How do you run speaker wires from body into doors ?

[GT Wagon]

This is for a '97 (BD/BG ?) bodystyle. I pulled off a door cover to look at the speaker mouting point over the weekend. When it comes to running speaker wire into the doors the factory wiring harness is covered by the smallest little rubber tube.

Have you guys bypassed it or run the wire through there ? Any pics ?

[Huffer]

Are you replacing the stock wires?

If you are, just tie your new wire to the old one, and pull it through the rubber tube.

Otherwise, you'll have to bypass the rubber bungs and create a potential leak...

[GT Wagon]

I would like to replace the original wires but I was thinking of leaving them there for the "back to stock" ability. How easily does the wire pull through that little plastic tube ? Its really small and tight.

[Reason]

I would like to replace the original wires but I was thinking of leaving them there for the "back to stock" ability. How easily does the wire pull through that little plastic tube ? Its really small and tight.

You would seriously go through the trouble on switching wires to "stock" to sell the car? You are better off replacing the wires and keeping them in.

[NewGenSTi]

I would like to replace the original wires but I was thinking of leaving them there for the "back to stock" ability. How easily does the wire pull through that little plastic tube ? Its really small and tight.

You would seriously go through the trouble on switching wires to "stock" to sell the car? You are better off replacing the wires and keeping them in.

I agree on this too. speaker wire is cheap enough and using the old wire to pull through the new would make it much easier.. and what gauge wire do you plan on pulling through that your saying it doesnt seem like it will fit. are you running your door speakers off the head unit or an amp? I cant see you needing anything gigantic for door speakers.

[GT Wagon]

I was more thinking of leaving the factory speaker harness intact so there's something I can just plug back when I sell the car but I suppose it would only take a second to solder it back on.

I have 14 gauge wire I'll be running to the mids ( and probably 16 gauge to the tweeters) . Its certainly not the cost of wire I'm concerned with. Yes I will be running these speakers off an amp.

[GrassyKnoll]

I did replace mine because I wanted better quality sound to the higher powered speakers.

What I did is started in the door and reached my arm into the hole where the speaker sits. I tied the end of my wire to the end a piece of a long straight metal hanger (long piece of hard wire). Then, I disconnected the car-side of the rubber connector that sits in the door hinge. I played around pushing the metal hanger into it until I got it to come out the other side of the rubber connecter.

After this is done, you can wire up your speaker and get rid of any excess slack in the wire. After that is done, take the end of the wire and push it into the car through the door hinge, following where the rest of the wire harness from the door is going. You should be able to reach up from underneath the drivers floor, underneath the steering wheel, and feel around for where the harness comes in from the door. While you are pushing it through with your left hand, feel around for the wire with your right hand and grab it. Once you pull it through, you then have the wire in the car and the rest should be pretty simple.

Definately not an operation I would like to complete every day, but I have to say it is worth it.

KEEP IN MIND > if you are using some cheaper speaker wire (nothing wrong with that) be careful of 2 things.

1) make sure you have it well connected to the speaker in the door. Mine onnecters slip off over time and creates a very unnecessary hassle.

2) make sure that if you are running any custom powered objects (such as an amp) that you do not run the speaker wires next to the power wire for the amp. If you do that, since the speaker wire won't be shielded, whenever you have the stereo on when there is no music or a break in the music, you will hear a loud staticy noise because the speakers will pick up the power from the device's power wire. Always run the power separate from the audio cables.

Hope this helps!

[GT Wagon]

Good post GrassyKnoll, I will try your technique. It does not appear that I can pull the old harness through the door. Look at the picture below, I would say the speaker harness is wrapped together with other wiring, thus it can't be used to pull the new speaker wire in.

[GrassyKnoll]

right. run the new speaker wire separate of the old harness through the same rubber tube that the main harness goes through in the door hinge.


The other thing you can try is disconnecting both ends of the rubber tube protector in the door hinge and pulling all the wire out through teh hole in the door where that hole is. Then the only hard part is going to be getting the wire through that rubber hose when it isn't connect then putting teh rubber hose back in.

I hope you can understand what I'm talking about, this procedure is hard to explain haha

[shooter]

Just ran mine through the Z shaped rubber cover fitted between the door and body, I found that when I took out the kick panels I was able to almost push the new cables right through into the door. Using cable ties to hold the new cables out of the way in the door.

[tekkitan]

Car domain has speaker wiring harneses for my car...

http://www.cardomain.com/item/MET729300

[JjSwee]

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/746722/5

That is my attempt at doing it. <with pics!> I got a pair of 12 guage and 16 guage through. I did it the hardway without removing the rubber piece. It took me forever, but i was slackin most of the time.