I am running a 4 guage wire from the battery on a second gen. Two questions: first, where is a hole in the fire wall I can run it through? Second I have my rcas running along the floor, where can I run the power cable so it won't mess with the signal quality? I though about along the roof, but I can't figure out how to get the panels off, can't figure out how to run it up the right a-pillar, and it looks like its all braced an won't have very much room for a wire. Thoughts? Suggestions? Pics?

 

You do not have to run across the roof. You can run the power wire either on the right or left side of your runner depends which side your battery is, mine is on the right (3rd gen). normally you can poke a small hole on the rubber cover ( you can use the one with the main wire harness going through the firewall and run the wire through it.) if you run the power wire on the right side, then run the rca cable on the left side on the floor and you should't get any ground noise. Hope this help!!

 

if you get a good RCA cable it will be sheilded so your power cable shouldnt effect it at all really....dang 4ga wire. what kidna system you puttin in that thing?..also to find a hole in the firewall take the carpet off the front floor and remove your kickpanels and put a bright light down in the footwell (one at a time) and look under the hood where you can see the light. than take your wire and tape it with some electrical tape to a straightned out clothes hanger and poke it though the hole

 

I have two 600w amps one for the sub and a 4way for front and rear. I would just run all the rcas on the left and power on the right, but the cables wouldn't reach. I have the sub rcas running to the sub amp on the left and the front and rear rcas running to the 4 way amp on the left. I'll post pics when the install is done.

 

You can see where I ran my 4 gauge wire on my audio page.

I had to remove the computer on the passenger side in the footwell to do this, but that was easy.
It bolts right back in after you lay the wire in there.

There is a gromment on the passenger side that makes this easy to get the cable in.
http://pnw4runners.com/tando/stereo11.jpg

 

Thanks corey, I ended up using that. I was just worried about how it would seal after I poked a hole in it.

 

OK - wrong on the RCA's and likely wrong on the firewall too.

High level power and low level signal wiring should nevver be together. Alot easier to do it right once than to do it wrong and re-do it. Run them down opposite sides of the vehicle as stated previously.

Also - there should not be any "holes" in the firewall to see light through. Nice thing about 4Runners (at least ones that haven't had sloppy stereo installs in them already) is that the firewall is a barrier between the passenger compartment and the engine. This is to keep fumes, water, etc out of the passenger compartment where there are things like ECU's, amplifiers, radios, etc. Even domestics have decent sealing between the engine and passenger area.

 

The rcas aren't long enough to be run on the same side I would run the power cable along the roof but I can't get behind the panels.

 

I ran them a together and I'm not experiencing any interferance. There shoud be a rubber plug straight back from your battery into the firewall.

 

where ever you run that 4guage please,use a fuse,at the battery.i know two dummies that BURNT their runners to the ground because they had no fuse!

 

I bought a phoenix gold dual amp kit that has the fuse 12" from the batt so no worries there.