General instructions on wiring a car speaker system.
This is just a general overview, you’re car may have more or less speakers or other wise require different steps. Basically your car stereo will consist of the main unit in your dashboard and four speakers. People also usually like to add in amplifiers and subwoofers. These are optional additions.
In most situations, there will be two speakers in the front half of the car and two speakers in the rear of the car. Each speaker will connect to the main unit by a pair of wires. I’m going to focus on the basic speaker wiring, so I am not going to mention subwoofer or amplifier wiring.
Before you start make sure you have all required components. You need to buy the car stereo unit and a wiring harness that will connect your new stereo wiring to the old stereo wiring. This is usually done in the form of an adapter that will be specific to the year and model of your car.
Research your car on the internet or find guides pertaining to the removal of the dash board and door panels. And maybe even the floor molding in your car. You will find out in your research what is necessary to dismantle those areas of your car.
Once you know how to work on your car, you need to gather up the tools to do it. Prepare by getting out all necessary tools for the job. This most likely will consist of screwdrivers, a knife, wire strippers, electrical tape, pliers, and wire cutters. And any other tools your documentation mentions.
As with working with any electrical device, the first step is always to disconnect its power. Make sure you remove the negative ground cable from the battery. Not doing so can result in serious injury to yourself and your stereo equipment.
If you’re lucky all you will have to do the swap out the old speakers with the new ones, using the same connectors. If not you may have to do a little wiring. In either case make sure you connect the positive and negative wires to the right connector. If you are unsure of which wire is which, touch the wires of the speaker to a 9 volt battery. The speaker will move forward if the positive connection is right.
After the speakers are connected, put in the main stereo unit as shown in my last couple of post. Reconnect the battery and test out the stereo before replacing all of the paneling.