Im going to install a new amp and sub in my 04 mustang in my trunk. Any tips for running the wires? I want to know where the best/easiest places to run/hide thewires are.

Also I ordered a 4 channel amp (which has not arrived yet). So I will be running wires from my amp to the 5x8 speakers.Is it easy to run new wires to the door speakers or should I use the stock wires ? There is no Mach system involved.

 

hey DSGSTANZG,

i did my wiring job myself, and it's a real hastle. i have a 98 mustang, but im sure the basic setup is the same. for me, if you pull out the side panel in the trunk on the driver's side, there's a little hollow that leads to an opening right next to the rear passanger seat and runs down the side and under that stepping strip all the way up to the kick panel and then up to your dash. that's what i used.

i managed to run a 2 gauge wire, 2 14-gauge speakerwire [they were doubled up, so technically 4], 2 RCAs, and a remote [i think that was it] and i had a litttle bit more room. so that's what i decided to use.
hopefully it'll be the same for you, if not i just wasted your time


as for the door speakers, if you actually look at the wire, at least for my car, they were like little strands of wire, haha. i could conduct more electricity with my finger ^-^. so if youre gunna run an amp, you definetly have to put in new wires, its not that hard, but i did get my hand cut up.

the thing about installing this stuff yourself, as far as wiring, you need a snake. you have to have a nice strong, yet flexible snake.
[if you don't know what a snake is, it's basically a wire or wire-type thing that's used to run wires]
I used some really old wire that was around my dad's shop and i managed to get that through. i'm not really sure what it was. but theyre a must. with out them you can't install the wires, that's for certain.


and from personal experience, don't get the metal ones. them and electrical tape don't really go well together, the wire always ends up sliding off.


(And to snake, you simply put the snake through, so that you can grab it on the other side, you tape the wire up, somewhat generously, with whatever tape you'd like, but I prefer electrical tape seeing how it's the strongest. and if you plan on snaking more than one wire, dont do it at the same time. one wire at a time, and if you dont have a second snake, then tape up the wire high on the snake so that it doesn't disappear when you're pulling it through. but id recommend having a second snake, so that you can just tape the snake right by the wire and pull it back through and just kinda create a see-saw type motion)

Anyway, hope i helped.



edit** in my mustang it was pretty easy to snake in the wires. what i did was take off the speaker, and find where all the wires go into the door sleeve, put the snake in there and with my other hand make sure it wasn't stabbing through, and just gently pushed it until it went through on the other side, tapped up the wire and pulled it through. ez-pz

 

Any problems with noise problemsfrom running the power and speaker wires on the same side? I heard you should run them on seperate sides of the car.

Also did the wires all fit under the strip, or did you have to run them under the carpet? I was concerned because I will be running 3 sets of RCA's (front/rear/sub) in addition to the power and remote wire. Then I will need to run new speaker wire from the trunk to the door speakers.

 

you want to seperate the rca and power wires, the speaker and power wires do not matter. You want to isolate the signal before it is amplified to keep from amplifying noise as well as the signal.

Unless you are going to build a serious competition vehicle I would not go through the trouble of running wires through the doors, the stock wires are fine.