KLN

I converted my soft-top to a new '02 soft-top with a glass window. Now i want to hook-up the defroster but i'm having some trouble. I received a defroster kit that is normall bought for a hardtop, which came with a defroster harness, button, and relay to make it work in my '00.

Well after realizing the plugs did not match up from the soft-top window wire harness to the hardtop wire harness. I spoke with hardtopguy about seeing if it could work. He told me that i would have to cut the clip off the soft-top wire harness and connect it to the wire harness that is attached to the hardtop, that way the plug from the hardtop will plug right into the wire harness in my car.

After receiving a hardtop wire harness i noticed that there are (3) wires on it, 1 one is a brown color and the other 2 are black which are suppose to both be grounds. Then i took off the defroster wire harness so that i could cut the wires and attach it to the new harness, but i realized that both wires from the soft-top defroster are black, so i'm not sure which one is postive/negative, i looked all over the wires and soft-top connectors and could not find and symbols labeling which is postive/negative so i'm stumped...

Does anyknow know if the wire harness that is connected to the glass window has a positive/negative wire or are they the same?

here is a picture describing what i have and am trying to do, any advice would be helpful

sparkie001

Hard to be of help when I don't have a hard-top. The manual shows two blacks to the soft-top grid, and the brown to the hard-top positive. One of those black wires is probably to a ground via the connector, and the other is the switched positive from the relay. Got a voltmeter?

The grid doesn't care which is pos and which is neg.

KLN

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, i noticed that on the soft-grid that it doesn't look like it matters which is positive or negative. Because if you follow the grid where the wires connect to the opposite side, the grid eventually meets each other.

On the hardtop harness, the two black wires had a connector on it and it was grounded on to the hardtop. While the brown wire was connected to another connector on the top. In the pictures i cut off the connectors on all the wires.

I'm assuming that it really doesn't matter which wires i connect to each other, since it looks like the two black wires on the soft-top grid are the same.

fmah

I just happen to have a webpage describing the process for installing the defogger from an '02 top into the earlier S2000 models. As you have figured out, the Hardtop wiring (with the one ring terminal and the one lug connector) has provisions for one ground (the ring terminal) and one positive connection. The Softtop harness has two lugs for the window grid. You may connect either side of the grid to the positive and the other to the negative, since the grid is not actually grounded to the body, as the hardtop grid is.

If you do not plan to install a hardtop, you don't need any of the expensive Honda wiring. $10 (or less) of wires, plugs and heat shrink tubing will work in place of the $70 worth of harnesses.

I also have some notes in the webpage describing how to do one of the following:
a) Mount the switch on the dash (to the blank on the right side) and manually switch the defogger on/off.
b) Create a circuit board to make a timer to turn the defogger on and then time out after a chosen interval. This is a more complicated solution and requires some experience in electronics, circuit board making and troubleshooting. I can provide a printed circuit board bmp which you can use to create your own circuit board.

Also, if you have a hardtop, I have details on how you can make a new harness which will allow you to duplicate the '02 circuitry (the hardtop installation switches between the hardtop and softtop grids). I have actually made this and it seems to work. I can connect you with the person who I made it for and he can tell you if this stuff works.

Unfortunately, I can't make any more of these because I don't have the time, but the webpage is self-explanatory. Anyway, check it out.

KLN

Thank you very much, you explained exactly what i was looking for.

I'm not running a hardtop anymore, but i received the defroster kit for the hardtop. So, the only wire harness i needed was the hardtop harness since that clips connects to the wire harness provided in the hardtop defroster kit. In the kit, it provided me with the button that sits in the center console and since out cars already come pre-wired for a defroster, i just plugged the button in and it works and lights up.

But once again, thanks for the verification on the wiring