How to get wire through door grommets?

[NoVa4R]

Wondering if anyone has had any success getting wire (speaker wire in my case) through the front and/or rear door grommets. I'd like to run my speaker wire directly from my aftermarket amp directly to the door speakers instead of tying into the factory harness. But it looks challenging to say the least, mostly because of the harnesses used by toyota, does anyone have any tips?

Edit: Should have added that this is for a 2013 SR5, with non JBL non Nav system.

 

[Randyman...]

Wondering if anyone has had any success getting wire (speaker wire in my case) through the front and/or rear door grommets. I'd like to run my speaker wire directly from my aftermarket amp directly to the door speakers instead of tying into the factory harness. But it looks challenging to say the least, mostly because of the harnesses used by toyota, does anyone have any tips?

Edit: Should have added that this is for a 2013 SR5, with non JBL non Nav system.

I'm in your same boat! '13 SR5 / no JBL & no factory Nav. I'm doing a fairly "serious" SQL audio install in mine (as is par for the course for me). I'm having a "pro installer" (Car Tunes in League City, TX) seal, deaden, and install my Morel Elate 9" mid-woofers in the doors, and he will be running the OFC speaker wire to them as well.

For the rears, I went against my mantra of NOT cutting factory wires, and pulled the interior trim-panels that separate the front and rear doors (where the front seat-belts terminate). You can tap into the factory rear-door speaker wire harness here (cut the leads to isolate them from the rest of the audio system - don't simply tap into them), and run these wires to your amps. Tapping into the rear-door speakers at this location ABSOLUTELY bypasses the "Party Mode" switch and its odd behavior and passive L/C EQ network :

Aside from that, you'll either need to 1) mutilate the factory door grommet connectors to pass an aftermarket speaker wire through them, 2) find a way to utilize the un-used connectors on the factory door harness/connector, or 3) run a separate wire and loom/grommet for the aftermarket speaker wires...

TBH - I'd just tap into the factory door wires (inside the vehicle - after the door jamb loom) unless you are going with a stupidly expensive audio system like I am : ($5K plus install labor - mostly my labor)

FWIW - You WILL have to consider the dash speakers as well. I'm doing a bi-amped front-stage (9" Morel Elate mid-woofers in the door off their own amp channel and DSP, then 4" Morel Ovation Integra two-way point-source drivers in the dash that will be passively crossed-over from Mid-to-Tweet on their own amp channel and DSP) - so you will need to either forego the dash speakers (cut the factory front-door wires when you tap into them to avoid driving the dash speakers from this feed), or find a way to run the dash mid/tweets passively with a passive crossover (not a fantastic idea unless you plan on bi-amping with appropriate DSP/Delays for the time-arrival discrepancy from "front-door mid-woofers" to "front-dash mid/high speaker locations")...

What's the remainder of your system look like? Just curious... I gotta mention I love my 5th Gen T4R MUCH better than my '99 Tacoma Xtra Cab WRT the audio system possibilities. So much room to utilize!

 

[NoVa4R]

Yea, i'm thinking i'll just have to tie into the factory harness. I was hoping to get my own wire to the speakers since I like to know exactly how I'm set up. With the whole party mode and funky wired dash speakers in series as well as all the multiple colors its easy to get things screwed up.

I noticed on the rear doors there is a white and red wire at the speaker harness inside the door. However looking at the harness in the b-pillar there is no red wire on the harness that leads into the door?? Which ones are you tapping into?

Sounds like you've got an awesome system going in. I had a pretty nice set up in my 3rd gen. Focal Utopias, Eclipse HU, with some JL slash amps running everything. A wife and 2 kids later and I've cut back on that considerably for my 5th gen. Going with some Morel Maximos, 2 JL 10s and a JL class D amp to run everything off the stock headunit. I am sealing (what a pain) and deading my doors with RAAMat and Ensolite. I'm half way through the deadening and sealing. Was hoping to get the wire through the grommets before I finished sealing, but sounds like tapping the factory harness is the best way to go.

I've got components up front, tweeters in dash and mids in door. Will hopefully get the tweeters integrated into the A-pillars if I get a chance down the road.

 

[Randyman...]

I forgot the exact colors - but you must be talking about the driver's side rear-door. The passenger side's B-Pillar harness actually matches the wires in the rear-passenger door. I used my Multimeter to confirm which wires to use on the Driver's side. You can kind of tell - it's the pair of wires that's loosely twisted in the factory loom.

Wow - You had some Focal Utopias in your last ride? Very nice! Sounds like we are on a similar level WRT our audio obsessions

 

[Desert Fox]

I have a 2003 Limited so there may be some changes.

The rubber hose conduit that the factory wires go through has a bolt on the inside of the door. The bolt holds down a plastic end cap to the rubber conduit.
I removed the bolt and the conduit became loose. I used a coat hanger and ran the new speaker wire through the rubber conduit. Keep in mind I have removed every interior panel in my 4Runner.

It was tight but I got all 4 speakers wired with new wire.

I dont like cutting factory wiring for different reasons. By installing all new wire I know what I have. I know I have not crossed any wires and it is 1 less point of failure.

Good Luck

 

[flyrv9]

It depends in how big the wire is and how much room there is. If it's just a real tight fit, you can use (or make) a wire spoon. A wire spoon is a tapered V shaped piece of stiff metal or plastic. You slide the spoon through the grommet and then slide the wire through in the V. After the wire is through - pull out the spoon. A piece of hollow tube with the end cut at an angle will work too. Id post a pic of one if I knew how on this board.

 

[GrantK]

I have a 2003 Limited so there may be some changes.

The rubber hose conduit that the factory wires go through has a bolt on the inside of the door. The bolt holds down a plastic end cap to the rubber conduit.
I removed the bolt and the conduit became loose. I used a coat hanger and ran the new speaker wire through the rubber conduit. Keep in mind I have removed every interior panel in my 4Runner.

It was tight but I got all 4 speakers wired with new wire.

I dont like cutting factory wiring for different reasons. By installing all new wire I know what I have. I know I have not crossed any wires and it is 1 less point of failure.

Good Luck

The 5th gens are different. The front wires don't go into the door, the go through a flatfeed to just behind the panel. The rear wires go into the door but the end of the rubber tube is sealed (heavily wrapped with electrical tape) and almost certainly will require cutting to release.

 

[GrantK]

It was tight but I got all 4 speakers wired with new wire.

Any tips? Where did you go from behind the panel to inside the door for the fronts? How did you deal with the taped end of the rubber boot inside the rear doors. What are you going to do about the liftgate speakers?

 

[NoVa4R]

I actually managed to fish a wire through the front door grommet and through a little hole which comes out under the flat plastic harness. I imagine with a little more (or a lot more) effort I could have worked it through the flat harness as well. But through the grommet and rubber tubing was good enough for me. I can post a pic if anyone is interested.

The rear doors are a different story as they have a wiring harness that plugs directly into the end of the grommet on the b-pillar side, and then as mentioned previously, a red-taped bundle coming out on the door side. Both ends are practically sealed from any additional wires coming through without some modding to the wire harness or messing with the tape bundle. Would love to see/hear how the rear doors were fished.

On another note: Anyone know what the white foam modules in the front doors are for. There is a piece in the exterior portion of the door fastened with two bolts and another piece riveted to the interior panel of the door. I'm asking because I need to possibly remove the interior piece in order to fit the panel back after I have finished sealing the doors.

 

[GrantK]

On another note: Anyone know what the white foam modules in the front doors are for. There is a piece in the exterior portion of the door fastened with two bolts and another piece riveted to the interior panel of the door. I'm asking because I need to possibly remove the interior piece in order to fit the panel back after I have finished sealing the doors.

I believe the foam is dual purpose, it helps with sound deadening and it also adds rigidity to the door so a light push on the outside won't cave it it. Along with the two bolts there is a piece of strong double sided tape holding it to the door's outer skin. I removed mine while installing sound deadening, including carefully pulling the tape and re-applying it to the foam. Then I reinstalled the block when I finished installing the sound deadening to the outer skin. Adding sound deadening to the inner skin didn't interfere with the foam block so you should be able to reinstall it without changing it.

 

[NoVa4R]

I believe the foam is dual purpose, it helps with sound deadening and it also adds rigidity to the door so a light push on the outside won't cave it it. Along with the two bolts there is a piece of strong double sided tape holding it to the door's outer skin. I removed mine while installing sound deadening, including carefully pulling the tape and re-applying it to the foam. Then I reinstalled the block when I finished installing the sound deadening to the outer skin. Adding sound deadening to the inner skin didn't interfere with the foam block so you should be able to reinstall it without changing it.

If just adding deadener, then yes, it doesn't interfere, however, I sealed the hole behind the block with some metal sheet. This interferes the interior panel fitting back on and the interior foam block needs to be removed to get it back on. It sounds like I'm okay with just removing it, just thought it was an odd piece and was hoping it wasn't anything important.

 

[NoVa4R]

I used my Multimeter to confirm which wires to use on the Driver's side. You can kind of tell - it's the pair of wires that's loosely twisted in the factory loom.

This feels like a dumb question, but how do you test the continuity with your multimeter without cutting the wires? Can you just clamp onto the insulation?

 

[flyrv9]

No - you can't check continuity by clamping on to the wires. You can check for current that way with an inductive clamp - but not continuity. You really need to do an end to end check. That being said, if you can't get to the end; you can use a sharpened lead (or a pin) to poke through the insulation to do your check. When finished cover the hole you made with some RTV to keep moisture out.

 

[Randyman...]

I believe I shoved the DMM's probe into the B-Pillar connector (where it plugs into the door jamb area) - and then checked for continuity to the speaker wire in the door.

Or - I used the DMM's sharp probe to stick into the wire like flyrv9 mentioned.

I honestly can't remember which way I tested - but I do recall one side's speaker wire color's matched what was in the door, and the other side was different from what was in the door (the in-door wires seem consistent across all doors). Again - once you get the factory loom opened up - you can see that the speaker wires are loosely twisted as a pair - that makes it pretty error-proof They are also a heavier gauge than some of the similarly colored wires in the same loom...

Stupid "Party Mode" Switch! ( :wink2: )

 

[flyrv9]

Remember when checking continuity to not only check the wire from end to end; but also from one end to ground. Why? because a wire can be shorted to ground and check good end to end. However the circuit won't work because it's grounded out.

This is pretty common with wires pulled through a metal chassis. They can scrape causing a tear in the insulation bringing the conductor in contact with the chassis (ground).

You can use the chassis as a return path for your meter for many measurements; but it's best to use another wire to complete the circuit and not use the chassis as the return path.

Also no resistance measurements of wiring should be more than a couple of ohms; providing there is not some circuit element in line. If you are reading higher, something is wrong. First touch your leads together with the meter set to the lowest scale and take a reading. If it's high (more than an ohm) then you have a problem with your leads (loose ends, corroded, etc.). If it's an ohm you're ok, but remember to subtract that value form your measurement.