Putting an alarm in my 92 Si to hopefully keep it from being stolen again. *sigh*

Anyway, I've done alarms and added door lock actuators to all of my previous cars (except the ones that already had them), but this is the first Honda I've done and I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how to get the door lock actuator wires into the doors. Never had a car before that actually had a plug-in harness between the doors and the body instead of just a flexible cable pathway that I could fish wires through.

How do you guys get lock wires into the doors with these harnesses? Do you find the harness from a car with power locks and re-pin them, or do you just fish them down the outside of the plugs and call it a day?

Thx,

 

One of two ways. Either get a drill inside the door (helps if you have a little screwdriver like my snap on), or remove wheel and mud guard and drill the door there. Unibit is your friend.

 

Cool, thx. I was hoping there was an easier way.

 

Drilling holes in the Molex plug is not an option?

It's tricky, but looks nicer than having wires going from the jamb to the door...

 

Never thought about that. I guess if you had extra holes in the plug and the right pins, you could even add the wires to the plug itself and have it look totally stock. Not sure I have the patience for that though, I might just drill some small holes right above the plugs, run the wires along the outside of the existing harness, and put some split-loom around the whole thing to protect it and make it look good.

 

Actually, you don't even need pins. Just drill out the empty spots a little bigger than your wire, and run it through.

 

^^^True. That is how I ran the wires into my doors for my power folding mirrors.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C_EJ8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Drilling holes in the Molex plug is not an option?

It's tricky, but looks nicer than having wires going from the jamb to the door... </TD></TR></TABLE>

This is what I have always done as well. For an installer that is trying to get the job done as fast as he can probably not a good idea. But for someone that's doing this to their own car it looks the best. If your good you can even run the wire inside the boot. The trick I have used is drill your holes then run a long small wire through. Now tape this wire to the wires that you really want to go through. Then just pull.

Becareful when drilling the molex plug, you dont want to damage the structual support of the wires already in use.

 

Some cars simply don't have enough room in the molex plug. Other cars it works great but it's a lot of work. Not to mention that you have to run wire through the OEM plastic tube. I'd rather just drill holes and put in a new grommet and split loom. I don't know what you guys are talking about "looks". No one looks there and you can't even see it if you do.

 

Having a wire dangling there looks funny and doesn't hold up over the years. I have seen numerous cars where the grommet wears out. Or the the part that gets drilled rusts. Just not an ok thing for me. It looks less then OEM quality. For an installer it makes sense to do the least amount of work.

If I rolled up in my car and somone drilled a hole in my door I would be pissed.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxxtreme &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Having a wire dangling there looks funny and doesn't hold up over the years. I have seen numerous cars where the grommet wears out. Or the the part that gets drilled rusts. Just not an ok thing for me. It looks less then OEM quality. For an installer it makes sense to do the least amount of work.

If I rolled up in my car and somone drilled a hole in my door I would be pissed.</TD></TR></TABLE> Ditto all the above.
If someone wants wires run into their doors, it is the only way I will do it, [other then pinning], for an installer who has done it a few times it is faster then drilling new grommet holes, and as mentioned, looks a lot better.
Convoluted tubing exposed to weather and bent back and forth 200-300 times a month will last maybe 6 months, rubber it the only way to go.
The last thing any good installer should be doing is drilling holes in customers cars that are not needed. 94

 

I'm probably going to drill the holes in the plugs and do it that way. I would try to pin them, but I don't have the pins and all the Honda junkyards around here are the type that don't let anyone out in the yard anymore, they pull the parts, inventory them, and mark them way the hell up so you might as well just buy them from Majestic because they're nearly the same price and not dirty.

Thanks for all the tips. Like I said, the plug-in harness is an awesome idea in case you want to replace a door or want to upgrade with factory parts, but they sure make it a pain in the *** for this.

 

your car is not hard to do. There is a spot on the plug that does not even have wires

 

Yeah, now the task is getting a drill bit in there... I think I can get at the door side by closing the door and coming at it from the fender, but I'm not sure how I'm going to do the body side without removing the ECU, fuse box, or doors themselves.

I suppose I could pull the fenders, but that would be super effort overkill.

 

Just unplug the plugs, pull the door one into the door, [speaker opening] pull the body one into the car and work on it there, there is probably enough slack in the body one to pull it out into the space between the door and chassis so you can drill it there.
I just did a Miata today, [drivers side] even less room then a Honda/Acura, ran 2 16ga leads for a door lock actuator, took about 15 min. to get the leads from in the door to inside the car.

The hardest thing about doing it is unplugging the plugs, start by "peeling" the rubber off the plastic plug, so you can see the "clips" around the edge of the plug that holds the plug assembly in the A piller, once you have that out and unplug the plug the rest is easy. 94
Hint... reinstall the rubber boot onto the plastic plug before you clip the plug back into the A piller.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fcm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Hint... reinstall the rubber boot onto the plastic plug before you clip the plug back into the A piller. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Damn right about that. I pulled the boot off when I was doing the alarm install last week, but I ran out of time to do the door lock actuator wires, so I just left it hanging at the base of the loom. It'll be nice to get that back on.

 

i thought the 99-00s had a regular rubber boot/grommet going through the door and doorjamb??? oh well.

if it's a molex then you should be able to find an empty spot or 2 in the plug....carefully drill them out and feed the wires through. i've found that if you have the standard rubber boot/grommet style it is pretty easy to follow the door's harness through the jamb and trace it back the the side of fusebox. unplug that plug and pull it back through the hole in the doorjamb and the door itself. what i like to use for routing wires through rubber grommets is a BFZT or Big Fuggin Zip Tie! they are approximately 3 to 4 feet long and i get them from my buddy who does HVAC. you should also be able to pick them up from Home Depot or the like.
i run a little electrical tape for about 2 inches up one end of the BFZT and then lay the wires i wish to run along the flat edge of the BFZT...and continue to tape them tightly towards the end of the BFZT. after the wires are all taped up i use a can of dry silicone spray (you can usually find at autoparts stores) and spray inside the boot a little bit and along the BFZT. the dry silicone spray works well for lubricating the boot on the inside and it's a little less greasy than WD-40. i then pull the BFZT through the boot wiggling as i feed and then through the door hole through the doorjamb hole and replug into the fusebox.