lol i will admit i was kinda annoyed that it implied to me they had a loaner car available 🥲

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as a side note: i did DIY fix (hopefully) the water ingress problem that soaked up the carpet prior. tl;dr turns out the plastic targa roll-bar cowl had fractured from wind buffeting to allow rainwater thru certain vulnerable holes. forgot to take pics, but involved LOTS of metal staples melted in.

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update on this saga: all shops in tokyo my voluntary insurance deals with are only body shops. the one independent shop in my area specializing on clutches/transmissions doesn’t have a compatible lift. so… it’s towed to the honda dealer. yay. full-price OEM parts & service. no courtesy loaner car🙃

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andrew sternly tells the same concern towards me whenever i bring up the topic😞

チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

truth be told i love that people are getting less & less afraid of blatantly flipping the bird toward this shitass rule... but i'm also wondering what'll happen to all of these once the next administration comes by

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

texas ports are just gonna be flooded with <25yo JDM "contraband" for the next two years ain't it

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チビテク @tibiteku.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

another one manages to come into TX haha, this time a 6MT version... yeah i guess the port authority feds really are asleep at the wheel

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbEaH-iOQBT/

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this is unfortunately a repair I cannot do DIY within the rules of my parking space, even though my allotted sheltered space is prefect for it lol. Fortunately my voluntary insurance allows a tow to whatever repair shop within 100km for free, so i’ll prolly bring it to a fellow S660 friend’s shop.

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btw the s660’s transmission does have a mechanical gear lockout feature of sorts that prevents grinding gears whenever the clutch pedal is not depressed. right before total clutch failure happened, shifting into gears was HELLA hard, and at times the shifter got locked within a gear (notably 1st).

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update: it’s not the master/slave cylinder; looks like it’s moving in & out normally as i pump the clutch pedal. changing shifter to different gears still makes transmission actuation noises as usual. started engine after, clutch still can’t engage (read: propel car) regardless of pedal position. 😮‍💨