Subs In The Trunk - Corolland: the Toyota Corolla Forums

I just thought I'd pass this along.

Just installed my old subs and amp in my corolla today, here are a few things I found out :

There is a very nice post for hooking up your power wire to under the cap. 10-12 gauge eye crimp fitting works perfect, but you have to notch the cap for the wire to exit. Boy was the nut on the post tight...

The firewall plug is doublesided. Take a nail and poke a hole and push your wire through until it stops. Go on the other side and look for the bulge. Poke a hole there too and push your wire through.

Be very careful routing the power wire from the firewall plug to the drivers side door trim. Many things for the wire to abraid/get pinched by. Use zip ties liberally!

The kick guards/door trim pop up. Start at one end and be firm. There are about two or three catches on each one. Best to pull on the side closest to the seats. There is a plastic philips screw holding another piece of trim to the left of the pedals, good place to run wire.

I grounded my amp with a stainless steel 1/4" #20 bolt with two washers. Between the headrests and the rear deck speakers are a number of holes and slots facing downwards. I just chose one easy to get to and put the nut and bolt through that. I didn't see great contact for ground, but once I tightened everything I read no resistance with my multimeter.

When you put your sub in, face it towards the latch (cones towards the latch) as far back as you can get it. It makes a world of difference. I noticed that my subs sounded much better with the trunk open. I googled about it and came up with http://www.installer.com/tech/aiming.html which is straight on. Only thing is, my trunk is now shot for doing anything with.

Going to Boston next week for a Pearl Jam show and my luggage is riding in the back seat default_wink

I'll put pics in my cardomain when I get a chance...nothing much to look at tho default_sad

Good luck,

Good install info - thanks for the post.

Guest raycastro

You also might be able to run the power cables through the driver side wheel well by the battery. That's how I did it on my 1998, so it may or may not work in your year model. There's a bigger rubber grommet there that you can access once you take off the plastic inside the wheel well. You can run your cables right down into the kick then into the bottom doorsill, avoiding all the steering and pedal linkage.

...avoiding all the steering and pedal linkage.

Which was the most difficult part of the run!

Guest raycastro

I have an idea of how difficult that is because I've run wires through a grommet that the 1998 Corolla has in about the same spot in the firewall.

I've since repaired the hole I made in that grommet with RTV. I figured that there had to be a cleaner way to get through, and that's how I found the pass through inside the wheel well. The hood release cable also runs through there.