Car Stereos: speaker wiring, radio location, pin positions

Question
I have a 2003 ford escape and I bought some aftermarket speakers. I want to run all four speakers to the amp in the back but I don't know how to run the wire from the door to the inside of the cab. usually you would run it with all the other wires but there is a plug so i can't run it with the other wires(power lock and window wires). I don't want to drill any hole in my car but i just don't know how to do it.

Answer
Hi Brandon,

I don't know exactly what the door-to-body conduit looks like in the Escape, so I can't really give you a good answer here.  If it's just a flexible rubber tube, it's often easiest to try fishing the wire from the inside of the door through the tube to the body.  I have a special wire-pulling tool I use for this type of job, but sometimes you can use an extra-large plastic cable tie to pull the wire through.  

If there's a plastic "Molex" plug on one end of the conduit, things get a bit tougher.  Usually, you need to take the plug apart, find a couple pin positions that aren't occupied with factory wires, and use a drill to enlarge them so you can run your own wires through.  You have to be very careful not to damage the factory wiring.

In some vehicles (including many Fords) it's nearly impossible to run new wires from the body into the door.  In this case, you might be able to find the factory wires in the harness that leads to the door, cut them, and connect them to your new wires from the amp.  Another option is just to find all the factory speaker wires at the radio location, and run wires from there to your amplifier.

Hope this helps!

Brian