OK, has anyone here been able to fit speaker wire of a bigger gauge then stock through those stupid little rubber hoses that all the wires to the door are stuffed in!? I can't get my 12-gauge through the tube, and it's ****ing me off. My Quarts need the power! Any tips or tricks? Thanks!

My system is 90% complete...still rocks, but having the fronts amped (quadruple the deck power) will be soo much nicer..not to mention the .05% THD and continuos crossover of the amp...no more crappy Sony software crossover to them...woo!

 

damn, 12 gauge? many people dont even use 12 gauge for amps...

 

You dont have to run it through the stock tubing. Run it along the same path though. Poke a hole in each rubber grommet (I actually used an X-Acto knife and cut an "X" in the grommet) and then shove the wiring through that, along the oustide of the rubber tubing, into the other rubber grommet, and into the door. Run electrical tape around it and you're good to go. This is still a major pain in the butt though...took me forever.

I had to do this on mine cuz I couldnt get it through the stock rubber tubing. Mine's 12 gauge too...

BTW matt1sd 12 gauge isnt THAT thick

 

Well "many people" don't run 150w peak to each of their component speakers, either :-P

The amp is gettin ZeroPoint 4-gauge less than a foot from the cap, and it needs it!

 

same here, I cut a slit in the gromet and ran the wires through it. Kinda tricky, just don't cut a huge whole, that stuff is pretty easy to cut. It's just a pain to get to though. Good luck
-Blake

 

Wow, that is a great idea! I wasn't sure how much room there was in that grommet before you hit metal...this might be tricky, but I bet it's gonna work great! One more question for ya, did you run the front's 12 gauge down the signal wire side of the car or the power wire side? Or just one up each side straight to the speakers? I don't want interference from running power/signal up the same side, but I'm not sure if the speaker wire plays a part in that formula or not...?

Oh, and also, what did you do with the old connectors straight to the receiver? I just electrical taped around the old speaker wire ends and shoved them up behind the 6x9s in the back...is this a bad thing? How did you get rid of your old non-amped wires?

 

Did the same thing (hole through grommet). Run the speaker wire down the "signal wire side" of the car. You are asking for interference if you run it alongside the power wire(s). You should be okay with just taping off the ends of the wires. You could have used heat shrink tubing also; or wire nuts. I've used all the above and currently have heat shrink tubing.

Never had a problem.

 

U GUYS HAVE COMPENT SPEEKER RIGHT WELL I HAVE CLARION PRO AUDIO 4*6 PLATES AND WAS WONDERNG WHERE U MOUNTED THE TWETTERS? ON THE SAILBOAT COVERING UP THE SIDE MIRRORS?

 

I driled new holes in the door, and ran new wire loom for my 12 gauge. I've got power on the right side, signal on the left side, and speaker wire down the center.

 

That's similar to what I did, except I went through the extra trouble of removing the passenger side door. I need to get around to doing the driver's side as well, cause my grommet won't go back into the doorwell w/o some type of tool. So I'm going through the pain of removing the driver's door.

 

How the heck did you get speaker wire clean up the center?! That's a great idea...but didn't you have to like rip out all the carpet and the center console and stuff!? Geez....I don't have the time to do that! Which side would you recommend running the speaker wire with if I did it that "easy" way? Power or signal? Any ideas?

 

I took off the center console, and just slipped the wire through, then under the carpet, through the rear seats to the trunk. I did this because I had some speaker whine, which turned out to be my gains being set too high. In your case, I'd just run the speaker wire on the power side.

 

Sorry NGThing, I have to disagree with you here. He needs to run that speaker wire on the signal side IF he's going to parallel wire of different types. I ran 4 Ga Power on the left, signal in the center, and speaker on the right. The way I was always taught. If you cross wires of different types you need to cross them at 90degree angles if at all possible. This way, there is less (underline less) chance of RFI. Your way works, but this way is a bit more insurance.

 

That's how I always thought it was, too. I currently have 4ga up the left and signal up the right, but I don't think I can get the speaker wire through the center on my own. I'm having a hellish quarter at college and can't really take more than a day per weekend doing the install. I just need to know which side will cause the least (hopefully none) interference, and have got conflicting views...maybe I should make a poll?

 

I did a wiring job similar to what j-bird180 described. I ran my Lightning Audio 4-gauge power wire down the left side, under the seat and across to the distro block to amps in the trunk on the right. The power wire crosses the signals (Stinger & Lightning Audio) at a 90-degree angle; the signals I ran straight up the middle under the rear seat, carpet, and through the center console to the head unit. Although the bottom half of the rear seat is a bi#&$ to remove, once it's out, the rest is pretty simple. It took me all day because I had my kids interrupting me every 10 minutes, but if you can enlist some dedicated help, it shouldn't take you very long at all to do. Take a look at p.5 of my website for pictures on how I did it. I still have to run the speaker wire for my speakers in the doors, and I'm thinking about running one speaker wire up the middle and to the left with the signals and the other down the right side to the passenger door. Cutting the grommet on the door was the way I had planned to take in order to get the speaker wires into the doors without drilling - I hate having to do that...

I'd heard not to run signals & power wires close to each other, but I'd never heard that you should cross them at a 90-degree angle. If you take a look on my site, you'll see there's a groove behind the rear seat that the power wire can run through pretty nicely if you're going to put your amps in your trunk, that is.

Good luck on the rest of your install.

peace2u

 

I've already got the power and signals all in, my subs have actually been in there for almost a year now. What I am installing this week is my new 2nd amp for the 4 speakers. Rear 6x9s are already running amazingly off of it, that only took a few hours (including the dist. block and capacitor.) I have one amp on the sub box and one on the hump in the left side of the trunk for the wheel well. Both amps have ground wire about a foot from the seatbelt bolt that way (pix coming very soon, it's a really clean install, I impressed myself!)

What I think I'm gonna do is just run each speaker up its own side, one by the signals on the right and one by the power on the left. the super easy, hour-tops way. If there is no interference, I saved myself quite a few hours and having to take out the bottom half of the seat, the console, and messing with getting it under the carpet. If not, oh well, I'll re-run them both up the middle next weekend and just take lots of time making it all perfect. I'll keep eveyrone posted on which side (power or signal) causes interference this way, if either