Routing a wire through the firewall

[jhall299]

As part of my budget audio upgrade on my '00 non S I had previously added the PNP rear speaker kit. It helped but wasn't spectacular. Someone on the forum sugested I would get better performance from them if I ran the through an amp like my front and door speakers and not off the head unit. To that end I found a 996 M490 6X40 amplifier on ebay. Fortunately, the new amp was removed from it's previous car with a pair of wire cutters so I got the connector. I was able to remove four pins from the old connector and put them in my existing connector to provide output leads for the rear left and right. I plugged everything back together and everything seems to be working fine. My final problem is how to extend the PNP speaker leads that are currently plugged into the back of the head unit out to the amp. I pulled the head unit(cdr220) and looked around but I didn't see any easy access. Help!

As a result of my ebaying for parts I now have a collection of original Porsche speakers. If anyone has a blown speaker PM me and I can probably help you out.

Jon

[Chris_in_NH]

super easy!

open your front trunk. remove both plastic pieces on each side of the battery compartment. you'll need a torx driver for this. once you have those two pieces off, look in the recess next to the battery (driver's side) for a rubber plug against the firewall. it's rather large and hard to miss. on the other side, the rubber plug is against the back of the trunk wall (not the firewall), to the left of the factory amp (assuming you are standing in front of the amp.)

you want to cut an X in both of these plugs. (a small X just large enough to get your wires through. you don't want water getting thru there.)

tie the wires together with an elastic or something, and feed them through the rubber plug on the driver's side next to the battery. feed 1-2 feet of wiring then go look in the driver's footwell for the end of the wires coming down from the firewall. they should just be hanging, but if not, you can just reach up and pull them down. attach these wherever you need to attach them.

take the other end of the wires and route them around in front of the battery and over to the second rubber plug on the passenger's side trunk wall just past the factory amp location. you'll need to cut an X in the trunk carpet here too. pull the wires through, and connect to amp.

ta-da! easy!

it looks like this, rubber plug location marked with an x.

-------------------x----- <--firewall

.........battery...........

----x----------------- <--trunk wall

--------amp.........

and here's a better pic.

Edited April 18, 2006 by Chris_in_NH

[Cassiebox]

Exactly as Chris in NH said, except if you are tying them into a 996 6x40 amp, you don't need to punch a hole into the trunk carpet. Instead, delicately pull the trunk carpet forward and route the wire extensions alonside the existing harness up to the amp. In order to pull the carpet forward and to provide a little easier access in adding the wires to the amp harness, you'll need to unbolt the amp and it's mounting brackets form the trunk wall. Then just route your wires, test the system and reassemble.

Once you contort your body enough to look up under the dash, you'll find your wires coming into the inside of the vehicle about 12 inches (or so) directly above the gas pedal. I'd use a coat hanger or fish tape to feed them through the rubber grommet. This will give you something to push/pull with other than he wires. Good luck - it's definitely worth the upgrade.

[jhall299]

Thanks guys!

This looks fairly straight forward. The picture and diagram made it easy to understand.

Jon