Running new speaker cables into the doors

S

SiW80

Noob
If you have a molex / plug connector for the door wiring how do run new speaker cables?

What is the best way to drill out any spare pins on the main car body plug without taking the door off for access?

If there aren’t any spare pins in the plug to drill out what do you do?

This is what is causing the most issues for me!

Cheers


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if the OEM molex doesn't have any spare room for you to drill through, then you're looking at having to drill your own new holes in the door and car frame and installing your own boot with grommets. This almost guarantees you'll have to remove the door from the car. I don't see being able to drill it at that angle when installed. At least with the existing molex plug it should be designed for you to unplug it so you can remove door :)

Something like this could work. It's all-in-one. But you'd want to confirm the thickness of your door and frame as this one is meant for 1-1.5mm thick in order to create a good seal at the grommet.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/..._YaBqOTBbod-8_ZvJvOHmwQ-FzB5JZusaAoblEALw_wcB
 
I ran mine by drilling a hole in the plastic holder for the molex right to the side of it. I drilled through the little triangle shape pieces that you can see better in the 2nd picture (only on the other side)

58ef50e4_4505_453f_8c60_269c6ce0afee_f620ef72e622a354c9229887f9bc2fa6347206ca.jpeg



Most molex can be fairly easily removed. My f150's can be twisted about 1/8 of a turn and pushed in.

85973f50_addb_4603_8bba_e7e2008fab78_70e577e0cf75d0850b31424884ec019909cba404.jpeg



b42f0c69_b9e1_4435_977c_3f263b8e6726_3eb88091611186e79716d9374e3fbf026bd1c647.jpeg
 
Great - thanks for the pointers.

Seems I need to be brave and pull out the whole connector to check it out.

The car is French (it’s a Renault) so might be more tricky they like making things difficult!


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Best advice I can give anyone running speaker wire through a molex is to not get caught up on "bigger is better" when it comes to speaker wire. Unless you're running over 200rms to the midbass real world (you won't ever do that except in rare extreme cases ONLY with terribly inefficient speakers) 16g should be plenty. And the wire jacket doesn't have to be thick to be durable. You'll have to get creative when it comes to snaking wire through some of the twists and turns and passages. I've had to solder junk wire to the speaker wire I was running to have a low profile SECURE connection to pull it through. Just make sure you do it right the first time so you never have to do it again. And take your time.
 
Even if you couldn't fit your 16ga, you could run a thinner jacket wire or even an 18ga wire for the short run just in the door and then use the larger gauge from inside of car to the amp.
 
In the past, I've had to get very creative... as some of the molex connectors are absolutely jam-packed full.

In one of my Audi's, I bought the Molex connector pins from Digi-Key, and added new pins to the Molex connector for speakers.
It was a cool idea, and worked-out very well... but a total pain in the ass. Probably won't ever do it again.

In another vehicle; I was only able to snake a 16awg wire through the Molex, which I used for the 6.5" woofer.
Then I used the factory 18awg speaker wire that was already there, as the wire for the tweeter.

On my most recent build; I was able to drill a large enough hole to pull two 16awg wires through.
It was tight, and the pull was very difficult... but I got them through.
Scary as shit, when you're drilling into a packed Molex...
 
I just answered this on another site. You can take a few of the factory wires out and drill a single big hole that will allow the passing of your wire and the factory wires you moved to drill the hole.
 
Really looking forward to installing 3 sets of wires (16/16/18 ga) through a Molex in my Grand Cherokee next month. I guess if it's just impossible to get it through, off with the doors and universal door boot here I come lol. There's some good suggestions in here. I don't think this topic gets enough attention though. How many super high end builds on really nice cars are using the factory wiring to get into the doors?
On my Jeep they seem tiny, like 22 ga tiny, and they gotta run 15-20' from the back corner where the OE amp is to the opposite side front door. I guess a really good online wire ga calculator comes into play. At what distance/gauge/wattage do you start limiting yourself using the stock wiring? Just random numbers here, but when is your $1000 amp feeding your $2000 three way setup being limited using factory wire?
There has to be some science behind this with resistance over distance causing voltage (thus power) loss on the speaker side. Anyone care to calculate?
 
Bcae1.com is a good calculator, but that is just for raw power. You also have to factor in that your tweeter MAY get 1-2 watts of total power and your mid MAY get like 25w of total power. Your midbass is probably going to be at like 100w. Granted this is all assuming your listening at 100% of volume.
 
Jdunk54nl said:
Bcae1.com is a good calculator, but that is just for raw power. You also have to factor in that your tweeter MAY get 1-2 watts of total power and your mid MAY get like 25w of total power. Your midbass is probably going to be at like 100w. Granted this is all assuming your listening at 100% of volume.
Click to expand...
Those calculators are really cool. According to that wire calculator if I have a 15' run of 20 ga wire at 80W (my own appx for my front right mid bass), there is less than 1 db of output loss, but the wire is too small to meet the 300 circular mils per amp of electrical current standard and should not be ran under carpet.
Do it once, do it right. I continue to go ahead with my 18ga and 2 sets of 16 ga into each door for 3 ways.
 
jrwalte said:
Something like this could work. It's all-in-one. But you'd want to confirm the thickness of your door and frame as this one is meant for 1-1.5mm thick in order to create a good seal at the grommet.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/..._YaBqOTBbod-8_ZvJvOHmwQ-FzB5JZusaAoblEALw_wcB
Click to expand...
This has my vote as well. Summit also sells those clip-together contacts that you install and when the door closes they make contact... but why? Why have them disconnect when the door is open? Why have the potential quality-reducing friction gap contact that can get weathered and... you get my point. Just drill the holes and run the boot, and get your wires straight from your amp all the way to the speakers.

That being said...
...only IF you need to!

I would say 90% of the time I just tap into the speaker wire before it goes into the door, and that's sufficient for even moderate power. Sure, sometimes that means you need to mount the crossover inside the door panel - but no big deal. Really, copper is copper, and unless you need to run 100 watts or so to those speakers...
...and even still, you could run larger gauge speaker wire right up to your door entry connection point - and could even run larger gauge speaker wire inside the door if you like.
Resistance is a function of both gauge AND length. So you can work around it, if you are in a tight spot.
 
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