Hello to all car audio enthusiasts,

My friend just recently received a 1997 Honda Civic GLi hatchback. It has a pioneer headunit which is in good working order. He would like me to install him a subwoofer and amplifier into his hatchback since he has no experience what so ever. He decided to turn to me, however, i have never worked on a civic before and I'm not to familiar on them. What i need to know is where there is an opening from the firewall to the cabin so i can feed the power cable through it, how to remove the headunit so i can connect the RCA's, and the most ideal place to run the wires from the cabin into the boot. And if so, where there is a good grounding point inside the boot.

Thanks,

 

In all the civics I've done, there's a rubber plug in the firewall somewhere near glove compartment on the passenger side. It may be directly behind, or slightly below and inward towards the center console. Sometimes you have to remove the battery to see it from under the hood. It should be about 2 - 3 inches diameter. I usually cut a small slit and force the wire through with some lubricant. The plug will not have any other wires channeling through it. There's another plug that already has a bunch of wires running through it, I do not recommend you try to run anything else through there. Find the blank plug and cut a small hole in it (make it tighter than a virgin).

After you've accomplished this, run the wire under the center console. To do this, remove the entire center console, and run the wire under the carpet. This will be easy because honda has already cut many holes to guide the way. Finally, remove the back seats, and run the wires underneath (and under the carpet here as well) to the boot. Absolutely no wire will be visible.

From there, you can ground your negative lead to the bolt that is already being used to secure the spare tire. I'm assuming this old hatchback still has its spare tire somehwere underneath the boot. This bolt goes right into the middle of the frame. If you're wiring multiple amps/caps, ground your power distribution blocks to this point. I like to use ring terminals to secure the ground wire to the bolt, then simply replace the spare tire with the ground wires attached.

To remove the head unit: Remove ALL of the under-paneling from beneath the dash. The driver panel, the middle panel and the glove box (Tip: Run the power line thru the firewall while the glove box is off too). From there, you can look up inside the casing of the head unit and remove all the screws that seem to be holding it in. It's rather intuitive. Be prepared to remove the ENTIRE casing, which includes the head unit, the frame suspending the head unit, and all the AC/Defrost ***** and all. You may have to unplug all wiring harnesses for AC control buttons/***** etc, as well as the antenna and wiring harness for the stock stereo.

Good luck. my AIM is xxChubszxx.