Hello everyone, I haven't been active on PZ in the past few months.
Now that I have graduated HS I have a little more time to work on the lude (just a little).

I finally pulled out PO's wiring, because stereo acting up.
Alright so my plan is to run new speaker wire from all my speakers to my amp.
According to the attached picture of the mating connector, everything blocked off in red is no longer needed if i run the new wiring, it would be ok to cut them off right? -PO has extended those wires and now it is currently rolled up behind headunit.

I have already run 2 8awg power wires from my engine bay to trunk & RCA's from headunit to trunk (power wire & RCA are on opposite sides).

Couple of Q's:
-Do I have to drill into that connector that goes into the door to run new wire, is that the only safe way to run the wire?

-I am planning on running door speaker wire through the center of the lude, (through under center console and into trunk). Would it be a problem or what would happen if I ran speaker wire along with power wire? any noise or distortion?

-I have some 8awg power wire left from PO install, would i have a noticeable benefit if i used 8awg for rear deck speakers and subwoofer?

-Is under the rear deck a good place for grounding where stock amp is?

Any other pointers or tips are greatly appreciated.

Attached Images

block wiring.png (53.2 KB, 14 views)

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Resuscitate.

I can help with this...

• You should try to NOT run your speaker wires right next to your power wires as it MAY cause engine noise, but not always. Sometimes it isn't practical to do so.
  
  
• 8AWG should work fine for those rear full range speakers... What size & wattage are you running? 6x9's? It might work depending on how they connect to the speaker. (Are you using Spade terminals?) But 8AWG should be just right for your Sub(s), as long as it fits the wire connectors of the speaker(s) or in the terminal lugs, depending on how your Sub is made. But definitely use the same size wire for both the power and the ground wires of the Amp(s).
  
  
• Also, I don't see a "Blue" and/or "Blue/White" wire on your connector/harness. You will need this to activate your amp(s) and/or power antenna. Some connectors have one or the other and some have both. I think the stock Prelude Power Antenna wire is Yellow w/White Stripe.
  
  
• The ground for your amp(s) should be fine anywhere in the trunk, but make SURE you remove the paint and clean the surface around the hole you find or drill. You should also paint the bare spot and terminal to keep corrosion from forming. Rustoleum makes a 2 in 1 Primer/Rust Inhibitor & Paint in various colors.
  
  
• Speaking of noise, the shorter the Power Ground is, the better. You can always put a capacitor in parallel to the amp to cut down on noise, (Capacitors filter out ignition noise) as well as provide a boost when the bass hits, which will keep your lights from dimming then as well.

It you have any more questions, don't hesitate.

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1989 Honda Prelude Si - Daily Driver (So far, So Good)
1970 Buick GSX Clone - In progress
1988 Chevy Suburban TravelQuest - WorkHorse
1978 Buick Skylark - Sold

"Tackling Those Gremlins One By One"

"If you were as smart as you are dumb, you'd be Einstein!"

"Keep The Shiny Side Up & The Dirty Side Down"

Why you running the door speaker wire to the trunk?

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God's Not Dead

I want to put my amp in my trunk.

Music from Headunit to amplifier via RCAs.
Music from Amplifier to speakers via Speaker cables.
Music from Speakers to my ears via atmosphere.

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Resuscitate.

Thank you for your helpful information. My rear deck speakers are 6x9 400w (i think). I left the PO remote wire so i just need to check the connection and hook it up to my amp, should be easy.

The main reason I took out PO install was because my subwoofer would hit hard and just keep pumping randomly even when no music was playing.

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Mathew, Your trunk doesn't leak does it?

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1989 Honda Prelude Si - Daily Driver (So far, So Good)
1970 Buick GSX Clone - In progress
1988 Chevy Suburban TravelQuest - WorkHorse
1978 Buick Skylark - Sold

"Tackling Those Gremlins One By One"

"If you were as smart as you are dumb, you'd be Einstein!"

"Keep The Shiny Side Up & The Dirty Side Down"

I put in new gaskets, and I checked yesterday its still dry.
Can you give me some tips on running the speaker wire from door to inside the cabin. Do i have to drill a hole in the connector and then run it through.

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Resuscitate.

Hmmm... You can't splice into the door jam connector on the cabin side and inside the door? I forgot that those have that pin and contact thingy...

If you want to run the wire straight through, drill a hole just big enough for the wires and a rubber grommet cause you don't want those wires resting on a sharp edge.

Rubber Wire Grommets:



Just in case you didn't know...

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1989 Honda Prelude Si - Daily Driver (So far, So Good)
1970 Buick GSX Clone - In progress
1988 Chevy Suburban TravelQuest - WorkHorse
1978 Buick Skylark - Sold

"Tackling Those Gremlins One By One"

"If you were as smart as you are dumb, you'd be Einstein!"

"Keep The Shiny Side Up & The Dirty Side Down"

Most people have been drilling through the connector.
Thanks for your help!

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Resuscitate.

With all that extension cord wire tucked under your carpeting in the same area it'll look like moles live in your car.

So...why not run right speakers on right side and vice versa?

Everybody I've ever seen use extension cord size speaker wire in the door drill a hole near the connector and those grommets Tony showed.
Me? I'd go through the rubber conduit and connector with much smaller than 8 wire...but that's just me.

But connections are the weak link. Either solder or quality connector should be used.
Ground should be as as short as possible, mounted bare metal and at a location where when the screw is removed you see light from outside the trunk.

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God's Not Dead

-My power wire runs on the right side.
-Why wouldn't the rear deck be just as good? Is it because it is spot welded to the rest of the car or something?

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My speaker wire is 14awg.
14awg for door component speakers.

8awg for rear deck 6x9 speakers.

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Resuscitate.

Perhaps a different approach is needed here. You can run your rca's down say the driver side, you then run your power down the right side. From the amp you can run speaker wires for the doors back to the front of the car up the console. Then just tap them into the stock wires that are behind the radio. BAM, done, no engine noise and no fighting the door.

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HPA for life yo! SMP or gtfo.

The rear deck is a useful ground spot.

The body panel is a better spot.

Think about it this way....when you are trying to ground something, the closer to the ground (or earth) the better.

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God's Not Dead

That is similar to the layout that I have in mind however the only difference is the factory wiring F-ed. That is why I want to run new aftermarket wiring from amp to door speakers.

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Resuscitate.

Are you sure you mean body PANEL?
You mean the uni-body frame right? lol

I prefer not drilling through my car's body where i can see outside (na what mean?), but if i have to then i will have to.

Just a thought that came to me:
What if I remove paint and solder my ground ? So that it becomes one with the ground, lol.

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Resuscitate.

So what are you using for the door speakers? The amp? Head unit? Amp?

And yeah I meant body panel.
Look it up.

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God's Not Dead

3 lessons I have learned dealing with grounds.

1. Keep them as absolutely short as possible.
2. They must be into the chassis, not on deck panels.
3. Always sand the spot you are attaching to.

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HPA for life yo! SMP or gtfo.

Dang, don't mislead the kid.

"Ground" in cars doesn't connect to ground at all, the car is completely electrically isolated from the earth by the rubber tires. That's why they can build up such a great static charge that gives you a nice shock when you get out if you are wearing rubber soled shoes and slide around on your fabric seats. The ground that runs through the car just connects the chassis to the -ve terminal on the battery, so the best ground you can find in the car is one that has the least resistance back to the battery. If you are adding a killer stereo then I suggest upgrading the big black wire that connects the body to the battery in the engine bay, there is no point getting a tonne of amperage in to your amps if you can't get it back out again. You can find a good ground practically anywhere on the car and distance to the battery does not really matter (the car body will conduct soooooo much more than any wiring you can think to add to it), but preferably go with part of the main chassis though not like the parcel tray or a seat bracket or something where the current will have to jump through some bolts or spot welds on it's way. I found a nice spare bolt hole on the floor of the trunk, sanded away a little paint and bolted the ground in there

Read this too: DIY: 5th gen 6.5" Component Speaker Install! - Honda Prelude Forum : Honda Prelude Forums. Gives a good idea of what you'll be up for if you do want to upgrade the wiring to the door speakers.

I agree with Tone, do not run speaker wires near power or you'll get a nice hum through your system. I ran my speaker wires down the passenger side of the car, the power down the drivers and my RCA's right up the middle through the console and under the carpet. Capacitors don't do **** though, since they're on the power side of the amp they can not cut down on interference transmitted through the RCA's or speaker wires. I had one at one stage and found it quite useless, sure it would make that initial "Doof" a little stronger but then as it would need to charge back up again it would actually drain power out of the system. Might be good for comps but not much use any other time, maybe invest in a better battery and alternator instead.

Oh, and DON'T just tap into the stock wiring somewhere near the door either, that's what the PO did to my 323 and it is just silly. Even that short bit of small wiring will add a lot of resistance to the system at the sort of wattages you're talking about. It'll hurt the amount of power you can get into your door speakers.

Noobers 3 points are spot on.

Grounds need to be balanced with the positive in order to level out the flow. Running a giant ground vs an 8g hot wire causes an inefficient flow in the circuit. You may notice your hot and ground wire to the battery are pretty much the same size. Honda engines being alluminum need a bit of extra grounds at alternate locations, one being the radiator support, and another being the inner body panel called the shock tower. In both cases you see daylight when there's no screw in the hole.

My point about body panel vs a rear deck is that it is a large area attached to the frame.
Length and location absolutely matter. The shorter the route to the ground, the more efficient the flow.
And if you've ever been in a car that got hit by lightning you were likely uninjured because the car is grounded....like your nike's or your house.
When you get zapped it's because of static electricity otherwise you'd be constantly bombarded with zappage while the car is running as you'd be part of the circuit if it wasn't grounded.

You guys should read the stuff LilM's Prelude posted a few years ago in the electronics section.
It's the top sticky there.

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God's Not Dead

and to make it nice n easy-- See the links in my signature.

Ground in the automotive environment refers to the V- (=voltage) negative / likewise this is the (-) post on your Battery.

signal wire and speaker wire are two completely different wires
*Signal typically refers to the low voltage "RCA" cables that provide signal to the amplifiers, crossovers, etc. RCA's have the round connectors with the center pin.
IF you have induced noise, alternator whine, buzzing, etc. it is MOST often due to an internal 'grounding' issue--not normally caused by running the cable next to the power wires. It would have to be an extremely hi amperage line and/or really crappy, non-shielded, RCA cables to allow this kind of noise in.
Speaker wire typically refers to the stranded pairs of wire that provide the AC "hi powered" signal from the amp to the speakers. It is 0.0000009% likely you will ever hear any induced noise by running these wires to next to the B+/V+ wires.

Lastly, 8AWG is a bit overkill for 400W 6x9 inducers (I hesitate to call them speakers--don't ask why, you wont like the answer. LOL!)
Save yourself some money and just run 12AWG to the rear deck speakers.
Now, if you are running thousands of watts to a pair, or more, of subwoofers, then yes, 8AWG may be appropriate. I have a chart here somewhere that shows you what each AWG wire can handle and up to how many feet it is sufficient.


*Fly's away*

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Understanding The Basics - Electronics & Car Audio
An In Depth Look At Relays
The "Big Three" DIY Install
Alarm & Remote Start DIY
My Babies Thread

Thank you @LilMsPrelude for your wisdom.
So if I run my power wires on the right side. And my 14awg speaker wires down the middle. And my RCA's on the Left side. I should be fine, correct? I would not be picking up anything unwanted on the way, right?

I only thought about using 8awg for my 6x9's because I have some left.

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Graced with the presence of an electronics goddess.

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^^ this!!!

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God's Not Dead

yes Mathew: you should be fine...

and...Here is some Wire "porn" of ya need it. :P LOL!
:::LilMsPrelude::: 1992 Si


And you guys--stop it. ur makin me blush!


Sure miss this place and working on the Lude.
May have to start something on the new whip.

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Understanding The Basics - Electronics & Car Audio
An In Depth Look At Relays
The "Big Three" DIY Install
Alarm & Remote Start DIY
My Babies Thread

Thank you @LilMsPrelude.
Last question regarding running wires:
I should be fine running remote wire and speaker wire together right down the middle right?

Or should I run remote wire along with power wire?

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Resuscitate.

you are fine running the REM+ turn on wire anywhere in the car.
On some brands of RCA wires it is included in the bundle. :)

Share some pics when you get it together.

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_____________________
Understanding The Basics - Electronics & Car Audio
An In Depth Look At Relays
The "Big Three" DIY Install
Alarm & Remote Start DIY
My Babies Thread

As you wish, your highness. lol

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This is late, photos of stuff that I did are attached.
Story of my life #caraudio



All new wiring for mono amp and 4-channel amp. My subwoofer that is hooked up to a mono amp. When I start my car it randomly pops and thumps and bangs and hammers, still.
I think I need a new amp, I had the same issue with old wiring as well.

I'm sure my power wiring is done properly because I took my time and triple checked every connection, soldered and heat shrinked or covered with electric tape. I bought brand new JL audio RCA too:



Since everything is all pioneer, I was planning on getting pioneer mono and 4-channel amps.
I doubt something is wrong with my head unit, because even when nothing is playing or on mute, the subwoofer still does the same shyt.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

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