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My son has just bought a new head unit, speakers and amp to install in his 99 Civic. Ourproblem is how to get the wires form the door mounted front speakers to the amp, which is located in the trunk. I would think you could use the factory rubber boot to feed the wires but this does not seem to be accessible, plus I cannot even determine where this enters the car.

The other problem we have is how to get the hot lead from the amp to the battery. Is there an esy way to get thru the firewall?

Any help is greatly appreciated as this project has now been stalled....

 
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You will need to go to the local stereo shop and purchase an installation wiring kit. This should include the harness and dash kit for the radio. This harness that you need has all the wires labeled so all you will need to do is run your front speaker leads to the harness and not mess with the doors.

To get the power wire threw the fire wall you will need to drill a hole. Just pull the carpet back on the Passenger side and find a good location. Watch out for the ECU.

I believe that is the easiest way to accomplish your task. I have been watching my husband do this for about 12 years now. Good Luck.

If you have any other questions here is a link to a good website:
http://www.the12volt.com

Wife of Alpha 5

 
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Wife of Alpha 5 thanks for the advice, however my son did purchase a wiring harness which we have connected, however I forgot to mention that he also has a crossover installed in the door panel which needs to be connected to the amplifier in the trunk.

After reading your response I am now wondering what good the wiring harness will do if the "other end" is not connected to the woofers because the woofers are wired to the crossover?

I am now more confused than before.....help!!!

 
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Is it a 4 channel amp? Are the rear speakers getting amplified?

 
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Yes I believe it is a 4 channel amp and the rear speakers are (will be) amplified.

 
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Rear speaker wiring:
Run brand new speaker wire from the amplifier to the rear speakers, unhook the existing wire @ the rear speaker.

Front speaker wiring:
Run brand new speaker wire from the amplifier to the factory rear speaker wiring that you just unhooked. Go to your deck next, and connect your front and rear speaker wires on the harness that was purchased(white to green, white/black to green/black, gray to violet, gray/black to violet/black). What this does is send signal from the amp, thru the factory rear speaker wires to the deck, looped from the factory rear wires to the factory front speaker wires, and into the front doors.

You can then take the speaker wire in the door and attach that to your crossover. I hope that makes sense.

As far as the firewall either go thru an existing grommet or drill on either passenger or driver side. If the car is an automatic the clutch plate is usually a good choice for driver side.

 
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Wow...more confused than ever now....

We were not planning on using any of the "old factory wiring" since he bought all new components (rear speakers, front woofers, front tweeters, crossovers, amplifier and head unit). Plus all of the "old factory connections" have those connectors on them which makes wiring to them impossible.

Of course the instructions that came with each unit are useless, but I think we are now way over our heads and I's hate to have to bring it to a "shop" to have them finish the job.

How does the head unit control the speakers? Is it thru the existing wiring harness or thru it's own wiring via the amplifier?

Sorry for the many questions but what I thought was going to be a fairly simple prjoect is now turning into a nightmare!

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
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Well if you don't want to use existing wire your only option is to run new wire thru each door boot. Of course you can tap into any wire so the factory connectors aren't an issue.


If you weren't using an outboard amp the headunit would play over existing wire directly to the speaker. Using an amp audio signal goes from the head unit to the amp, and then out to the speakers via speaker wire however you want to route them.

 
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Well I've gone from this to this after the great help from this forum.

I still have to figure out the wiring to the door panels but at least I was able to find a way thru the firewall to run the power cable to the amp.

Hooray for small accomplishments!

Thanks again for the help....!

 
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I'm assuming you have taken the door panels off, to access the speakers? ... If not, look for the Crutchfield master installation sheet for an 01-05 civic. I can't find the link, and i have to go to work ... but im sure you'll find it soon :-)

As for wiring, take the old speaker wiring harness from one side and tie the new speaker wire to it. Then pull it through the door's cable run, until it is within the car. Then run it through to the amp or directly to the head unit.

 
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Wiring to the door is next to impossible....there must be a better and easier way! Seems the door wiring uses a harness so we can't even just run our wiring thru it!

This has taken over one week and we are no closer to getting this done than when we started. My son does not want to bring it to a professional installer and at this stage I am throwing the towel in...I don't know what else to try!

Any other last minute suggestions are more than appreciated.

 
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i just installed speakers and an amp in my car, its a 2000 EX. i used the stock wiring in the doors, cut off the stock connectors and used standard speaker connectors. Then i cut the speaker wires on the main harness that connects to the Head unit and extended them from the Head unit to the amp under my seat. that might be your only option, like you said it is almost impossible to rewire it.

 
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If you live close to southern Oklahoma, I will do it for free. Just hit me up.

 
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This is my point about just using the "existing factory wiring". Why make your life so hard man?? Just tap into the factory wires, you will NOT notice a difference.

 
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Hey Alpha thanks for the offer but we are in Northern New Jersey! We were able to get the driver's side completed yesterday, but we had to remove the bolts that hold the fender on and while the fender was not completely removed, it gave us enough room to work with the rubber boot and we eventually ran the amp wires in thru that.

Today we tackle the passenger side. Thanks again for everyone's advice...will keep you all advised of our outcome.

 
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So we thought that the passenger side would be easy to complete since we had figured out the details on the drivers side...well not exactly! While we did the same steps it was fairly easy to run the wiring thru the rubber boot and into the door but when we went to screw in the bolts that hold the fender on, we had difficulties. Seems they are a strange type of bolt that does not have any threads on the first 1/8 of an inch and we cannot get them to grab hold. The drivers side went in with no problems, so I thought perhaps it was the passenger side bolts...nope we removed one from the drivers side, it was identical and now we are unable to get that one screwed back in.

Next problem encountered was trying to reconnect the passenger door wiring harness...seems this will not "click in" as it should do. We never did anything with this piece so do not understand why it will not completely reconnect. Without this connected the window will not operate, in fact even with it pushed together it is not making the proper connections in order for the window to work.

Oh by the way, while my son was re-installing the rear seat it snapped a bolt so now I have to figure out how to drill this out and then get a new bolt to ensure the rear seats are held in properly.

Any suggestions...?

 
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DUDE! You are making this WAY to FREAKIN HARD!!!! You could have done a motor swap in the time it has taken to change the speakers and radio.
Pull the fenders to run wire in to the doors?
Pull the rear seat to run wires? Why

You can lift the front of the seat enough to push the power wire under and back up in the trunk. There should have been no reason to pull it. I also hope you did not run the power wire behind the fender and into the cab by the door grommet. You should drill a hole in the fire wall and run it under the carpet next to the side of the car.

Please post up some pics of what you have done so far.

 
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I had some issues with getting the wires to my front doors as well but i ended up finding a way to get them out through the front parts of the door frame and it my be ghetto but i just slid the wire under the door panel lol. I will take some pics of my ghetto mod this weekend and post them up.

Im sure many people will say its bad and all but it sure works ok and over 8 months of use i have no kinks.

 
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What the hell? Dude this is way easier than what you think.

Wire through firewall.......no drilling, just push it through.



You have this wiring harness right? Now go to your local stereo shop and get this Street Wires bundle of wires. It's the +/- wires for each speaker plus a remote lead wire so nine in total.



Then solder the wires to the proper wires in the wiring harness.



Once you plug in the harness now everything will work. Then just hook up the other end to your amp, you can run it either under the carpet or around the side of the headliner like I did to keep it away from power wires. Why the hell are you messing with the wires attached to the speakers themselves? Leave them alone dude. Those speakers are already wired to the harness so all you need to do is wire the amp to the harness and you're done.

 
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Still the EASIEST way to do this (practically no running of wire required):

 
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That's not easier. Sorry.

 
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Oh, well why not? You're talking about running 8 wires thru the car to the trunk. I'm saying run wire from the amp to the rear speakers, and from the amp to the rear speaker wires. Unless you're putting the amp under a front seat I don't see how it's not easier. Please explain.

 
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While christmaspies's way is "easier", it is not correct!!!

 
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OK, what in the world does correct mean? Does it get the signal to the appropriate speakers? Yes.

Would I do this in my car? No, I run new wire but it also doesn't take me a day per door.

I have done this several times for customers. It is a very quick, easy, efficient, professional way to get signal from a new 4ch to four speakers.

 
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Just getting the job "Done" does not mean it was a job well done.

The factory wiring is in no way large enough to handle the current of any type of amplified stereo system. So, by doing it your way, yes it gets the customers ride out and you can turn more jobs per day. As you said yourself you would not do this to your car. So why do it to others? They are entrusting you with their vehicle and you are "Just getting it done".
BTW, What stereo shop do you work at?

 
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Oh really, do you have any mathematical specifics you would like to throw my way on this. Are you saying the current handling issue results in an increase in wire resistance that translates to a loss of output??

How about the audible difference between 18 AWG and 16 AWG wire. Do you want to make that argument too?

There is no reason using existing 18AWG wire is a problem.

I run 12AWG wire to my tweeters for the same reason I have an 8" mid bass in my front doors. When it comes to audio I am ****ing insane.

99,999/100,000 people in this world are not, which is why the steps I outlined are more than acceptable for them.

 
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Oh and I worked at a local Mpls shop for one year, a BBY for six years, and now I work @ BBY Corp doing phone based tech support for all of BBY's installers nationwide. Basically I sit at a phone and tell guys how to do their installs.

 
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So to clarify.
You are stating that it would be acceptable to install a 100W amp this way?
I am talking a true 100w amp not a legacy. Also if so, how many watts would you put threw the factory wiring?

 
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Well that's a 2ch and we're talking about 4 but I would have no qualms installing a 50-75 by 4 the way I stated for like I said, the majority of people in the world. Musical signals are random (compared to sine waves) and you won't see those higher voltage/currents but for split seconds at a time.

If you want to pay extra (money or time) to have a higher gauge ran that's fine. Again, I'm just saying you could go my route and have the speakers wired up in five minutes or you could spend whatever amount of time needed to get new wire into door(s).

I'm not sure what you mean by legacy amp? The brand?

 
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Yes, I meant the brand.

The pic of the pyramid gold was just a joke.