Running new speaker wire
Running new speaker wire
I'm running new speaker wire to the 4 doors from my amp under the driver seat. Anyone want to share what they did or have any suggestions on where to run them ? Just curious to see if there's a way im not thinking about. Thanks!
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Clipsed
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Re: Running new speaker wire (weeks82)
ughh kinda busy right now, but later tonight I will leave a detailed comment on how to do this, sorry but i'm walking out the door right now.
Re: Running new speaker wire (Clipsed)
I look forward to it. I won't be doing this until tomorrow afternoon.
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BBISHOPPCM
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If it were my car, I would remove the interior (carpet included) and run the wire from wherever the amp is supposed to be, to the destination doors, ensuring the wires run parallel to the factory harnesses on either side of the vehicle, crossing over the hump in an insuspicious area (by the firewall), and firmly securing the wires to the harnesses they are paralleling. Run the wires to the doors by snaking them through the exact same path the existing wires run. While putting the carpet back in, cut a small hole to allow the wires to pass through, and you'll be all set.
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Clipsed
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Re: Running new speaker wire (weeks82)
OK so to get down to the nitty gritty, what you are going to do is first take off some panels. You want to take off the kick panels, the panels running along the door, not to be confused with the side sills if you have the aluminum ones especially, the ones for the back also, and the plastic retainer that covers the seatbelt, that about 3 foot long piece. these are all pretty easy, just carefully pry them off with a panel popper. Do this on both the driver and passenger side.
Once that is done, you are going to want to remove the backseat. To do this, fold the seat down, and there are lil velcro covers in the lower corners that get peeled to the side to reveal 2 bolts, there are 8 in total, 2 on one corner, 2 in the middle corner, and same for the other passenger seat. I can't remember off the top of my head which side has the middle seat belt attached, but you will not be able to pull that seat out until you detach the seatbelt. Remove the couple of bolts holding the backseat down, and carefully but forcefully (with a buddie) one on one side, and one on the other from the front facing the rear, as not to ruin the seat, PULL STRAIGHT UP! If not done carefully, you could mess up the padding, but with just enough force at the same time, you will pop it out easily.
I personally did not remove the front seats as it is for 1. time consuming, and 2. I am so good at installs at this point, most small compacts do not need the front seats removed for me to run wire.
Remove all of the center console panels, which you will start from the back removing panels and nuts, pretty self explanatory if you have ever done a stereo install.
To run your wire, WARNING!!!! ALWAYS BE SURE TO RUN SPEAKER WIRE AND POWER WIRE ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE VEHICLE AND NEVER RUN THEM NEXT TO EACHOTHER!!! I would think that running your mid/high amp would be better suited under the passenger side seat since that is better confined away from where the power wire will be on the driver side.
First run your power wire from the engine bay, if you read my FOG LIGHT HOW TO sticky at the top of the page that will give you a great plan to run your power wire through to the engine bay. Run that power wire down and through the crevices of the foam underneath the carpet. If you don't have a wire snake than I suggest you remove the front seats before contiuing, or recruit a young teenager with long skinny hands. You will either run the wire snake from the middle where the center console was, down through to the driver side door, underneath the carpet of course. Grab your power wire and pull, if not have the skinny armed test subject grab the wire and shove it through to the middle and have somebody grab it somewhere near the middle, or near the end. do the same to get the power wire underneath the passenger seat, no need to cut holes in the carpet, run all the wires through the stock opening where wire looms are already there. do the same with a short strand of ground wire, and ground to the huge parking brake nuts.
For your remote wire, grab it, run it down through the center, and under the carpet of course, under to the seat.
Your RCAs are now going to be run in the same sense as the power wire, BUT!!! RUN THEM ON THE PASSENGER SIDE. under to the stock slits.
Pop off your door panels and remove the stock speakers, with your panel popper and a microfiber cloth, pop off the door handle & window control piece off of every door. CAREFULLY AS TO NOT BREAK THE PLASTIC SHROUD ON THE DOOR LOCK, jiggle it until you hear it unsnap, these are VERY VERY fragile and will break VERY VERY EASY please becareful, I did snap one of the grabs by accident on my very last one I did, isn't that nice! And the dealer that has some idiot install the window glass break sensor for my alarm system broke one of the grabs on the driver side, which was the first one I pulled off and was easy. This is how I figured out how they were held on and break easily. Once those are off, there are two nuts in the handle area to take off in the front doors, and one nut to take off on the back doors each. once those are removed, with the microfiber cloth and panel popper, carefully start at the bottom and pry off the panel, once it is loose, lift UP and OUT.
Remove the 3 screws and connector holding the stock speakers.
Now the fun part once all of the panels are removed. Have yourself a nice industrial size zip tie ready, the nice big long ones that are about 3 feet long, you can cut it down to about a foot and a half if you would like, just be sure to cut a rounded edge. Cut off the box end where the zip tie is usually inserted. Tape your wire to the side the box used to be on. Now pull off the rubber protectors between the door and the frame, carefully as to not yank em and cut wires. These rubber gromets are there so that they protect wires from being rubbed against the bare metal, and wearing off the rubber protection of the wire and possibly causing something or even your whole vehicle to short out. So with the zip tie run it through the grommet which is going to be a REAL P.I.T.A. but you will get it, it takes time and patience to route it through without ripping the grommet, if I can do it, you can too. run it through the grommet, and snake it through the frame to a nearby hole, this will be easy to do once you see everything apart and are doing it. Route your wires, leaving enough wire everytime to replace the grommet, and run some to the speaker with enough slack, but not too much. Do this for all 4 doors. On the driver side when you run the wires, run them through to the back of the car, and up and over the rear hump, behind the plastic bushings that hold the rear seat in that you will most likely struggle with pulling the seat out without f***ing it up. No I didn't mess mine up!
Once that is done, install your speakers, and hook up your amp, connect the battery 12v+ constant, and finally fuse it appropriately. Do your tests to make sure all is ok, and put it all back together, and do your final sound tests, and adjust it properly.
Any other questions feel free to ask.
By all means please do not listen to BBISHOPPCM when he says to run your wires next to the factory harnesses. Unless you are paying hundreds of dollars for very expensive high end car audio wire like Monster cable of other high end shielded car audio cable, never do this. You could potentially pick up alternator whine from power wires by doing this, which is the really annoying whine you get that gets louder the higher the RPMs are.
Once that is done, you are going to want to remove the backseat. To do this, fold the seat down, and there are lil velcro covers in the lower corners that get peeled to the side to reveal 2 bolts, there are 8 in total, 2 on one corner, 2 in the middle corner, and same for the other passenger seat. I can't remember off the top of my head which side has the middle seat belt attached, but you will not be able to pull that seat out until you detach the seatbelt. Remove the couple of bolts holding the backseat down, and carefully but forcefully (with a buddie) one on one side, and one on the other from the front facing the rear, as not to ruin the seat, PULL STRAIGHT UP! If not done carefully, you could mess up the padding, but with just enough force at the same time, you will pop it out easily.
I personally did not remove the front seats as it is for 1. time consuming, and 2. I am so good at installs at this point, most small compacts do not need the front seats removed for me to run wire.
Remove all of the center console panels, which you will start from the back removing panels and nuts, pretty self explanatory if you have ever done a stereo install.
To run your wire, WARNING!!!! ALWAYS BE SURE TO RUN SPEAKER WIRE AND POWER WIRE ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE VEHICLE AND NEVER RUN THEM NEXT TO EACHOTHER!!! I would think that running your mid/high amp would be better suited under the passenger side seat since that is better confined away from where the power wire will be on the driver side.
First run your power wire from the engine bay, if you read my FOG LIGHT HOW TO sticky at the top of the page that will give you a great plan to run your power wire through to the engine bay. Run that power wire down and through the crevices of the foam underneath the carpet. If you don't have a wire snake than I suggest you remove the front seats before contiuing, or recruit a young teenager with long skinny hands. You will either run the wire snake from the middle where the center console was, down through to the driver side door, underneath the carpet of course. Grab your power wire and pull, if not have the skinny armed test subject grab the wire and shove it through to the middle and have somebody grab it somewhere near the middle, or near the end. do the same to get the power wire underneath the passenger seat, no need to cut holes in the carpet, run all the wires through the stock opening where wire looms are already there. do the same with a short strand of ground wire, and ground to the huge parking brake nuts.
For your remote wire, grab it, run it down through the center, and under the carpet of course, under to the seat.
Your RCAs are now going to be run in the same sense as the power wire, BUT!!! RUN THEM ON THE PASSENGER SIDE. under to the stock slits.
Pop off your door panels and remove the stock speakers, with your panel popper and a microfiber cloth, pop off the door handle & window control piece off of every door. CAREFULLY AS TO NOT BREAK THE PLASTIC SHROUD ON THE DOOR LOCK, jiggle it until you hear it unsnap, these are VERY VERY fragile and will break VERY VERY EASY please becareful, I did snap one of the grabs by accident on my very last one I did, isn't that nice! And the dealer that has some idiot install the window glass break sensor for my alarm system broke one of the grabs on the driver side, which was the first one I pulled off and was easy. This is how I figured out how they were held on and break easily. Once those are off, there are two nuts in the handle area to take off in the front doors, and one nut to take off on the back doors each. once those are removed, with the microfiber cloth and panel popper, carefully start at the bottom and pry off the panel, once it is loose, lift UP and OUT.
Remove the 3 screws and connector holding the stock speakers.
Now the fun part once all of the panels are removed. Have yourself a nice industrial size zip tie ready, the nice big long ones that are about 3 feet long, you can cut it down to about a foot and a half if you would like, just be sure to cut a rounded edge. Cut off the box end where the zip tie is usually inserted. Tape your wire to the side the box used to be on. Now pull off the rubber protectors between the door and the frame, carefully as to not yank em and cut wires. These rubber gromets are there so that they protect wires from being rubbed against the bare metal, and wearing off the rubber protection of the wire and possibly causing something or even your whole vehicle to short out. So with the zip tie run it through the grommet which is going to be a REAL P.I.T.A. but you will get it, it takes time and patience to route it through without ripping the grommet, if I can do it, you can too. run it through the grommet, and snake it through the frame to a nearby hole, this will be easy to do once you see everything apart and are doing it. Route your wires, leaving enough wire everytime to replace the grommet, and run some to the speaker with enough slack, but not too much. Do this for all 4 doors. On the driver side when you run the wires, run them through to the back of the car, and up and over the rear hump, behind the plastic bushings that hold the rear seat in that you will most likely struggle with pulling the seat out without f***ing it up. No I didn't mess mine up!
Once that is done, install your speakers, and hook up your amp, connect the battery 12v+ constant, and finally fuse it appropriately. Do your tests to make sure all is ok, and put it all back together, and do your final sound tests, and adjust it properly.
Any other questions feel free to ask.
If you wish to completely gut your interior and waste precious time, then feel free to, especially if this is your first install, as this may actually SAVE you time rather than waste time.BBISHOPPCM wrote:If it were my car, I would remove the interior (carpet included) and run the wire from wherever the amp is supposed to be, to the destination doors, ensuring the wires run parallel to the factory harnesses on either side of the vehicle, crossing over the hump in an insuspicious area (by the firewall), and firmly securing the wires to the harnesses they are paralleling. Run the wires to the doors by snaking them through the exact same path the existing wires run. While putting the carpet back in, cut a small hole to allow the wires to pass through, and you'll be all set.
By all means please do not listen to BBISHOPPCM when he says to run your wires next to the factory harnesses. Unless you are paying hundreds of dollars for very expensive high end car audio wire like Monster cable of other high end shielded car audio cable, never do this. You could potentially pick up alternator whine from power wires by doing this, which is the really annoying whine you get that gets louder the higher the RPMs are.
Re: Running new speaker wire (Clipsed)
Are you actually replacing the 4 speakers? Or just amping the stock ones.
If your just adding an amp to your factory speakers, then I would do what is called a "factory loop back"
If adding 4 new speakers as well, then follow Clisped.
Incase you care, I too do Audio install for a living, at an actual custom shop, not best buy or some crap like that.
If your just adding an amp to your factory speakers, then I would do what is called a "factory loop back"
If adding 4 new speakers as well, then follow Clisped.
Incase you care, I too do Audio install for a living, at an actual custom shop, not best buy or some crap like that.
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BBISHOPPCM
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Clipsed
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Re: (BBISHOPPCM)
Kick my *** for correcting misinformation? When proven wrong I do not take it to the heart, I admit I am wrong, but anywho, yes always expect the worst, especially from weeks82, as we all do not know him, or what he has to do the install nor how capable he is of doing this install or any automotive install for that matter as we do not know eachother personally. I myself even though I do installs for a living, there is no need for me to use expensive shielded speaker wire, because of the fact I start off right. I use a headunit which gives out optimum signal to the amps, 8 volts, and high quality RCA cables that are shilded too, so I can get cheaper with the speaker wire run by doing this. My speaker wire is 18 gauge cheapy wire, but I am not running a full blown OMG system, so it works well enough for my current set-up. When I upgrade my front stage and a new ICE POWER amp, then I will upgrade to 14 gauge, anything thicker would be overkill for mids/highs. It is about educated decisions, if you have shielded wire, then you most likely will have 0 problems when it comes to speaker wire next to the stock wire harnesses, but you still can not run any sound signal wires next to your power wire, especially when you get to thicker power wire like 4, 2, 1, 1/0, and 0 gauge.BBISHOPPCM wrote:Thank you Clipsed for correcting my misinformation. Most guys would kick your *** for saying that, but I am big enough to know when I'm wrong. I was under the assumption that he was using a shielded speaker wire, my bad.
Although this is possible, you better have a VERY VERY small amp to do this, as the stock speakers are not designed to handle a lot of power, I would think that they are rated 20W RMS, 50W PEAK. His best bet would be to buy 2 new pairs, an amp, and all the necessary hardware and wires. I myself do not work at a shop as I am 17 and shops will not hire me due to insurance reasons, but most people who have been in the industry for many years are suprised in my knowledge of stereo and car electrical systems. I still have a lot to learn I admit, but I am quite educated in automotive electronics for my age, and I am sure most of you would probably agree.Kolk1 wrote:Are you actually replacing the 4 speakers? Or just amping the stock ones.
If your just adding an amp to your factory speakers, then I would do what is called a "factory loop back"
If adding 4 new speakers as well, then follow Clisped.
Incase you care, I too do Audio install for a living, at an actual custom shop, not best buy or some crap like that.
I don't think he did get around to doing this project today though since he did not get on and comment on the thread.
Re: (Clipsed)
Yes, I ran new speaker wire to 4 doors, but my amp is rated at 80x4 RMS @4 Ohms. So for just a basic set of infinity 6 1/2 components, thats more than enough power for me. But yes, factory 22ish gauge wiring is too small for a medium to larger amp.
Ive been out of the stereo department for about 4 years, and just last month got a call from a shop asking me to come join them. So on alot of topics I still dont say much, since alot has changed in the last 4 years, and I dont want to give out wrong, or outdated informantion.
Ive been out of the stereo department for about 4 years, and just last month got a call from a shop asking me to come join them. So on alot of topics I still dont say much, since alot has changed in the last 4 years, and I dont want to give out wrong, or outdated informantion.
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Clipsed
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Re: (Kolk1)
yup!!Kolk1 wrote:Yes, I ran new speaker wire to 4 doors, but my amp is rated at 80x4 RMS @4 Ohms. So for just a basic set of infinity 6 1/2 components, thats more than enough power for me. But yes, factory 22ish gauge wiring is too small for a medium to larger amp.
Ive been out of the stereo department for about 4 years, and just last month got a call from a shop asking me to come join them. So on alot of topics I still dont say much, since alot has changed in the last 4 years, and I dont want to give out wrong, or outdated informantion.
4 years, not much has really changed, just the updates of mainly the headunits, and some changes in amps, but a lot has changed with the cars themselves lol.
Re: (Clipsed)
Just wanted to update the install was successful. I took my time and everything turned out great. To answer the question I did replace all 4 speakers in the doors running all new wire to each. I also added a sub. Thanks for all the help guys.