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How do you get wire through the doors?

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Old Mar 9, 2010 | 06:03 PM
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From: Stamford, CT
How do you get wire through the doors?

I'm running new wires into the doors (12 gauge). I took a look at the rubber grommet/flexible loom that runs between the body and the front of the doors.

I was hoping I could snake a wire through there, but it looks like there is a hard plastic connector on the inside of the body that goes directly to the rubber, so there is no way to get wires from the door into the body through the exisiting pathway.

Would it work to drill a hole directly below where the wires currently run and then just tape the new wires to the rubber loom? Or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks.
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Old Mar 9, 2010 | 06:37 PM
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I'm not exactly sure if FC and FD door electrical connections are the same, but when I ran new speaker wiring into my FC's doors I followed the stock wiring very closely. It also helped to 'remove' the rubber boot from the door and body (disconnect it at both ends, let it hang on the wiring) and then ran it between the grommets while shoving it through the boot.
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Old Mar 9, 2010 | 08:36 PM
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the only problem with that is it doesn't look like there is any spot to get the wire through to the body. It's not a typical grommet on the body side of the rubber boot.
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Old Mar 9, 2010 | 10:04 PM
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First off, what you have to do is take a razor blade, and remove the skin from two of your knuckles on each hand to get that part out of the way. Then you can do what I did and drill a couple of holes that will fit a grommet that is just big enough for the wires to go through and feed the wires through the grommets.

Sorry, my car's a little dirty right now.

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Old Mar 9, 2010 | 10:57 PM
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There was an old thread about this in the Interior/Exterior section as well.
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Old Mar 10, 2010 | 08:50 AM
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Sorry, I accidentally deleted the above picture. Here it is again.
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Old Mar 10, 2010 | 09:15 AM
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Thanks for the pic, but oh man that sucks (not your work, but that i have to do that). Have you had any problems with the wires getting pinched at all?
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Old Mar 10, 2010 | 04:07 PM
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Honestly, I just used the stock wire for the speakers to get from door to inside of car, cut there and ran new wire to the amp. a 2ft section of stock wiring isnt going to make any difference and you dont have to worry about the routing. I was worried about pinching as you mentioned in my FD so went this route.
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Old Mar 10, 2010 | 06:59 PM
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I was thinking about that, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of me running 12 gauge wire from my amp to my 100w speakers? Or is the gauge of the wire more critical for long lengths of wire as mentioned above?
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Old Mar 10, 2010 | 09:07 PM
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12-gauge is more than thick enough for your front speakers. Assuming that you mean 50 RMS watts into each side, even if you sealed the baffles, that's really treading the limits of any speaker that will fit your door.

To run wires through a door or firewall, simply drill the holes, then immediately paint the holes to prevent rust. Then insert grommets to protect the wires. Cut a piece off a metal hanger and tape the end of the wire to it. Use that to feed the wires through the holes.

A little flex tubing or even a few loops of black electrical tape will help protect those wires.

It would also look cleaner and less conspicuous.

Josh
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Old Mar 11, 2010 | 04:55 PM
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Read this thread and see my posts: https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/how-would-you-run-wire-door-884973/
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Old Mar 11, 2010 | 05:29 PM
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12 AWG wire for a car door speaker? Sorry, I must LoL. Speaker wire gauge/length is based off of the resistance of the speaker circuit, not what "wattage" the speaker is rated at. Most car speakers are 4-ohm. Take a look at the wire gauge chart at the following link: http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

Considering the distance from the doors to the amp are no longer then 6 to 10 feet, the stock RX7 18 or 16 gauge wire is more then sufficient for any car speaker duty. You will notice absolutely zero sound difference between your 12 guage wire and hooking up the stock wires. Remember, speaker wire is high-voltage and there is no shielding, so you do not have to worry about interference from low quality wire as you would when talking about RCA connections etc.
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Old Mar 15, 2010 | 09:48 AM
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How it's done, and I don't care if 12 gauge is overkill, i had 50 feet of it, why not use it:

I managed to figure out how to get new speaker wire into the door without it looking obvious. The grommet on the body presents a problem that I wasn't expecting, you can't run wire's through the hole here, there is a solid plastic connect that takes up the entire hole, it looks the same in the door as well, but once you peel back the rubber, there is room to get wire through.

So, first thing I did was peel back the rubber on both ends of the boot.


twist the top of the rubber boot, so you can get to the bottom of it, cut a small hole.


Drill a hole in the body, just below the factor grommet and electrical connector,then spray with primer, install grommet and wire:



Run wire through the hole you cut in the rubber boot, then down the rubber boot and into the opening in the door:




Install big speakers and call it a day, looking pretty much OEM :

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