[ANTHONYD]

How tough is it to run wiring under the seats in a sedan. As it is now, I have a few feet of extra coiled up in the trunk (spare tire well) and I'd like to rip it all out and rewire from scratch.


Being as anal as I am with neatness, I just can't have extra wire exposed.

:rolleyes:
Any tips, tricks etc.....

[scoobasteve]

under the front seats or the rear seats.


I've never worked on a focus sedan. But to get it under the front seats of my svt the whole interior needed to be removed to take out the carpet.

If its the first time youre doing it. removing the interior could take anywhere between 2-5 hours depending on how careful you are.

That being said, There are some some sweet spots for running wire under the carpet.

[ANTHONYD]

scoobasteve,May 15 2006, 10:39 AM Wrote:under the front seats or the rear seats.


I've never worked on a focus sedan. But to get it under the front seats of my svt the whole interior needed to be removed to take out the carpet.

If its the first time youre doing it. removing the interior could take anywhere between 2-5 hours depending on how careful you are.

That being said, There are some some sweet spots for running wire under the carpet.
[right][snapback]187509[/snapback][/right]

The thing is.... My car fights EVERYTHING I try to do it. IT DOESN'T LIKE CHANGE!!!

I didn;t know how much trouble it really was.

Maybe things may be best left untouched. Knowing my luck, the interor won't come out right and I'll end up wrecking something.

[hardk0re]

Why not just cut the wire in the trunk?

When I installed mine I ran my power lines down one side, and my RCA's down the other side of the car. You couldn't see any wiring, even when it came up into the trunk you only saw it come and connect to the amp.

[scoobasteve]

ANTHONYD,May 15 2006, 10:42 AM Wrote:

scoobasteve,May 15 2006, 10:39 AM Wrote:under the front seats or the rear seats.


I've never worked on a focus sedan. But to get it under the front seats of my svt the whole interior needed to be removed to take out the carpet.

If its the first time youre doing it. removing the interior could take anywhere between 2-5 hours depending on how careful you are.

That being said, There are some some sweet spots for running wire under the carpet.
[right][snapback]187509[/snapback][/right]

The thing is.... My car fights EVERYTHING I try to do it. IT DOESN'T LIKE CHANGE!!!

I didn;t know how much trouble it really was.

Maybe things may be best left untouched. Knowing my luck, the interor won't come out right and I'll end up wrecking something.
[right][snapback]187511[/snapback][/right]

Its next to impossible to get all the pieces of the interior out without damaging a clip or bending something. its par for the course.

(Its even harder not breaking anything,shoving it back into place with 0ga wire and 3 layers of dynamat under it)

Taking apart the svt, we snapped 1 Seatbelt bolt - that alone took 2 hrs to drill out.

a bunch of misc. clips and stuff were damaged. but otherwise the car was back together and looking stock. some parts are harder than others. and other parts just fatigued and were harder to put back in.

All in all, if you plan to do it. take your time, and make sure everything lines up when youre putting it back together and dont try to force anything back into place.

[ANTHONYD]

Power lines and speaker wire I can easily cut to length to hide extra. The rca's can't be cut. I had the extra tucked under the dash and I ended up with interference with engine revs. Ever since I pulled them tight to rear, I've got no more speaker "whine" Now I just want to clean up the trunk.

It's not a hard job, I just want to do it well.

[scoobasteve]

Options
Use shorter RCA's

Tuck/Hide them under the trunks carpet, or under the back seat.

If you want, change the position of your amps. to make the cables tight.

some of the cleaner installs ive seen use those screw down zipties.

[ANTHONYD]

scoobasteve,May 15 2006, 11:32 AM Wrote:Options
Use shorter RCA's

Tuck/Hide them under the trunks carpet, or under the back seat.

If you want, change the position of your amps.  to make the cables tight.

some of the cleaner installs ive seen use those screw down zipties.
[right][snapback]187536[/snapback][/right]

Hmmm/ Change amp placement....


Maybe meford can fab me up a little surround for my amp so I don't ding it up.

[torradan]

scoobasteve,May 15 2006, 10:39 AM Wrote:under the front seats or the rear seats.


I've never worked on a focus sedan. But to get it under the front seats of my svt the whole interior needed to be removed to take out the carpet.

If its the first time youre doing it. removing the interior could take anywhere between 2-5 hours depending on how careful you are.

That being said, There are some some sweet spots for running wire under the carpet.
[right][snapback]187509[/snapback][/right]

What if you were to say, run a fish tape through what used to be the transmission/driveshaft tunnel area? Or along the sides of the car?

I know very little about this stuff.. so was just throwing out an idea instead of ripping the interior out..

I eventually want to do something with the stock stereo in the car. its so blah.

[ANTHONYD]

There isn't anymore room along the door sills to run more wire in my car. My power cable is pretty thick, and the rca's with the speaker wire are quite the bundle to say the least.

I'm just looking for another option. Ideally I'd like to run it under the seats and out the trunk.

Sounds easy, but I know it won't be.

[scoobasteve]

You could try to fish the wire through, But i dont see it ending well. There are far too many things that the wire can get hitched on. Not to mention, if you pull too hard you can efff up your factory wiring.

That would be BAD NEWS!

[NefCanuck]

You don't have heated seats do you Anthony? 'cause I do and I have two nice holes in the carpeting under the front seats where the wires for the heated seats poke through... they're big enough that you could shove almost any guage speaker wire you wanna run down there...

NefCanuck

[Kipp]

If you know how two reconnect the ends, you can cut and shorten the RCA's. You will have to solder them to reconnect it or it won't work though. as far as running new wire is concerned, use a torx 45 to remove the bolts on the front seats and a torx 40 to remove the bolts on the bottom of the back seat and then you can lieft up the carpet in order to run wiring wherever you need to. just remember that both front seats do you harnesses connected to them so don't just pull the seat out once it's unbolted. as far as excess wire goes, the shorter the better, any extra wire that you have will add resistance and cut down on possible current flow along the length of the wire.

[Phantom]

Just get new rca ends and shorten the cable that way. Yes you can buy new rca ends :D

[scoobasteve]

If you wanna clean up the install a bit, I'm sure we can arrange a day where paul and i can help you out.

[microbunny]

scoobasteve,May 16 2006, 02:13 PM Wrote:If you wanna clean up the install a bit, I'm sure  we can arrange a day where paul and i can help you out.
[right][snapback]187901[/snapback][/right]

if you are referring to me..I'm out...I'm not doing anymore stereo s*** in Anthony's car. I obviously didnt do it right the first time and I dont know how anthony wants things done so...f*** it!

[NOS2Go4Me]

Anthony... race it under your scuffplate trim, inside each door. You can run it from the corner molding under the kickpanel (under the headlight switch) and then down and back, exiting under the rear seat for the trunk, or midships between the door openings on each side for the rear speaker leads.

I have some pics from when Oscar and I did my car... let me find them.

Or... is that as you have it now? :huh:

I can probably give you a hand in early June, I'll be down on course then.

EDIT - Pic found, click for larger view:



LOL... not that great, but fairly descriptive. I've got my RCAs with integrated remote wire and my power wire run down the one side. If I ever upgrade, I'll run the larger gauge power down the opposite side of the car.

[euro_zx5]

NOS2Go4Me,May 16 2006, 08:16 PM Wrote:Anthony... race it under your scuffplate trim, inside each door. You can run it from the corner molding under the kickpanel (under the headlight switch) and then down and back, exiting under the rear seat for the trunk, or midships between the door openings on each side for the rear speaker leads.

I have some pics from when Oscar and I did my car... let me find them.

Or... is that as you have it now? :huh:

I can probably give you a hand in early June, I'll be down on course then.
[right][snapback]188027[/snapback][/right]

That's how i've got all my wiring done.