Upgraded door speakers

KAUS

New Member
Aug 14, 2005
13
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USA
Finally got the chance to replace the stock door speakers today. Took a good 4 or 5 hours of work, but at least it's done. Removing the doors went as follows:

First you need to remove the A-pillar panel from each side (the piece of plastic directly beside the rear-view mirrors). The driver's side a-pillar has a wiring harness for the mirror controls that must be detatched. Each door is secured by 9 Hex-Head type screws and 2 Star-head screws. You have to removed the panels behind the door handle and the elbow rest to access the star-head screws and one of the hex heads. After you remove all the screws, there are two plastic "protrustions" at the bottom of the door panels which slide into holes in the door from above. You have to lift the whole door panel up and pull outward rather firmly to finally free the door panel from the door.

The last step in getting acces to the stock speakers is removing the wiring harnesses for the power windows and power lock. You still can't completely remove the door panel, since there's a cord connected to the door handle that couldn't easily be removed (as far as I could tell).

I replaced the stock 5x7's with 6.5" Diamond d6 Coaxials. I made a baffle ring for the new speakes out of 3/4" MDF, and used foam to fill the space between the baffle and the door's metal, since the surface isn't completely flat.

door1.jpg



The hardest part was trying to figure out how I was going to run upgraded speaker wire from the dash, through the door to the new speakers. I was ultimately unsuccesful in finding a way to do this, and had to settle with using the stock speaker wire. The grommet which brings the factory wires from the dash to the door terminates in a plug-type harness, making it impossible to run additional wires through without drilling a new hole. Due to the angles involved and my distaste for putting more holes in the vehicle, I reluctantly gave up on running 16 awg speaker wire through the doors.

Once I install my amps, I will have to splice into the factory wires. This is less than optimal since the factory 20 awg provides a little more resisitance than I'd like for 100 watts of amplication, but it should shouldn't have much of a noticeable difference in sound quality. I'd be really interested to see how the people that have seperates in the doors managed to get all the wires from the dash to the door.

Ultimately I installed the speakers:

door3.jpg


I'm pretty pleased with the way they sound, and will be adding a sub soon. The stock battery terminal is giving me problems figuring out to attach a 1/0 gauge wire terminal, but a little more improvisation should eventually solve the problem......

door2.jpg


Hope this helps anybody looking to do a DIY door speaker replacement.
 

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If the door panel covers any of the speaker, it's not much at all. It's hard to say for sure since you can't really see the speaker once you put the door panel on, but it sounds fine. The tweeter is pretty much in the dead center of the factory grille. There's plenty of clearance between the speaker and the door panel, even with the 3/4" thick baffle ring I made.
 
I had the stock system, non-shaker. I ordered it that way because I knew I was going to do my own upgrades. The nice thing about having the shaker would be the better speaker cutout in the bottom of the door panel. That would be a better place to put a 6.5" or 8" midrange than the higher up location where the stock 5x7 sits.
 
The mounting depth of the ones I installed was 2.75". I had at least .5" of clearance between the back of the speaker and the window, if not more.

The primary reason I used the 3/4" MDF baffle ring was for a more solid and smooth mounting surface than the bare metal of the door. It would be tough to get an airtight seal between the rim of the speaker and the door without some kind of adapter plate, since the surface isn't completely flat. The extra spacing generated by the wooden ring doesn't hurt anything either.

On another note I ran the 1/0 gauge wire for my amps today. It really wasn't too bad. My sub gets in next week, so hopefully the system will be complete soon.
 
Where did you run the wire through the firewall? I am starting my install and I think I am going to put my mids at the bottom of the door. MDF spaced it out to the door panel then use a stock speaker cover if I can find one.
 
I ran the wire through the firewall almost dead center in front of the passenger seat, about halfway between the bottom of the glove box and the floor. I almost hit a coolant line with the drill bit, but luckily I missed. You have to tear through a good 3/4" of insulation to get to the firewall from the inside. From the engine bay, looking at the windshield, the hole is below the battery and about 4" to the right. There is a big rubber grommet for a bunch of factory wires on the far side of the firewall, I drilled a hole a few inches beside that one.
 
I did the same got the base system because I knew I was going to upgrade as well. My plan is a 8" midbass on the bottom and a 5x7 mid and tweeter. 5x7 coax in the back and a single 12 or so in the trunk. Then a nav HU maybe eclipse or pioneers new one when it comes out.
 
Very nice guys, keep us posted of updates. I'm planning on upgrading too, which is the same reason why I got the base system. If you have any pics of where you ran through the firewall, I'd be interested to see. I'm hoping to move the battery to the trunk, but I still have the get the wire through there somehow :)
 
I see the flap you were talking about, but doubt my 1/0 gauge wire would've fit through.

Unfortunately I fried my Head Unit tonight, turns out, when I tried to splice into the factory wire I connected the speaker outputs from my external amp to the speaker outputs from the Head Unit, rather than the speaker wires going to the speaker. Luckily my Head Unit was a cheapy, and I kind of wanted to upgrade anyway. I should've disconnected the Speaker Wires from the Head Unit Amp before I even started messing around by splicing into the factory wires. Anyway, moral of the story: Be sure sure you're splicing into the right side of the wires! I've got another CD Player coming in next week.
 
Panel Removal

I found one STAR SCREW and the 9 hex screws. I can't find the last one. The one I found is behind the elbow rest /door pull.

I'm lost please help....:bang:

UPDATE: I got it, FINALLY..........wheeeeeew