need help installing wires in my doors...

[allyourblood 10+ year member]

i have a 4dr '97 civic LX. i want to run new 16ga wires from my 4ch amp in the trunk to my front doors. i have no problem getting them up to the kick panels, but how do i run them into the door itself? i can see the bundle of wires going from the door into my car, but the clearance on those things is a joke!

how do i get in there? should i actually run them in the same bundle, or drill (gulp!) new holes? do i have to remove the doors? any of you Civic owners, please come forward and help me out. thanks!

abe m.

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[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Take the boot that covers the factory loom loose on both ends. Get a tube of Astroglide. Use a few drops of Astroglide and a piece of hanger wire to fish the 16 ga wire through the boot. Put the boot back in place. Its a tight fit in most all cars, but it can be done without drilling in most all cases, unless you are running a large number of speakers in the door and putting the crossovers elsewhere.

 

[allyourblood 10+ year member]

wicked-sweet! thanks, helo, you're a pal!

abe m.

 

[Pete 10+ year member]

sometimes when the factory gromet and rubber casing the factory wires are in is really tight hanger wire will stab through and put holes.

The civic is one of the worst cars to do this on... I would look for some solid core copper wire with rubber insulation and use that instead of hanger wire just to avoid puncturing the rubber. Use astroglide or WD40 or Triflo or any lubricant helps alot too.

 

[allyourblood 10+ year member]

welp, we battled thru almost all of my install. we hooked up the rear speakers to the new amp, and i just have to connect the front stage. we ran wires under the door sills, but we ran out of sunlight (and i'm not fond of working with the stupid floodlight), so i'll have to finish tomorrow.

we started to pull the grommets from the passenger side door, and everything went fine. we can even fit the hanger thru, with wire attached, so that's okay too. the only trouble is, the original wire bundle terminates into a fat, plastic connector that jacks into the door. that *****, because there's no actual place to run the wire. what we've decided to do is: run the wire, and drill thru some of the empty space on the plastic connector, run thru that, and then feed the wire into the door. we'll have to remove the entire door panels though, so it's gonna have to wait until tomorrow.

abe m.

 

[nosaj070 10+ year member]

Thats exactly what I did, drilled out the empty part of the connector. Taking the doorpanel off is nice and easy, pry off the armrests, take out 2 screws from em, pop off speaker grills and take out 3 screwes there, screw from doorhandle, then just start at the lower outside corner and yank.

 

[allyourblood 10+ year member]

nosaj070: i was waiting for you to get in on this! yeah, after a lot of thought, we just figured that was the only way to do it. thanks for the door removal tips; we started but it was getting dark, and we couldn't find all of the screws in time. now it'll be easy. btw, so far the rears are sounding great on that CA440.

abe m.

 

[lexus rx 10+ year member]

i have a 93 civic and this is what i did for the front. my alpine has no internal amp so i ran my rca jacks from the hu to the amp and then ran my speaker wire to the stock wiring on my harness. that way you can use your wiring that is already ran through the door. simple, easy and clean. dont even have to worry about taking the doors off or anything like that. peace

 

[allyourblood 10+ year member]

lexus rx: yeah, i considered using the stock wires, but they're like 24ga, which is not at all adequate for the power i'm sending to my speakers (60w each). unfortunately, to give them a fat enough pipe, we had to run 16ga to them.

it was a BASTARD. we just finished today, but it all worth it. i could not believe my car could ever sound that good! thanks to all who posted to this thread.

abe m.