front speaker wire... stock or new?? please advise

[xoch1 10+ year member]

Hi all. I replaced my front stock speakers on a 2000 Honda civic 4 dr. I want to add a 4 ch amp to complete my system. But I am leery about doing it since I have never installed any amps or wiring myself. I had the sub and mono amp installed by the only local shop around. The price was outrageous and the job was just ok. So I want to do the four ch myself for the learning experience. I have done weeks of research on how to do it and have enough confidence to try. Except one question. The new front speakers are Pioneer 50 watt rms. Can I just run the speaker wires from the amp to behind the head unit and tap the stock speaker wires or do I HAVE to run the wire to the speakers themselves? Yes, I realize this would be the best (and professional way) but I am concerned about fishing the wires through the big rubber boot block or whatever its called that is connected to the door and the door jam. I don’t even know what that device is but I am assuming it’s full of wires cause it looks like that is where the stock wiring runs. Plus tearing the panel off the door doesn’t really excite me. I am not a competition guy running tons of power. Just an average joe looking for a cleaner sound. Like I said the speakers are 50 rms and the 4 ch amp I will be getting will likely be rated 80-125 rms (got rears that are 75 rms) 600 watt total. Will the stock wire work? Would I just be wasting time and money buying the amp and then sticking with the stock wire? p.s I called that local shop and they told me they only use the factory wiring, never do they run the good wire all the way to the doors. So even if I pay them to do the job, there just gonna use the factory stuff as well.

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[AWD PSI 10+ year member]

I battled this dilemma for 30 seconds and decided to run the good stuff and not use stock wiring. My decision was made easier in 3 ways; 1, by the fact that I have factory speaker clips that I would have to cut off and either crimp spade connectors on, solder the wires to the new speakers or make/buy an adapter, time and money better spent elsewhere. 2, I want to be able to put my car back to factory as much as possible. The stock clips get taped out of the way now. 3, my stock wire is so skinny I wouldn't even use it for the remote turn on, I'm talking skinny stuff. I am installing a 50x4 rms amp. I didn't want any bottle necks if/when I decide I want a bigger system. I was not looking forward to tackling the rubber door insulator either but found it to be easier than expected. With my door panel off and speaker out I was able to work with both hands and the job took about 15 minutes start to finish once I figured out how to do it. My first attempt I fished a coat hanger through and taped the speaker wire to it and tried to pull it through. This did not work because the wiring harness was tape sealed to the rubber boot. How I did it was I uncliped the wiring harness from the door to get some slack in it to work with. I unwound the stock tape from the harness and boot, at this point the harness could slide around in the boot and now the coat hanger method would work. I did not use the hanger because there was still a pretty good curve in the boot, instead I popped the boot out of the door, scrunched it together and passed the wire through it. I pulled enough wire through that when I expanded the boot it would not go back inside. I was able to pass the wire easily into the car and further into the door using just my fingers and feeding it where I needed it. The rubber boot pops back into place by working it some, not to hard but make sure it seats back in fully. Pull your harness back into position and make sure the clips you removed if any will reach back into their spots and retape the boot and harness. That's pretty much it, don't mean to write a novel, just wanted to share my experience since this part was actually holding up my install because I didn't want to do it. Hope this helps.

 

[benzmansl65amg 10+ year member]

you dont need to. I run 150 watts down factory wires //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif and they sound great

 

[xoch1 10+ year member]

I’m really struggling with this. I have read lots of posts all over the web and the opinions seem to be split. I think maybe it comes down to the vehicle itself. This civic is so small I can’t get my hands in between the doors enough to get enough power and leverage to get the plug off the door. So the only way to get some more room is to take off the fender. But in order to do that, I have to first jack up the car, take off the wheel so I can get to the wheel well to get to the some of the bolts holding the fender on. After the fender is off, it looks a little more manageable. I have to drill a small hole in the plug to get the wire to pass through. There is actually a nice vid on the web of a guy showing how to do it on his 96 civic which is very similar. But man o man it sure seems like a ton of work just for a couple of wires… lol If I was gonna be pushing 100 watts or more I would definitely be considering it more. But I guess I just don’t know how much it would gain only pushing 50 rms. But I really appreciate your experience and the time you took writing me back AWD PSI. I’m glad you were able to pull it off. Btw were you able to do it with the fender on or did you have to remove it from your vehicle?

 

[350zspl 10+ year member]

not for nothing the factory wire will probably work

but if you hesitant and your spending time worrying

it is cheap enough, quick enough, and easy enough to just run new wire

 

[Wingsfreak9 10+ year member]

the rubber boot is easier than you think to bypass...just pull it out, tape an end of the wire youre trying to get thru to a straight coat hanger and then work it thru the boot. it takes patience but its worth it.

 

[UMWDawg92 10+ year member]

My car was a pain to run new wires because my driver side uses a molar style plug rather than a boot, so I had to drill a hole and I still think it was worth it to run some nice new wiring. My factory wiring was I think 20 gauge so it was tiny stuff that I wouldn't wanna run much power through it

 

[xoch1 10+ year member]

All you that were able to accomplish it, did you have to remove the fender? I tried to pull the plug off the door and cant get enough hand on it to pry it off. Guess i could get a little more aggressive and use like a screwdriver or somthing. Just dont want to tear up any other wires or such. And mine is the plastic syle plug (covered with rubber insulator) so i too will have to drill a hole in it. That doesnt bother me so much. Its just getting the darn thing off...lol

 

[NFAMOUZ 10+ year member]

my car has the molex plugs too, so through the boot was an automatic **** no, I took out one of the pins from the door panel and ran the wire through that hole and found a hole close by that led into the car and jus ran it through kick panel, I ziptied the wires, you could see them when I opened the door, but I thought it was sexy //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif 16 guage and I saw no deterioration or effects of moisture, was a 5 month period

 

[AWD PSI 10+ year member]

. But I really appreciate your experience and the time you took writing me back AWD PSI. I’m glad you were able to pull it off. Btw were you able to do it with the fender on or did you have to remove it from your vehicle?

No problem, I just wanted to give you a little insight as to why I decided to do it. Honestly if it was as hard as you say yours is I would be in the same situation. If you leave it stock your speakers will still play, if it sounds like crap you can always go back and run the wire. I would say just do it and gain the experience points //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif Good luck!

I did not have to remove my fender, only the inside kick panel and door panel. Mine did not have a molex plug, just the rubber boot. My main motivation was my stock wire is really small, guessing 22-20ga. The rubber boot is on there good, had to really work it with my finger tips in the limited space to get it out and back in. I would not use a screwdriver as I would be afraid to leave rust inviting gouges.

 

[xoch1 10+ year member]

Ok I have an idea, let me know if this will work. Can I run new speaker wire directly to the left speaker, not through the boot, just right to the door for testing purposes. Then run the right speaker wire up to behind the head unit and tap the right speaker wires. Then turn on some music, fade to the fronts and balance back and forth to listen for any appreciable difference??? Will this work or damage anything? That way if the quality is or isn’t that much different to my ears will help me decide.

 

[AWD PSI 10+ year member]

You would have to disconnect the stock wire not just tap in from the headunit so you are getting a signal only from the amp. Some h/u have an internal amp on/off feature built in. Let us know how it goes.

 

[xoch1 10+ year member]

What I was planning on doing was snipping the pos and neg wire on the harness and just connect the new speaker wire to the harness right before it connects to the factory plug. That way all that is getting modified is the harness and not the any factory stuff. This should would work right? I hope I am explaining it right. Its basically amp>new speaker wire>harness pos and neg>factory wiring.

 

[AWD PSI 10+ year member]

That should work as long as there is no signal coming from the headunit to the speaker. Another thing, can you mount the speaker and door panel on the test side properly? I would want everything mounted as it should be for the test as leaving a door panel off would affect sound.