Flip Key for a Honda S2000 fully assembled…

I did some research on what options exist for a flip key for a Honda S2000.  As we all know AP1 S2000’s did not come with flip keys.  Here is the story on fitting a flip key for my 2003 Honda S2000.

I did some searching on eBay (where else?) and found a suitable candidate.  This one is available for about $25 bucks – a little steep – but I figured what the hell and gave it a try.  What you get for your hard-earned cash is a blank plastic enclosure for the S2K’s remote PC board and a flip key blank.  The key comes uncut so you have to take it to a local locksmith to have it match your key.

Flip Key fully disassembled

The only thing missing above is the flip key blank.  At the very top is the upper half of the enclosure.  The area with the blue ring is where the “chip” is inserted for cars equipped with it.  I have no clue how that works – my 2003 AP1 does not have a chip.

The rest of the bits include a tab for fixing a ring for more keys, the three little screws used to hold the two halves together, the spring and the little plunger that releases the key.

Finally, the bottom half of the enclosure.  The red circle shows a tab that requires a slightly modified to make room for a little metal tab on the remote’s PC board.  You can see the metal tab in the picture below, right next to the “OMRON” text.  I used a Dremel tool with an end-mill and carefully removed the excess material on the tab.  Click on the pictures for more details.

Next came the buttons…

The buttons that came with the enclosure are rather chintzy and did not fit so well.  So I just recycled the buttons from the original factory remote.  They have the right color, texture and “feel”.  Picture above shows the original remote on top and the new enclosure on the bottom with the buttons installed.  They just drop in place.  Above the big oval button at the top is a small recess where the clear plastic on the remote control PC board rests.  This is also where the tiny red LED light shines through when pressing the buttons.

This is what the flip key for a Honda S2000 looks like fully assembled and in working order (click on the pictures for more details:

 In Summary:

• The flip key enclosure is fairly nice. I have about $27.00 in it.  $25.00 for the enclosure (free shipping) and another $2.00 to have the key blank cut.
• Prior to assembly I had to smooth the edges with a jeweler’s file to remove all the sharp edges.  It is very obvious this is a mass-produced item with no time spent making it look OEM.
• It takes some patience to get the spring that drives the key aligned properly.  There is a small tab on the bottom half were part of the spring is anchored.  Then one has to pre-load the spring with the key while making sure all the other bits don’t fall out.  The little “button” used to trigger the key must also be aligned properly.  Not rocket science but it just takes patience.
• The outside of the bottom half is very poorly designed.  There are three tiny screws holding the affair together.  Two are easy to get to; while the single screw closer to the key resides in a recess where a foil with a tiny red “H” emblem is supposed go.  This is asinine.  If the little “H” foil is affixed then how do you get to the screw without ruining the foil when changing the battery?  I tried to leave the one screw out, but that makes the enclosure wobbly and the last thing you want is give that precious spring any chance to make an unannounced departure.
• I’ll have to give the flip key a try.  Yes it looks very sexy and has a bit of a “wow” factor but the thing is a bit heavy and bulky.  On the other hand, the factory key and remote is so much lighter and thinner.  I suppose here is yet another example of where the Honda engineers got the AP1 S2000 oh so very right the first time…

When the S2000 was sold in Honda dealerships, there was a extensive collection of “factory accessories” available from the parts department.  Matter of fact, among the bunch of documents I got with my S2000 there was a brochure listing the accessories for the 2003 model year.  Needless to say, there are some that have sparked my interest.  However, since we are taking about a ten-year old automobile, some of these accessories are no longer available.

So what makes the genuine Honda part so special?  For starters is the fit and finish.  Sure,  there are many available aftermarket versions available on eBay for a substantial discount however from what I have read they don’t fit quite like the Honda version.  Next, the Honda part comes painted to match body color.  This is important.  Why?  Well have you priced automotive paint lately?

Well today I finally found a genuine Honda part.  Last week I had a chance to meet with a very nice group of local S2000 owners.  I mentioned I was looking for a front airdam lip and sure enough, a local member said “I’ve got one”.  Geez!  Talk about my lucky day!!  Today we met, and my new friend Andy produced a genuine Honda part in the correct color, brand new.  Cool!

Here is the “before” picture…

Here is what the air dam lip looks like before the install…

And…  Finally what the front nose looks like now with the lip in place:

The lip gives the front a little more aggressive look and I like it.  As a bonus, the colour matches 100%.  If I had a negative about all this it would be the mounting hardware.  This is what that looks like:

The part I was not very impressed with were the “U” clips provided with the kit.  They were very flimsy and as to be expected with something like this, they were extremely easy to cross-thread.  I ended up messing up one and it took quite some coercing to get the threads back to where they would accept the screw.

In the final analysis, I am very pleased with the “look”.  It certainly looks the part!