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Best Place To Break Through The Engine Compartment Firewall

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

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MrAl
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Best Place To Break Through The Engine Compartment Firewall

Post by MrAl »

Hello there,

I may have asked this question a long time ago but forgot what was said.
I need to shoot a wire though the firewall into the interior of the car but not sure where to poke it through yet. Is there a recommended way to do this? The wire can have extra protection at the point of entry no problem there, and it will be away from anything really hot, etc.
Do you have to drill through or is there a hole already that is plugged up but can be unplugged (that's the way my old Hyundai was) ?


Thanks.
I’ve been driving a Volvo long before anyone ever paid me to drive one.
That's probably because I've been driving one since 2015 and nobody has offered to pay me yet.
1998 v70, non turbo, FWD, base model, on the road from April 2nd, 2015 to July 26, 2023.

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Post by dikidera »

Dozens of holes. Especially the main engine harness, I would re-use those IF possible, they can be quite tight for obvious reasons.

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Post by WhatAmIDoing »

There is a pass through under the main fuse box into the under side of the dash by the relays. It's plugged with a rubber grommet with 3 nubs sticking out.
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Post by MrAl »

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.
Gonna try to get out there and get this done after years of thinking about it and putting it off.
I guess i can say that it's more important now though with the solar panel. As Steve suggested a while back i dont want to tax the OBDII connector or its wiring. I found out it's probably just #22 AWG so that's not very good for anything except signals. Im using #16 which should be adequate for my needs. I would have went with #14 or even #12 but i already spent a lot on this project. I got the #16 wire, dual wires, 15 feet long, for just $4.00 USD ... hard to beat that. That's two wires too each 15 feet long. It's rated for 120 volts too so that's a plus using it at 12 volts automotive voltages.
I’ve been driving a Volvo long before anyone ever paid me to drive one.
That's probably because I've been driving one since 2015 and nobody has offered to pay me yet.
1998 v70, non turbo, FWD, base model, on the road from April 2nd, 2015 to July 26, 2023.

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Post by volvolugnut »

Automotive wiring has very small individual wire strands compared to other electrical wires. The fine strands give better flex in automotive vibration. You do not describe if you have automotive wire, but the 120 volt rating made me wonder.
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MrAl
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Post by MrAl »

Hi there,

Well it's ok i have used this kind of wire on my old Hyundai for the very same purpose and i had it that way for several years.

But im still wondering where to stick the wire through the firewall though im not clear on that yet.
From these two photos, can someone point out exactly where i can go through the firewall?

Thanks.
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I’ve been driving a Volvo long before anyone ever paid me to drive one.
That's probably because I've been driving one since 2015 and nobody has offered to pay me yet.
1998 v70, non turbo, FWD, base model, on the road from April 2nd, 2015 to July 26, 2023.

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Post by Chuck W »

Look under your fuse/relay box next to the brake reservoir.
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Post by Sveedy »

It's a hose about 6" - 8" long capped with a rubber piece apx 1" dia with three molded towers of different height. You can cut off the end of one of the towers, and pass your wire through. Or just pull off the cap, and have more room to work with.
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MrAl
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Post by MrAl »

Sveedy wrote: 16 Feb 2023, 09:16 It's a hose about 6" - 8" long capped with a rubber piece apx 1" dia with three molded towers of different height. You can cut off the end of one of the towers, and pass your wire through. Or just pull off the cap, and have more room to work with.
Hi,

Thanks a lot. I found it almost didnt though it is well under there.
I can see that if i pull off the cap i can get easy access to the hose, but there's one problem. Where the hell does it lead to on the INSIDE of the car? It's very unclear and i looked under the dash panel on the bottom and it does not show up there, so could it be coming out on the interior behind the speedometer? If so, it will be hard to access inside the car.
I looked and looked elsewhere too but there's no other places to stick the wire through, i even checked the radiator tubes but they just barely fit through the hole themselves.

Any ideas where that tube comes out in the interior of the car? I need that to access the wire inside.

Thanks.
I’ve been driving a Volvo long before anyone ever paid me to drive one.
That's probably because I've been driving one since 2015 and nobody has offered to pay me yet.
1998 v70, non turbo, FWD, base model, on the road from April 2nd, 2015 to July 26, 2023.

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Post by WhatAmIDoing »

It's hard to describe, but it's way back under the dash behind the relay boxes. In a stick car it's back behind and to the left of the clutch. You have to move the seat all the way back and pretty much lay on your back on the floor to get good visuals.
'98 S70 T5M - 323,000mi - awaiting heart transplant :shock:
'98 V70 T5M - 324,000mi - my new project
'99 S70 "AWD" - 220,000+mi - gone :cry:
Knows enough to be dangerous :wink:

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