This is a howto and review for the Dension IceLink>Plus for the 00-03 Honda S2000. Models from 2004 and on require a different IceLink module, but the basic installation shown below should still apply.

Note that this is provided without warranty of any kind. if you mess up your car, radio, dash, shift knob, airbags or run over your cat, it's nobody's fault but your own. Typos happen, and if you are not sure of anything *ASK*. The installation for this is pretty simple and should take no longer than 30 minutes to one hour.

First you need to get some tools together:
1. Philips head screwdriver
2. Some zip-ties. Mine are 10" or 12" long.
3. Wire cutters or scissors (for the zip ties)
4. X-Acto knife, or box cutter.
5. Towel
6. The radio code for your radio.

I used a Swiss Army Knife "Cybertool" to do the whole installation.

The hardware you need:
1. Dension IceLink Plus, Honda Model R2 (for the 00-03 S2000 w/factory radio)
2. Panavise cellular phone mount model 75117-800 (for 00-06 S2000)

It's up to you where to get these two items. The IceLink can be found easily on the web and shopping around gives it a street price of about $200.00. The Panavise is a bit harder to get, and prices vary, but GSM Cellular has it for the best price and delivers in about 10-14 calendar days.

The Panavise:


The IceLink:


Preparation:

Make sure you have everything listed above. Make sure the ignition is off. Disconnect the battery if you feel the need to. Put the shifter in 4th gear.


Drop the radio door. Firmly gripping the door by both sides, wiggle it left and right while pulling and the whole housing will start to work its way out of the dash. Keep in mind that there are clips around the vent along the top and you do not want to twist and break them. The whole thing should come more or less straight out. If you mess up, you can get a replacement bezel for the radio for about $40.00


Now the radio is out. We need to remove *5* screws. Remove the upper and lower screw on the left side and all three on the right side.


Grab a towel and drape it over the shifter and trim so you don't mess it up (I don't do it here for better pictures). Now grab the radio and gently pull it straight out. Make sure you do not scratch anything with the sharp edges of the radio.

This next step is optional, but recommended. Unplug the harness and antenna from the back of the radio. Put the radio on the floor mat on the passenger side. Now you see the inside of the dash. See that silver box with the stickers on it? That's the SRS computer. Leave it alone. Don't even think of messing with it.


Go around to the passenger's side. Grab the Dension interface cable and pass it up behind the radio compartment as shown:


Reach into the radio compartment and pull it out the opening - leaving the tail end of the cable near the netting on the passenger side


Grab the radio, connect the Dension to the CD Changer port and reconnect the harness.


Move the radio back towards the opening. Grab the antenna and plug it in. Gently push the radio back into the dash opening.


Now the radio is back in the dash. Do NOT start putting screws in yet! Get the icelink module and plug the harness from the radio into the icelink:


Now plug the cable from the iPod bracket into the other end of the icelink:

 

After connecting the cable, plug the iPod into the bracket and turn on the accessory power to the vehicle (connect the battery if you need to). Put the code into your radio:


Select the CD Changer on the radio. When you do, you will see this (or something like it) on the radio:


You will see this on the iPod:


Turn off accessory power at the ignition and turn it back on again. You will see the icelink initialize and display a lawyergram for the Darwin candidates:


Now the iPod will either start playing music or display the setup menu:


You can use the CD changer controls on the radio (buttons 5 and 6) to move up and down the playlists. The first five playlists are accessible this way. The 6th playlist gets you into the setup menu. FF and RW change tracks. CH on the dash changes the tracks too.


Sweet huh? Now do a quick check of the radio. Works? OK, now lets start to button up everything.

Put all three screws in the left side of the radio. Put the topmost screw in on the right side. leave the bottom two right screws (the big one and the little one) off for now.


This is the Panavise. I cheated here and started mounting the Dension bracket already. The left side of the bracket below has two holes that will match up with the two screw holes I had you leave open.


Anyhow, take the mount shown below and line it up with the innermost 4 holes on the Panavise. Now the screws that came with the Panavise are too big to be used like you think they should, but the following tip works well. Flip it over and use the screws in from the back. One part of the mount will have a slot cut into it - have this side be "up". Don't overtighten.


Ta-daa!


Mount the Panavise with the two leftover screws:


Now here is where you need to check the radio door. The metal that extends out of the radio cavity will push against the bezel slightly, making a tight fit. In my case, it prevented the radio door from falling open when unlatched. So, I made a note of where the bracket contacts the bezel and used my trusty knife to shave off some of the plastic.


Now I shove the bezel back in


Put the iPod dock into the mount and adjust to your liking (put the iPod in and adjust). Once you know how you like it, use the hex wrench provided with the Dension and lock it down by screwing it down:

 

Now check the radio door operation. The door will either clear or juuuust hit the dock. If it hits, you have two choices: 1. readjust the Dension dock (be sure to loosen it first or you will break it!) or 2. bend the Panavise slightly. I chose #2. It doesn't take much pressure but push it slightly to the left and towards the dash - *GENTLY*. Check the radio door, if it clears - great, if not - repeat.


Now drop the iPod in and check out your handiwork:


Door still clears? Great!

Now to clean up the wiring. You should see this in the passenger side footwell:


Take off the trim just above that little net:


Take the cable from the dock and tuck it up in there, over the white plastic where the screw came out:


Gather up the wiring as shown.


Zip tie it so it stays this way.

Now we are going to mount this thing so that we can avoid one of the reported problems with the icelink: heat. There's a spot under the fake glovebox that is just ideal to give this thing a lot of air exposure and also keep it away from heat sources like the transmission tunnel or behind the radio.

You do need to be careful with this next step, because getting this panel off is a bitch and a half. It's easier to pop off the three tabs along the bottom. There is one on the lower right corner, one on the lower left, and one in the middle a couple inches up from the bottom edge. Work these three out. There are several along the top, but these generally refuse to come out without breaking. If you DO break any of the tabs, this panel can be obtained rather cheaply (under $20).

So I popped off the tabs along the bottom:


Look in from the right and you will see a plastic bar that the middle tab was connected to. The bar has the grey mark on it and the rectangular hole. All that yellow wiring is SRS stuff and part of the Honda airbag disable switch installed earlier:


Loop two zip ties around this bar and cinch the icelink down on the side away from the panel:


Here is another view, if you were on your back looking up under the dash:


Trim the zip ties, making sure you don't cut anything you shouldn't and pop the panel and the other panel on the side of the transmission tunnel back on.


Hey look! It's done!


Here's some night shots:

 

This is for the Honda-R2 version that is applicable to 2000-2003 Honda S2000's.

The short review: Works great!

I picked up one of these on a lark. I recently removed the iCruze unit that was giving me various annoyances (use search function for these reports) and I was waiting for the new 2006 Alpine units before giving the iPod another shot in the car.

That was all fine except I could not find my old HON-AUX unit that I had in the car previously to at least get some iPod action. So while I was jonesing for my music, I stopped by a local retailer and looked at their car stereo goodies and I found out they had the Dension Ice>link plus and had the proper model for my car.

Since this unit (along with many others of its type) replace the OEM CD changer, you are limited to using the playlists that your head unit can handle. In the case of the 00-03 S2000, that's six. However, the Icelink has a special mode that is triggered by selecting CD "#6" so that limits you to an actual 5 playlists. This isn't as bad of a thing as it sounds, I'll cover that later in this post.

From the S2000's point of view, the only function you will get out of the dash controls is "track skip". This is because there are no other dash controls to control the CD changer aside from selecting it.

The radio buttons that control the icelink are:

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awesome!

 

Just wanted to say, I installed the icelink a day or two ago along with the panavise mount. These directions really help a lot. Install was a snap, and took about 15 minutes tops. It's so nice to have ipod in my car again, I was going through withdrawel after driving around listening to only the radio. Initially I had a problem with my ipod not turning off at all, but for some reason it has sorted itself out on its own. I think it had something to do with setting the ipod to the ui, then taking it out of the mount, and plugging it in later. Seems like you need to reset the ipod to the ui mode again if you want to use it like that and have it power up and down with the car.

 

Does the Panavise get in the way of the passenger's leg? Let's say you have some huge sasquatch of a friend you're driving around, does his leg KO your Ipod?

 

Not really. It's pretty high and "forward." I had two passengers who had no complaints. But all bets are off if you have a sasquatch.

Lots of people with long legs have their knee hit the radio door when the door is down. The Panavise is too high for that.

 

very cool writup!! Thank you for putting your time into this.

 

Great write-up!! I'm going to add this to the FAQ if its ok with you.