How do you run power cable thru firewall???

[sleepyJay]

First of all I just wanna say whats up errybody? this is my first post. Anyway, I just got one of those cheap amp wiring kits from walmart.. I know, I know - cheap crap right? Its only temporary til I get some more cash. But the quality of the wires isnt the problem. I have been searching all day on forums for ANY kind of help on how to get the power cable from the battery through the firewall to the actual cd player. One post said that there should be a rubber boot that I could just cut a hole in and push the wire through.... no such luck! My friend who has installed many many wire kits, cd players, subs, etc. came over and tried to find a place to push the wire through and 4 hours later me and him both cant figure it out! Theres only one spot where there are wires going from the engine compartment into the car, and thats under the fender in the wheel well area. We tried a good half hour trying to push something like a wire hanger through this hole and it just would not go through! I was about to get out the drill and start puttin holes through the firewall until one went through! This is so frusturating! please, anyone... HELP!

[sleepyJay]

BTW, I have a 2001 i4 if this matters....

[curbie]

Originally Posted by sleepyJay

BTW, I have a 2001 i4 if this matters....

Hi - welcome to the forum, and I'm not sure if I can offer a lot of help, but I do have experience w/ wiring this kind of stuff up. First of all..I dont know if the '00 is drastically different from the '01, b/c I have a '00 Tib. Actually...what happened in my case was that when I bought my Tib, the previous owner already had a system wired up and everything. So running wires through my firewall was easy. What appeared in my case...was that the previous owner drilled a hole and then put a plastic umm....darn i just had a brain fart..a plastic thingy that protects the wire from getting cut up when you've drilled the hole. Bushing? Anyway...what I'm getting at..is that you'll prolly have to drill a hole in the firewall. I hope I was some help?!

[sleepyJay]

Yeah, I had a feeling I was gonna have to do that. That leads me to my next question- where on the firewall did the person drill the hole? I'm afraid of putting it in the wrong place and/or hitting something or breaking something that i doint know is there

[sleepyJay]

Yeah, I had a feeling I was gonna have to do that. That leads me to my next question- where on the firewall did the person drill the hole? I'm afraid of putting it in the wrong place and/or hitting something or breaking something that i doint know is there

[sleepyJay]

Yeah, I had a feeling I was gonna have to do that. That leads me to my next question- where on the firewall did the person drill the hole? I'm afraid of putting it in the wrong place and/or hitting something or breaking something that i doint know is there

[nisco]

jus a word from the wise...

try as hard as you can not to buy anything "temporarliy".. youre jus wasting money, and buying crap products...

because now youre going to have to do teh wiring all over again when you finally get a quality kit....

jus something ive learned...

and yes youre going to have to drill a hole, where?.. thats up to you... start mapping everything out, and locating where an open area is to drill...

[free2roamaz]

If you feel so inclined to drill holes in your firewall, either make sure you are certain on a location that will not drill into other components, or just have an audio shop do the install work and give you a run down of what they did. I own an '01 Tib, and personally still am not sure where I would go about drilling, so I didnt run the wire thru the firewall. I ran it thru the Driver's side door, kinda. It is a good alternate wiring route, IMO, but it is all up to your preference. If you do want details of how I did it, I can prolly put together a few reference pics and instructions. Just lemme know.

[sleepyJay]

hey free2roamaz, I just went out to my car and was looking at the drivers side door, how did you do it? thru the placew where the speaker wire goes thru? This is crazy... I just looked at my dads honda accord, and its like 1, 2, 3 bam! youre done. so easy! then I go and compare it to the tibby and its like 1,2,3,.....35,36... 99... and so on. I have no idea where to go after hooking the wire up to the battery. Theres like no where to push it through. And I really dont feel like paying some nerd a best buy to do it, because they will probably charge well over 100$. So if you said you can get me pics and a lil walkthrough that would be great. thanks dude

[free2roamaz]

Tomorrow, Tue., I am off of work....time to change brake pads, belts and I can get you set up with a few pics. Its really not that hard, just a bit of feeding and fishing the wire thru. And it may be different in your state, but any Best Buy/Circuit City charges, on average, 30-50$. But I'm with you about not wanting someone to do 5$ worth of work just to turn and charge my ass like 700% cost, heh. Anyways, gimme your email or inform me how to post pics on here, if anyone else may be interested. (I have been here for how long, and still dont know how to post images?!! Bah!) Lol.

[sleepyJay]

YES! Free2roamaz you are the shit! That was so easy compared to what i was trying to do. I wish I knew how to post pics on this forum to show other people. Anyway thanks again man!

[free2roamaz]

Yeah no problem man. Glad I could be useful.

[tibby01]

curbie, its a grommet.

and you should have looked in the modifications section. i have some pictures of one of the firewall openings.

to post pics, sign up at photobucket.com after you upload a picture, copy and paste all the stuff in the third box below the picture.