Updated to include rear speaker replacement info too!

After reading a ton about doing this on this forum, I decided to take the plunge. Nothing too fancy, just a speaker upgrade for the fronts. Might do the backs at some point, haven't decided. I tried to listen to some speakers locally, but the selection was so poor, I just ordered some online without listening to them. I picked Image Dynamics CTX4 and CTX6 from Woofers Etc. With shipping, it was less than $250.

I don't have much experience at stereo upgrades in cars and a lot of the discussion that goes on here about it is over my head. I can't carry a tune in a bucket and age plus 3 years of being a helicopter mechanic when I was young (turbine engines!) has put the hurt on my hi-freq hearing. Still, I knew I could do better than stock. My sales person actually recommended that I not go for the stereo upgrade and instead, spend the $500 on aftermarket parts.

I'm about 1/2 way in on that ($250 spent so far) and am very pleased with the results. The sound is much fuller...the music has some depth now. My first thought after turning it on for the first time was "it sounds like a real band now".

Haven't done anything with the back (6x9s) and I have not done the front/rear wire swap either (that may be next). In the meantime, here are some pictures of the teardown.....

Some door panel removal tools I bought on Amazon for less than $20. They worked great!



Using another tool, I started by popping the plastic pin from the door handle.



Here the pin is almost out. I wiggled and pulled to get it out.



Next step was to get the plastic cup around the door handle. Using one of the plastic pry tools and a little muscle, it pops right off.



Next is the arm rest. Grab it at the top, pry out and up and it pops off too.



Then, the door panel itself. The middle part of the panel stays put. The part that comes off looks like a giant "C". Just start on one end and work your way around. It takes more force than you would think, but once you get it going, it comes off pretty easily.

Here's the door exposed.



I wanted to replace the 4" speakers too, so off comes the grill.



Once I had the grill off, I used a Torx (25) to unbolt the speakers. Here's the back of one of them. I thought it was funny that the speakers were made in the Ukraine. Who knew?



The easiest way to wire the new speakers was to drill a small hole in the plastic.



The wiring....



The speakers fit without any drama (no Dremel needed), but the holes didn't line up. I re-used the holes I could and just screwed the speakers into the plastic ring using SS screws. I made my own connections for the big speakers, but the small speakers had pin-sized connectors...I cut those off and soldiered on the wires that came with the speakers.

Here's the speakers all installed:



I marked the door panel clips with blue painters tape (a brilliant suggestion, thanks to whoever thought that one up!). The door panel goes on easy, I just worked my way around popping the clips on one at a time.



All done with the passenger door in about 1.5 hours. I was moving very slowly and taking my time. I even disconnected the battery, a precaution not strictly required.



I knocked out the drivers door in about 45 minutes and it took me about 15 minutes to clean up. I was prepared for a big fight with the mirror adjustment ****, but it wasn't a problem. I did drop one of the pieces (there should be four)



And I knew right away when I put it back together, it wasn't right. In the end, I pushed it through the speaker cover, popped the cover back on, re-assembled the switch and then installed it last. Cake!

A very heartfelt and sincere Thank You to those of you that have gone before! Also special thanks to Robin and Schatzy for all the helpful posts.

In the end, mine was a "good enough" upgrade. For the money and time invested, it was well worth it!

 

Nice. Is that a ceramic or plastic knife you used to pop out the plastic pin in the door handle?

See the round rubber plug to the right of where you drilled the hole for the wire? I poked the wire through that.

 

You beat me to it....

But i nice clean install...i dropped the same tab when i removed the mirror adjuster....an i spent an hour looking for it and couldn't find it. Until about 3 weeks later i tried using my iPod and charger and the charger woudn't fit right into the cigarette lighter....i was pissed about that...but didn't look into it ....then a week or two later i decided to see why the iPod charger wouldn't seat all the way....you guessed it...the little paddle that fell off landed in the cigarette lighter opening.

 

I bought it from Amazon (shipped by Crutchfield) as a door panel removal tool. It's basically a plastic knife. My wife stopped by in the middle of the project and asked me "Where did you get the bone folder?". She has a tool just like it she uses to help fold paper!

I remember reading a posting about the rubber plug now that you mention it. Didn't think of it at the time.....

 

I got the matching speakers for the back (Image Dynamics CTX69) for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and put them in over the last weekend. The passenger side was cake, the driver's side was a PITA.

Here's a shot of the passenger side, just getting started:



On my car, most of the right side (passenger, here in the US) screws were Torx and most of the driver's side were Philips (cross). Not sure what's up with that.

The 1/2 door panel comes off easy, start at the top and work your way down. I didn't take it completely off the car as it's had some zip ties on the inside...I just pushed it out of the way. The speaker comes out and the new 6x9 goes right in, a perfect fit. All the holes line up. I snipped and soldiered the wires. Had this side done in about 20 minutes. I used blue tape to mark the pop snaps, just like above.



Here's a couple of shots of the stock (non-hifi) speakers and the new ones:





The left side of the car was a lot more trouble. I took it apart in sections, not really understanding what needed to come off first. For this narrative, I'm going to rearrange how I did it. so it will be easier for anyone using these as instructions.

I planned on doing the front/rear channel swap at the same time, so I popped that panel off, front seat, lower leg area. it runs along the inside bottom of the door. Keep working your back and pop the next panel off too.

Take out the back seats. Grab the bottom seat in the front, lift up and pull, it comes right out. The seat backs are bolted in...two bolts in the front, 1 in the back. Once you have bolts out, fold the seats down (1 at a time) and lever them in the middle to give yourself some play. The sides of the seats are keyed into a slot and once you have the backs folded down at just the right angle, they will pop right out. Take both seat backs out as a unit.

Go around to the back of the car, take all the stuff out of the "trunk". The panel right above the spare tire hole, on the inside of the back bumper comes out next. Then pop off the plastic covers on the square tie downs, left side only. Pry them from the bottom-up (I broke one of mine prying it from the top-down). Next pop off the floor holder (gray plastic thing)..I broke the tabs on this some. Next take off top piece of plastic by the seat belt, then the lower piece and finally the panel you really want off, the one that hides the speaker. Mine had screws top and bottom in the front (you can get at the bottom one via that door sill panel you popped off first) and you can get to the top via the light gray airbag cover. Gently pull out the airbag indicator (now would be a good time to disconnect the battery, if you haven't done so yet) and my cover was held with a screw. One more screw from the top front of the big panel and it's ready to come out. I put my fingers under the bottom and kind of pried it out, then along the top and pried it up. Some of the metal clips fell off at this point and I could hear them as they landed inside the panel. Don't worry, you can police them up when you get the panel off.

At this point, your car should look like this:



Here's the speaker hole, stock speaker removed.



It took me just a few minutes to swap the speakers and then I had to put the car back together.

I had previously made a connector for the front/rear channel swap (I made mine with about 8 inches of wire between the connectors, I would do about 2 or 3 inches, if I was doing it over) and that was also very quick to swap.

Including taking pictures and fetching a few tools I had about 40 minutes total in the 1/2 door speaker swap. The other side took me about 3 1/2 hours, mostly because I was going slow and taking things apart in the wrong order. I could do it again in less than 1/2 the time, I'm sure.

My goal was to upgrade my stereo and spend $500 or less (the cost of the Mini stereo upgrade). I'm well under that mark and the system really sounds great. The combination of the new 6x9's and the channel swap has really pumped up the sound. I'm very happy with it.

For the record, I played "Summertime Blues" by Blue Cheer as my test song once the car was put back together.

A big thank you to those that have blazed the trail and to whoever figured out the front/rear channel swap.

 

Seriously awesome post! I think this should be a sticky too!

 

very nice write up. I don't think you need to remove the armrest on the door though.

 

Thanks for the comments.

I didn't need to take off the armrest on the front door, so you could skip that step. It isn't a big deal as it pops off and back on very easily.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the panel removal in the rear, but it was kind of frustrating and I just didn't want to slow down to take pictures.

I've been living with the new sound now for a couple of months and it totally rocks. The Clubbie has the best sound I've ever had in a car and I have really enjoyed listening to my favorite tunes during the commute. I spend between 1 and 2 hours in the car by myself everyday, so I have lots of time to enjoy the new sound. The F/R channel swap hasn't been a problem, even with the phone coming out of the rear speakers. I can't believe that Mini cripples the stereo so badly by reducing the bass from the 6x9 rears. It doesn't make any sense!

For the time and money I have invested, it was totally worth it!

 

can you tell me how you made the connector for the "front/rear" swap?

 

will a 4" fit in the 4" hole or would it need to be a 3.5?

 

can you go into some more detail on removing the mirror control ****? how to remove, pointers, how to replace, photos? i'm doing the operation on thursday

 

Great info!!! When you changed 6.5 speakers in the door. There was a yellow/brown wire and a yellow/black wire which one is - & + on those 2 wires? Thanks for any help

 

I was reviewing this thread recently and thought it might be useful to link to the X9331 Cable that I made (front/rear speaker "pin swap"). The color printout you see in my pic is also from this site...search X9331 to find tons of useful info.

Here's the link:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post2965820

 

These are the types of extremely helpful posts that make diving into the unknown, a task which takes full advantage of all the time saving methods learned, Great post with lots of info that will help me when I upgrade my speakers and not damage panels along the way...

 

Thanks for the helpful info, and for the photos. They were a great benefit when I fitted my new speakers, today, though I've left the left rear speaker as-is until I have time to also install my subwoofer and amp.

Replaced my front 6's with Polk coaxial 2-ways, and the rears with Polk coaxial 3-ways. Sound quality in the back is incredibly sharp, though it lacks the deeper bass from before, which is what my Image Dynamics 12" sub will fill in in the spare well, once I get it hooked up. It's an improvement, but I'm still not quite happy with it, yet, and I need to replace the front door 4's.

 

Excellent thread Just ordered some new speakers for my Cooper.. I'll be following this.. I'm just wondering, what size spade terminals did you use to plug into the lower connector block? I want to avoid chopping into the car's loom if I can

Thank you

 

There are only two sizes for spade blade (male) connectors. The ones on the factory speakers are the larger ones. I recommend just cutting them off and soldering or using butt connectors or even twisting the bare wires together then taping with some good 3m black electrical tape then fastening that with a tire.
Whatever method you use make sure that it is secured well so that it doesn't come apart or knock into the speaker frame or car body.
You don't want to have to go back in there once you are done because it is so much trouble to take apart the rear panels to access the speakers.
When I finished replacing my 6x9s I threw out my factory speakers because it is just not worth the trouble to put them back in.

 

And of course test everything before you put it back together. ;-)

 

Job done guys, in the end I snipped the plugs off and used insulated spade connectors.. the sound has vastly improved. I fitted a set of JBL CS-4 in the uppers and JBL CS-6 in the lower.. However the Lower was a fiddle to do as the speaker holes didn't line up. In the end I drilled new pilot holes and used the original torx screws but in new locations.. Job's a good'un

 

Gaz.pike , I just noticed that you are in the UK. Newministuff actually has a premade plug to do the swap that is plug and play.
I actually ordered it made into an A Pillar Clarion tweeter kit which included the A Pillar for an extra fee. the kit was very easy to install and having the tweeter sound bouncing off of your front glass makes a big difference in sound. I also changed my 6x9 speakers and without an amp it make a night and day difference in my sound. I am thrilled with the improvement and It only cost me about 150 dollars for the kit that included the tweeters and Harmon Kardon Branded Pillars. Check them out.