Amplifier for door speakers

Hey all - I upgraded my door speakers to some that would benefit from an amplifier. I have seat jackers installed on the front of the passenger seat and it looks like I have enough clearance to put the amp under there. Wondering what others have done and if there's anything to watch out for.

I was thinking of routing the 4 guage power wire through a passenger side grommet and then along the engine bay side of the firewall to the battery.

The actual speaker wires I could either splice to the factory wires behind the head unit or run new wiring. The thing about the factory wires is they're only something like 16 guage and the amp is 100W per channel. If I run new wires is there a trick to getting wires direct from the amp to the doors without routing around the whole cab?

 

I used the kicker Key and stuffed it into the dash.

Used the stock speaker wire and ran a mere 14g for the power, though most people tap it off the head unit. Even with a meager 50w per channel, it hits hard. Speakers have more volume than I want or need, and the cool auto-equalizer feature makes tuning easier than any amp I've owned in the past.



I used this guide to build my harness:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tpp4s-no-nonsense-guide-to-kicker-key-t-harness-16-19.642415/

The only deviations I made from the instructions were running external power to the amp and adding extra line-outs and remote to the sub. All easy to do, and so much better to pre-assemble so that I could plug and play during install.

 

I'm in the process of doing the kicker key harness. Got a hideaway sub so that grabs its own power but not sure about the remote.
Any guide on how to place it in the dash? What did you need to take off?

 

I stuffed the key below the head unit, behind the climate controls. Seems like there's a tiny space right there that it can tuck into. Only had to remove the head unit, and for ease of running wire I pulled the driver's lower dash, kick panel, and door sill.

I apologize OP, I realize that I didn't answer your question at all. The answer is yes, it's fairly easy to run your own speaker wire, but much more involved. I did the ex's scion up like that years ago.

You have to basically gut the interior. Both front seats and parts of the dash need to come out, and the console needs to be loosened enough to access underneath. Run your power and head unit feed down the pass door sills, then run your pass speakers back the same way. The b column trim pops off to access the rear doors. Use a fish tape to snake the driver's speakers under the carpet (and under the center console) and beeline it to the driver's door sill.

Oh and PS, it is possible to push wire through the door grommets, but it's a colossal pain in the ass from what I remember. You basically have to undo both sides of the sleeve so that it's as straight and short as possible, feed your wire through (using fish tape or a long Philips screwdriver helps) and reconnect.