I am having trouble getting a 4 gauge wire thru the firewall of my FD without drilling. does anybody know a place I can go thru the firewall safely without drilling.
I have checked behind the fusebox but can't identify a place.

 

Why do you not want to drill a hole? I dont know that there is a spot for you to fit a cable that large through.

 

You arew gonna have to drill a hole no matter what. Question is, do you want to drill a hole through metal or through a rubber grommet. The easiest one to get to is the steering column grommet.

 

You have to drill a hole.

 

Please ignore all of the above. Also ignore your own remark about not finding a place behind the fusebox.

Remove the drivers side front tire. Remove the back of the fender liner. This will involve removing a few metal screws, a few plastic trim type screws and yanking out a few staples. Then you will see where you can go through, and end up behind the fusebox.

 

Damn newbies.

First: SEARCH.
Second: As PV already mentioned, behind both fender liners are free routing conduits for each side.

 

Yep. Yep. Yep.

Personally I hate the idea of people running electrical wires or anything else through the steering grommet seeings how it is right next to a moving part (the steering column) and it's in the vicinity of the foot pedals. Routing things through the large grommet behind the fusebox is the only place that makes sense. You don't add holes to the body and at the same time you stay well away from any moving parts.

 

Yeah, shame on you Flybye and apneablue.

It's not that difficult. Remove the fender liner completely so you don't rip out any staples, because the staples are holding on the channel that transfers air from the oil cooler(s) to the ducts in the front fenders. There are four or five sheet metal screws at most (don't over-tighten when you replace them) and perhaps 12-14 black plastic "pop-rivets" which you can carefully unscrew and then pull out. Pull the rear towards the front of the car first before pulling out to disengage the ducting.

Once you've got the fender liner out of the way, there are three grommets to choose from. The largest probably has the most room and is the ~3.5" diameter "accordion" (pleated) grommet/boot for the front wiring harness. You can easily snake a 4-gauge wire through a hole in that boot, but be sure you seal it up well if you do.

There is another grommet immediately below it, and I'll be damned if I can remember what used to go through there, but on my car, it's a 2-guage power cable.

Then there's a grommet on the side of the front cowl, behind the fender, around the corner from the two mentioned above. Your SRS (air bag) wiring harness comes out there on each side of the car. If you've torn out your air bags like I have, it makes a handy place to run 5 or 6 extra wires up to the engine bay for gauge hook-ups and switched power for relays.

Run your cable through the black plastic grommet on the inner fender to the right of the power brake booster and clutch master cylinder, or if you want to be a little stealthier, route it along the front wiring harness over the top of the wheel opening and zip-tie it carefully in place, then run it into the engine bay behind the driver's headlight. Just be sure that it won't extend below the existing harness at any point and make sure that you keep it away from the oil cooler duct area mentioned above so that you won't have any trouble reinstalling the fender liner.

 

As the others pointed out the fender is the best bet. Also if you have ditched the A/C, it leaves room for routing hoses and wires through the wall behind the glove box.

 

What he said.... Except you don't need to yank out the staples and I would recommend against doing that. The fender liner is a multiple piece plastic liner that is in some places held together with staples. Rip out the staples and it'll never go together again the same way.

Let's hope we saved a firewall.

 

Funny story: Once I remember popping out the plug on the passenger side and must have spent about an hour and a half trying to get it reseated using every combination of small screwdriver, pliers to compress the rubber, etc. before i realized I should be using silicone lubricant. I think it took about 10 seconds after that.

 

Crap, I wish I'd know that about the staples

 

Ha. I got you all beat.

I went through that grommet installing gauge wires, all without removing the wheel! I have the cuts on my arms to prove it.

 

As Jim said,thats the best way to go.I did that for the egt,boost,and profec cables but from the passenger's side.Here are some pics for further help....

 

Thanks a lot jimlab and EFS.0. much help.

 

Hey, I gave him the easiest solution

 

Bump to another oldie, but goodie for feeding wiring for gauges... I just followed this and Have my new WideBand wires fed into the engine bay...... but now i have one las challenge..

How do I get it through that boot properly? Do I pull the boot out with pliers and feed the wire that way?do I ever so easily slice the boot and feed my wide band connector through?

Dgeesaman, Goodfella, Mahjik? This would be the perfect end game for this thread for guys like me who are finally loosing our n00b status

 

Perhaps it is too late for you, but I found the driver side a lot easier to deal with. It has an unused (on LHD cars) hole and a grommet that is easy to cut.

 

Thanks. I realized after playing around with it for a while, the grommet with the harness will pull out just a little toward the fender and then it is real easy to poke a hole below the grommet where I could even feed the 6 wire clip from my PLX WB Gauge.

All I need to do now is mount up the box, hook up my Datalogit with the Wideband into the PFC and wire a 5v fuse for my gauge and I am golden!