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I have a VW Polo 2003 1.2 and would like to add a speaker to each rear door. I am a complete newbie when it comes to electrical work in cars (actually in most things about cars other than the important simple stuff I suppose). Currently the car has 2 front speakers. I have taken apart one of the rear door trim panels and noticed there is a space where a speaker could be added, however there was no wiring available other than the one that goes to the central locking (I think).

How would I go about passing the speaker wires to the Sony stereo? I was thinking of passing the speaker wires along with the wires that seem to be for the central locking. I assume that doing this would allow me to collect the speaker wire under the front passenger seats. However I am not sure where to go from here to reach the main head unit whilst keeping the wiring well hidden.

Where would the extra speaker wire then be connected to the stereo? I have noticed that there are various harnesses at the back of the stereo. also the head unit has several holes where RCA cables could be plugged into.

I haven't bought any speakers yet and I want to be sure what i need to do before buying them. How do speaker wires look out of the box generally speaking (description is enough)?

Thank you for your help

user25749
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Car speakers typically come with speaker wire in the box. From memory, I believe that an '03 Polo will be 6.5" diameter round speakers so order a set in that size.

You can run the wiring through the little rubber bellows that the central locking loom goes into. From there, you'll be in the B-pillar. If you remove the plastic trim from the B-pillar you can feed the wiring down and if you remove the plastic inner sill covers too, route it along there towards the dashboard.

When it comes to connecting it to the stereo, you need to check the loom at the back of the stereo. Volkswagens on this period use ISO standard connectors which have one set of wires for power and the other for speakers. These are typically in the form of one black and one brown (although I have seen white) and the have a tab at one side to clip them together.

The pins for the rear speakers at the outside of the speaker connector. See the image below. More info about the ISO connector is available here.

ISO pinouts

This information applies to most cars built over the last 20+ years.

Steve Matthews
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Speaker cables are simple two-wire cables:

Speaker cables

There's a flexible rubber hose between the door and the door frame. You'll have to run a cable through this hose, then down the pillar to the sill, through the sill and the dashboard to get to the radio. This involves removing the trim panels from the sill and the pillar, the kick panel (that's the panel next to the pedals below the dashboard), and possibly some of the panels below the dashboard.

Hobbes
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