Warpig

I started working on installing a few electronic goodies in the 993 today. Radio gear mostly. Looking for a path to put a wire bundle (about the girth of a middle finger) through from the bottom dash into the upper dash behind the guages or on the passenger side and into the trunk. The goal is to get these wires into the trunk area from the back of the stereo. I removed the entire glove box/door and all my guages and both kick panels and after removing the guages fell in love with the open path and space behind them where I could see right into the trunk. problem is the upper and lower dash are separated by steel firewall. I spent over an hour trying to find a spot in there somewhere to pass these wires from below to above. I see at the top of the passengers side footwell a large grommet with wiring going through it but do not want to use it because it penetrates in the area that appears to be behind the gas tank. The top/bottom portions of the dash appear to be impenetrable. Funny thing is the back of the stereo area and the back of the guage pod area are only 3 inches away from each other but might as well be 4 miles as there is steel between them. There does not appear to be a hole in this steel anywhere.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get a couple signal wires and speaker wires through this fortress or into the trunk area. I may have found a spot I can drill a hole in the steel on the passenger side to the right of the glove box area and install a grommet but would like to use an existing hole or passage if any exist.

Anyone have any ideas?

Nick

Elonash

Tough job!

When I installed a traffic pro I thought the GPS antenna could work if placed very close under the bonnet (though I was wrong!!). But for this I ran the antenna wire through a grommet that is quite behing the radio. The tricky thing is that the wire will come out in the trunck under the ventilation stuff.
To help I ran a first 'solid' wire that I could push and push and push through this grommet and then be able to catch it in the trunck.
Then you can use this solid wire to attach your cable and then pull it.

I hope I've been clear...sorry I've got poor english vocabulary...

Good luck!! You should plan to put some beers ready for some calming down breaks

Black993

If I'm not mistaken there is another grommet on the passenger side over toward the glove box, but its been a while since I did anything with mine. Just a thought....it might be on the lower side which won't help you but might be worth a look.

Barney1

There is a grommet that comes out in the fuse box in the trunk area. Remove the cover of the fuse box, take the fuse block out as one piece and the grommet is just below that. Send a coat hanger down the grommet and it comes out in the car behind the glove box. Took about 5 min.

Warpig

Thanks for the replies. I will take another look under the fuse box. Hell I've ripped everything else out, why not the fuse box too. I did find a decent spot for large grommet or two if I want to drill a hole or two through the steel. Hopefully The grommet under the fuse box will be big enough. I need to put a decent sized bundle of wires through the firewall. I need to put x5 12 ga pairs of speaker wire, ~ 5x 18 ga wires for remote amp turn on and a couple of alarm sense wires as well as an antenna wire and an Alpine AI-Net cable (with straight plug) through there. I want to avoid drilling but I found a nice open space on the drivers side to the right (from inside the car) of the hood latch release cable's grommet above the clutch pedal area but below the steering shaft area where I can drill a hole or two and install grommets and put through what I need. I just have to put something in the trunk area before I drill to protect the gas tank when the bit breaks trough. A nice piece of wood or steel should do the trick. Still want to try to avoid drilling, but at least now if I have to I have a viable location that's easy to get to.

Nick

matt777

I thought the typical path was across the drivers side (under the pedals) and up through the firewall on the far left side. There is a large grommet there although I don't know if mine is factory. This is how my stereo wires run to the trunk mounted amp.

Warpig

I assume you are referring to underneath the removable pedal area floor panel? I will take a look there as well. As long as nothing is too close to the pedal mechanics that would be a great place.

Nick

Chuck W.

If you remove the upper dash you will see a rubber grommet that is used to pass the cable through for the CD player. You can see it best from inside the front trunk area.

Barney1

Don't you need to remove the windshield to remove the upper dash?

Chuck W.

No. It is extremely easy. Remove the clock and there is a 10mm nut to the right that needs to come off. Then remove the trim piece below the windshield and then the two screws under it. Then pop off the plastic covers at each side of the dash (you will see these when the doors are open) and unscrew the phillips head screws. You're done. It slides back and up.

Barney1

Chuck..you are the man....He comes the Chrono/boost gauge mod...

matt777

Yes, the wires would be captured so they won't cause a problem.

Very good to know.

Black993

+1 on the upper dash removal. Very easy to do once you figure out there is a nut behind the clock. That one took me a while

Mike hit the nail on the head with the hole I was talking about.

David Schiff

can you get to the top ecu thru the dash removal trick?

Warpig

OK pulled off the fuse box cover unscrewed the thumb screw on the rear drivers side of the fuse box, removed the allen bolt on the front passenger side of the fuse box. Peeled the fuse block panel back to the passenger side. Saw a big big (~3 inches in diameter) black circle in the middle rear bottom of the fuse box bottom dish. Thinking that was a huge grommet with nothing going through it my first thought was... perfect. then I tapped on the big black circle and it appears to be made of steel and is not a grommet as best I can tell. Hmm...



Pulled the floor mats back to expose the wooden pedal board. Looked beneath the board and the only large grommet I see is below and to the right of the gas pedal. It's a big grommet but it appears as if it is stashed behind the center of the gas tank inside the trunk. Looks like I wont be using that one.



I removed the upper dash and it almost looks like it would do the job. I'm not sure if it's large enough for everything I have to put through it. My car does not have a CD Changer. Currently the only wire going through the grommet is the antenna wire. If I could move the antenna wire I could mess around in there but my antenna wire is held firmly in place with cable ties that appear to be riveted to the firewall in both in the radio compartment area and in the upper dash area. I cannot move the cable at all as the ties are rived to the firewall every couple of inches for the entire length of the antenna wire. If I could move the antenna wire around there might be a change I can pull it out and feed it through with the wires I need. I may revisit this grommet later but at this point it seems it would just be easier to drill a hole by the trunk release cable and be done with it.

Nick