speaker installation

how hard is it to put new speakers in the car... a 1996 s14 SE, i got new 6.5s but i read somewhere i would have to put new holes in to mount them... is this tru

yeah they need some custom work. i had my install guy cut out pieces of some wood fiber shit or whatever it was and mount my speakers on that cause the stock ones aren't 6.5". atleast they werent in my s13. take it to any mobile audio shop and they'll do it properly cause its tough to do without the right materials and tools. i'd also reccommend dynamat. which, if you didn't know, deadens vibrations from the speaker going into the door.

how much can i expect to pay at an audio place?
runnin a little low on money

also, does anyone know how to get to the speakers in the rear... are the panels inside supposed to pop off b/c i was havin a hell of a time findin a way... i think once i could get the old speakers out i could find a way to get the new ones in, im just havein a hard time gettin to the old ones

you can change the speakers yourself, don't pay anyone they are easy. Then again I did car audio for a living for the past 4 years. Ummm... door pannels are easy to get off and you don't have to custom make anything they fit right in. If they are a really deep mount you might have to cut the back out of the plastic piece they screw to but that's it. as far as the rear there are some 8mm or 10mm nuts that hold down the rear deck you access them from the trunk or by folding down the seat then it comes off and you can get to the speakers. Also you need to do a rewire to bypass the amps if you have them in your car, they are located under the rear deck viewable from the trunk also. If you need any help just take a pic of the door and the underside of the trunk and I'll tell you where all the screws and everything are and how to do it.

You need to bypass the amps just for installing new speakers?

this is y im happy my bro is a prof. installer cause i dont have to kno sh*t about this i jus say hey do this and he does...like right now were rolocating my cd player in the middle of the dash on the passenger side cause we replaced the stock spot wit a tv and were takin out the glove box and he is buildin a custom panel for a ps2(i kno i kno its kinda ricey but hey i got the tv for 50 bucks and the ps2 for free so i figure what the hell!!)

It depends on the resistance that the amplifier is designed to run at. Whenever I do 240's insted of running all new wire because it is time consuming I go to the drivers kick pull it up cut the speaker wire in half the goes to both front speakers, run a section of wire from the radio to the half of each wire that runs to the front then I connect another short section of wire to the rear half of the front speaker wire, then I go to the amp and cut the front output wires off the amp and connect them to the rear output, That way I don't have to run hardly any wire and it is very easy to reverse if you deside to go back to factory.

don't waste too much money on sound systems that's all i got to say...

btw mayday.. is that your zenki? it's hot.

More for MayDay

so i cant run them with the factory amps at all, or is there some way i can tell if they are good for the speakers i got? also if i have components for up front do i have to rewire for the crossovers or can i run them from what wires are already there..? If i have to use the crossovers where is the easiest place to wire them and place them...
thanx in advance
sorry im new to all this

i'd say take out the crossovers. normally new speakers have them built in. and mayday, i had new speakers installed (6.5) and they didn't fit into the stock location.. maybe the s14s came with 6.5 stock instead of 3"..

yah but i mean the SE came stock with tweeters and i was wondering if that wiring was good for the new tweeters or if i had to redo it wit the crossover the new speakers came with...? do i even need the new crossovers?

why don't you buy 2 in 1s? they have tweeters in them.. but i guess you may have already bought new speakers.. what i did was left the old tweeters, and unhooked them.. now i have 6.5 2-ways in my doors, and they work perfectly.. no external crossovers or anything. direct wiring..

S14 has 6.5" all the way around that is why you don't have any cutting needed. As far as your components good choice they will provide a better sound quality then a coaxel speaker is capable that is why they cost more. take off the door pannel, pull the rubber gromet out of the door and piller then run your wire through it and into the car shouldn't be to hard then run it up to your radio leaving I would say 6" of slack now mount your crossover in the passenger kick cut the wire you ran right by the crossover and now you have 2 wires ran the one for the midbass and the one for the input all that is left is to run your tweeter, now grab on to the top of the piller the tweets go in and pull it will come right off from here you will see the factory used like rubber coated metal wire like twist ties to secure the factory wire, since it's there go ahead and use it it should go down to the kick anyways so hook that up and repeat on the other side. Also don't waste your $$ on components for the rear because your going to end up with the same sound a coaxel would provide and more trouble hooking them up.

Thanks Shift, the car is/isn't mine yet. My friend had bought it like 2 years ago and a couple of us worked on it and suggested things well now he's selling it and I'm buying it just waiting on him to get it down here since he's moved to austin which is like 9 hours away.

thanx ima try it today and see what happens, shouldnt be too hard...

i did the wiring for the rear and i bypassed the amps, but when i did that the right speaker sounds great, but the left one is still only mediocore, and not near as loud as it could be... does anyone know of a wiring diagram for the amp so i could find out what goes where?


also in the rear they arent pop ins, i cant match the screws up to where they are, right now they just lay there but does anyone kno how to mount them easily by doin it custom?

you can put a piece of grain wood board or whatever it is on it, screw that into your old holes, put dynamat on it, then make new holes in the dynamat and wood board for your new speakers

so i bypassed the amp for the rear and wired it all correctly (i think) but when i try to test each side the right one has a lot more power than the left one... i hope this doesnt mean i blew a speaker already, i dont even see how i could have... could it be possibly the wiring for my headunit or somethin with a bad connection... its wierd sounding wit one powerful speaker and one weak one

did you check your balance on your head unit?

ya when i put it all the way to the left speaker it sounds muffled like theres somethin blockin it(theres not) and when i put it all the way to the right it sounds nice...

First easy solution to find out if it is the speaker switch them. Second 99% of the time factory speaker holes are in different location. that is when you break out your trusty drill and make new holes in the sheet metal or just use self tapping screws. If you have the time and since it's your own car you could also just run new speaker wire from front to rear, it's not to much trouble just grab onto the kick pannels and yank they will pop loose then run your wires and your done. I'm willing to bet if one sounds like shit that it's grounded to the the car one bare wire or terminal is touching the sheet metal on the car or maybe both terminals check this, if that is the problem and not connected the extra resistance will kill the radio.

yah its the speaker b/c i switched them and it was messed up on the other one too... im gonna call circuit city today and talk to them about it and return them.... then hopefully i should be good...

i looked on the polkaudio site and they sed the 6 and 3/4 inch speakers are a perfect fit, not the 6 and a halfs

then go with an oversized 6.5" speaker that would be a 6.75" speaker. Either will work though so don't break the wallet getting a specialty fit speaker. Also I would recomend the Rockford Fosgate power series 6.5" that Best buy sells... I worked there for 2 years and they are prob the best sounding coaxel speaker for your money I've ever heard but then again sound is a personal preferance.

look for 2-way infinity's goin for about $170/pair and you will not be disappointed with them. mine sound great.. but if you want separate tweeters, you can go one step up and the quality of both tweeters and mid range speakers increases but they're separate (not two-way).. and completely rewiring your deck from stock is a good idea cause i think they used a complicated setup by boston acoustic.. just like mayday said, there may be grounding problems