Well it looks like the cable is definitely run back to the trunk unfortunately, and probably under the carpet and what not.

This guy knows what I am talking about

 

open your passenger door and pull off the panel with "s2000" on it, its just 3 clips holding it in. i would assume the wire is ran through there.

 

They actually fed the cable from the battery, over the back of the engine bay into the drivers side firewall hole for some odd reason, and ends up on the passenger side trunk from the little bit of detective work I have done. I am thinking it was run down to the left of the drivers seat, and then over to the rear passenger side, they must not of known about the firewall hole on the passenger side.

I looked again more closely and I am thinking there are definitely door speakers now, I am thinking things just need to be reconnected to the head unit.

 

I knew those silly door speakers were in there. Now time to find out if they are OEM or aftermarket.

 

So I spent a few hours last night sorting some things out with the stereo. I started by removing the fuse that was mounted in the engine bay and connected to the battery. Just ziptied up so simple to remove. It was run across the engine bay to the drivers side firewall hole, and down along the side garnish panels under the carpet, up and behind the driver and passenger to the passenger side of the trunk, where there was another aftermarket ground wired connected to the body, and some plenty of zipties to remove along the way..

The S2000 is so easy to work on!! I have worked on many different Hondas over the years, and why they are all very straight forward, this is by far the simplest, all the same simple screws and clips, but designed in a way that requires even less screws but is still very secure. I didn't damage a single clip, and found that I am missing one the passenger side floor garnish that I now am aware of.

The main goal here was just removing the large fuse that was mounted in the engine bay, and this is what I ended up removing:

Wiring that was run from the head unit to the amp/sub that used to be in the car and was simply cut at the trunk by the previous owner, Sirius satellite radio modules and interfaces, antennas and cables that I will never use, and a sirius antenna that was mounted to the dash and removed without a trace left. Luckily whoever did the initial install did a pretty clean job really, everything was neatly zip tied up and it doesn't look like anything was horribly spliced into or cut. There has to be 3-4 lbs of crap that I would never use in this pile..


And I found a McDonald's monopoly peel off in the card holder part of the radio lid. (.001g? maybe)

The best part about this process was learning that I already have a USB cable wired up to go into the center console so I can easily charge my phone and play music from it, which is the only way I will be listening to music in the car, I just don't listen to any radio period, even though it looks like that should all work normally as well. The USB cable had just fallen back into the hole that was neatly drilled into the back of the center console pocket, anyone know of a good gasket/grommet I can put into that hole to keep it sealed up a bit? I suppose I can ask the stereo shop if they have something.


The one remaining problem is that while the head unit is clearly working and charging the phone as it should, and can be controlled by the dash controls as a DCI box was spliced into the aftermarket head unit harness, but it isn't outputting any sound to the speakers. It looks like I will need to have a stereo shop take a look at sorting out the main stereo harness for me, but no major crisis, it looks like it should be pretty straight forward, just not something I want to take the time to mess with.

Sorry for the crappy photos, but just thought I would share, super happy I pulled all the extraneous crap out of there on my quest for OEM zen. It got me past that, I just bought this car I don't want to mess anything up stage, and I know how easy the car is to take apart and put back together, really is the best car in the world!

 

The S does have a super easy interior to work with. Way less complicated than my Accord.

I would consider myself an audiophile but I recognize the S for what it is: the worst possible place to listen to music you could design. It's loud, rattles, resonates weird, etc. Therfore I have never bothered to even change the headunit. But there's a certain charm to a truly shitty stereo, in my opinion. I absolutely love the Sanyo tape deck in my 1979 Chevy LUV pickup. Listening to classic rock on it with the windows down is a great experience, even if it is very very far from high fidelity.

 

I believe Home Depot has perfect little grommet bezel for that hole.

 

I actually found a Honda one that shouuuuld be the right size made for various places on the S, if not it was only $.99.

 

Stereo all sorted after hardly any work. As I mentioned I spent a few hours pulling any extraneous wiring and Sirius components, and today stopped by All Pro Audio for about 15-20 minutes and they reworked my stereo harness on the spot for $50. Technician knew the S2000 very well, hardly had to explain anything and he went to work and had it outputting sound correctly in no time. He also helped me identify the aftermarket speakers in my doors as JL Audio or Focal without removing the door panels, not certain on that but I don't care what they are, they sound fine and keep me entertained on the way to the mountains.

The head unit I am using is the Alpine CDA-117, can't really say anything bad about it really. This all worked out quite nicely considering I got about a $1000 discount on the car since the stereo wasn't working correctly when I purchased it.

 

Another satisfied S2000 owner