I’ve bought a set of Tombstone seats with built in speakers for Mindy my mk1 UK spec mx5. Once Ive changed the seat bases over, I’ll be fitting the seats. However, I’d like to connect up the built in speakers in the seats. I’ve had the drivers seat out while fitting a new hood, but didn’t see the speaker cables anywhere? I fitted a new head unit and there are wires for four speakers in the dash, so wondering where they go to? Is there a plug/connector in the dash where another harness would connect up and then run to the seats?
You say there is wiring for four speakers ‘in the dash’ - do you mean from the radio or in the car wiring loom? - This would mean eight wires in total, as there is no negative (body) earth connection for a return wire associated with speakers. Four wires (only) would be connections to existing speakers only. - I’m aware that some Mk1’s had headrest seat speakers, so as you suggest, wiring may be in the car loom,but ending somewhere at sockets needing a matching plug connector to extend to the seat speakers. These are likely to be also in the loom, in front of each seat, only way to trace them is by checking colour code of the wires you’ve located, and matching therm at empty sockets where I’ve suggested.
As Mazda seem to use non standard plugs and sockets, then you may have to cut the existing wiring to those sockets off, junk the sockets, and use inline connectors to extend new wiring from them. That only applies to the question of “Is there enough speaker wiring to do this?” - If there are only four wires then you need to think hard how to overcome this. Matching radio outputs to connected speakers can be tricky, so you need to now what impedance (ohms) each speaker is, in order to get proper matching between them and the new radio output. That applies to both existing and new speakers.
You can’t check impedance, but you can check actual speaker resistance, if you have a good multi-meter. If they (new and old) all have the same resistance level, then you can let me know, and I’ll tell you how to connect new to old. (PM me) I also need the new radio output rating - in Ohms. If you are hoping to get stereo sound, it ain’t going to happen!
Hi Gerry,
Thanks for the info. I’m sure there were 8 speaker wires although will pull the radio out again to double check. If there are 8, I think it will be hard to try and follow them to see where they terminate, so hoping someone may already know so I can go directly to there and then see what’s needed to run wires from there to under the seats. Think you’re right about connections, will probably have to cut off existing plugs and fit new ones. Hoping it’s not to difficult to get to the ends of the speaker harness.
I know the speaker wires end up dropping down from the dash behind the plastic kick sides and then run through a plastic channel along the top of the sill inside the car then come out of this channel behind the floor box section that the seat is bolted to at the front, I will have a look at mine in the morning and see where they go to under the dash, I replaced my headrest speakers for 2x 100mm head ones in each seat.
Hope that helps.
Tim
Thanks Tim that would be great! And ta for the photos, will make it easier to see where the wires should come out (if it has them!)
Hi Chillax
I took my car apart today trying to find the speaker wires but was unable to locate them once they entered all the other cables behind the dash, I think because my car is a Jap Eunos and not a UK car they are wired standard, my Haynes manual wiring diagrams only show door speaker wiring.
If you type How to connect headrest speakers in mk1 mx5 into You Tube there are some good videos that may help.
I also took my audio out but the wires vanish to the front.
Thanks for that Time, appreciate it big time. Will need to possibly run new speaker cables then. That’s a tidy audio install you’ve got, liking that a lot!
I recently installed the interior from a 1995 Eunos V special which had the tombstone seats in to my 1998 UK 1.8is.
There were no wires in the UK car for the seat speakers, so I had to run new ones from the stereo to the seats. Luckily for me I was using the Eunos as a donor car and could utilise the wiring and connectors from that in the UK car.
Good luck.
Good to know they can at least be retro fitted. Did you manage to plug them into the existing radio harness or did you swap in the complete radio harness from the Eunos?
As I was installing the dashboard from the Eunos in to the IS, several of the switches needed moving. The electric mirrors were located under the radio which was a single DIN. I was installing a double DIN GPS units so Lots of cutting of wires and soldering. I also installed a USB charging point.
I ran new wires from the ISO connector at the back of the stereo unit, and then spliced the wiring harness from the Eunos in to that so that it looked stock under the carpets as shown in the photos posted by Warbird.