97 civic front speaker wiring
 

Ok I'm going to throw in some aftermarket front speakers and I don't feel like running new wire to an amp til I upgrade my deck, so I want to use the stock wiring for now. That said, after I cut the plug harness for the stock front speaker wiring what color wires should connect to the positive and what color to the negative. Also are there any that will not connect? (I assume the black will be the only one to connect to the negative)

RE: 97 civic front speaker wiring
 

Can't remember what wires go where but I remember that it is not that hard to figure out. Not sure why u want to rewire your speekers or why u want to connect them to an amp because if u get a good unit aftermarket speekers will sound very nice. You don't want to connect your amp to the speekers cuz it will make them sound like **** unless u put them in enclosures. And if u connect your speekers to an amp u will get alot of bass from them and thats what subs are for.

I don't think that there is going to be black wire that goes to the speeker and there definatly shouldn't be the wire that will not connect

RE: 97 civic front speaker wiring
 

The reason why you would want to re-wire your speakers is so you can run them to an amp. Aftermarket head units usually put out a max of only 22 RMS Watts... not very much, when putting in a system, it is more efficient to run 16 gauge car audio speaker wire to an amp (say 50 watts rms per channel) directly to the speakers, and use a high pass cross over, that way you don't get the bass in your speakers, just the mids and highs, then you can run a sub for your bass. Plus many amps you can buy include low and high pass crossovers (Sony, Rockford, mtx, etc.) Also if you use the stock speakers wire it will only let so much power through it, I mean just look at it it's tiny. If you're running high wattage through a wire, then you need to make sure the speaker wire is large enough to compensate correctly. My question was only in regards to using stock speaker wire since I don't have any experience with it (normally I always by-pass it)

RE: 97 civic front speaker wiring
 

Wait until you try to run aftermarket speaker wire into the doors. It's a nightmare [:'(] thanks to the door electric connector 'plugs' and the way the wire loom is run so far forward (close to the firewall) under the dash.

I did mine (I too am an aftermarket wire purist) but MAN was it a pain to do. Make sure you put aside some extra time for fighting with the connectors, snaking the wire, etc.

At any rate, I don't remember the wiring colorcode but you should be able to use the signal source to verify polarity. Just hold the factory harness wires to the new speaker contacts while playing any music with a good bump to it (drum beat is best). If the polarity is correct the speaker should move OUTWARD on the beats; if not then reverse the wires and you're all set.

The same thing can be done with a little 1.5V AA battery on raw speaker wire (and any speaker but a tweeter). Just connect the wires to the speaker and then briefly touch 'em to the battery. If the polarity is correct the speaker will move forward when voltage is applied.

You can use this method to test the factory harness polarity too; just clip a little factory harness off (leave it connected to the OEM speaker) and then use the battery. Once again the polarity is correct when the + wire is touching the + on the battery and the (-) wire is touching the (-) on the battery and the speaker moves forward (cone moves outward).

-Trevor

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RE: 97 civic front speaker wiring
 

Got them installed no problem this weekend, there were only two wires so I just tested each before connecting them. Also on my last civic (96 LX) I ran all new high-end speaker wire and just drilled a small hole on the inside of the door and ran my wire through there. That made it super quick and simple, then I just put black loom around it to make it look "clean"

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RE: 97 civic front speaker wiring
 

Hrmm.

I thought the initial movement of the cone (out or in) for a beat was a function of polarity... ...and that's why you need to flip the polarity in certain cases such as one of an isobaric pair (so both speakers are in phase) or when the speaker is "reversed" (speaker basket faces outward of a sub box).

Is this not so?

-Trevor

RE: 97 civic front speaker wiring
 

there are only 2 wires to the speaker and it is not difficult to tell which is ground... Ground is ALWAYS brown or black (sometimes grey) especially from the factory.

As for wiring the speakers, I did it the lazy way :) I ran all the wires from my amp in the trunk to the deck and I connected them to the wiring harness. So, all the speaker outs from the deck are taped off... and the wires from the amp are spliced in...

I'm not sure, but aren't the standard speaker wiring in a Honda 16 guage? Or was it 18 guage? Anyway, I'm not running a system for a show or nothing so 16 or 18 guage is way more than enough. My amp is only like 400watts (Audiobahn 4004T)

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