Speaker wire routing...

[Beans]

So the left speakers don't work on my Festiva. I looked at the wires and they look pretty gnarly(wires just twised together, not crimped connectors, no soldering, etc). I just happen to have some good quality speaker wire laying around my house so I'm going to re-wire the speakers. Currently the speaker wires are routed down under the rear seats, under the front seats, under the mats and coming out the back of the console/radio. I'm just guessing that's not how the wire is routed from stock .

I'm not even going to upgrade the speakers (at least not yet) but I want to know how I can better route the new speaker wire when I get around to doing it.

Under the carpet perhaps? I'm completely new to car audio stuff.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

[batstiva]

IIRC, and it's been awhile, I believe to do it factory-ish, you'll want to remove the kick panel, door sill panel, and the panel beside the rear seat on the driver's side. I believe that's how Batstiva's were routed when I had the whole interior out of that car. There are probably easier ways, but I think that's how Kia/Mazda/Ford routed them originally.

[Beans]

That sounds easy enough. I'll see if there's any super easy ways to hide the wire first but otherwise I'll do it that way.

Thanks for the help!

[Beans]

Okay, well I routed the wires kinda half-arsed, but I think it's about as good as it needs to be. I put in a new Pioneer deck, and it doesn't sound too bad, even with the stock speakers! I'm going to upgrade the speakers in the future, even if just to better quality 4" ones, but all said and done I'm satisfied with my $90 and 2 hours of work.

On another note: While hooking up the deck I noticed there was one red wire with a green stripe left over. It was originally one of two wires from a Molex connector (I think that's what it's called), the other wire was the "hot when acc/run" Blue/yellow wire. The Haynes manual I have makes no mention of this wire, and the stereo worked perfectly without it... Any ideas?

[batstiva]

Was this on the Festiva side, or the radio harness? I know when I did Annie's stereo, there were spare wires on the radio harness. Don't remember spares on the Festiva's harness. Now I'm gonna have to go pull the radio and check.
Thanks a lot. :p

[Beans]

The wire was on the Festiva side. There was a "T" connector I believe with the blue/yellow acc/run wire and the mystery red/green wire which both plugged into the back of the cassette radio that was in there when I got it. I cut off the T connector, but it's on the floor of my car so I'll see if I can find it and take a picture for you. The stereo seems to be working perfectly without it, so I dunno what it could be for.

Perhaps it has something to do with the dimmer function of the guage cluster, etc?

[crazyrog17]

I'm pretty sure that's for illumination. Some aftermarket radios tap into this to dim the display when you turn on your headlights so it's not so blinding at night.

[doylerl]

I'm pretty sure that's for illumination. Some aftermarket radios tap into this to dim the display when you turn on your headlights so it's not so blinding at night.

I second that thought.... And you should definately tape it up just in case so if it is that you won't lose your dash lights if it grounds and blows the fuse.

[Beans]

I second that thought.... And you should definately tape it up just in case so if it is that you won't lose your dash lights if it grounds and blows the fuse.

I figured I should tape it, so I did! Though it was mainly so it wouldn't zap my new stereo and possibly fry it