Mickle

Ok, so here is the guide I've put together on how I reused the existing speaker mounts from my car. Just incase you don't know the whole story I'll briefly describe my problem and how I've overcome it.

I used to own a MY97 Impreza and Subaru in their wisdom used to have separate speakers and speaker mounts. I bought a set of 4 16cm Pioneer speakers and they slotted in the original mounts perfectly, front and back. Anyway the car got chopped in for a P1 and to cut a long story short the stereo came out of the MY97 and the plan was to put it straight back into the P1. Then came the problem, Subaru had decided to make the speakers and mounts one unit! The speakers were the mounts and the mounts were the speakers. So this is a guide to what I did, I hope it helps a lot of you out there but I cannot 100% guarantee it's going to work with different speakers, it worked with the 16cm speakers I had so don't come running to me if it goes abit t*ts up

Basically I thought of it like this, I was going to MDF the doors anyway and would have probably sold the car with the MDF'd speakers in so it was no loss to me in the end.

Tools I used:

Various sized philips head screwdrivers.
Small flat head screwdriver.
Jigsaw.
Soldering iron (Could have used crimps or twisted the wires).
A kitchen knife .
Pair of pliers.
Drill.



Step 1:

Remove the door panel, after removal you'll see the existing front speaker. I'm guessing there are a thousand instructions in this forum somewhere telling you how to do this but if you need advice please ask me. Undo the speaker connector (shown with green arrow) followed by the three screws holding the speaker in the door (yellow arrows).



Step 2:

These are the speakers I had for the replacement surgery. They are 150w 2-Way 16cm Pioneer speakers incase you cannot read the box I've got all 4 speakers replaced with these little babies and coupled with 2 x 12 inch Eminence subs in the boot give you a quality sound for very little money. I paid £50 for a pair. I use the 4 pioneer speakers to pump out the midrange and high end notes whilst letting the subs handle the deep stuff. It's probably a good idea at this stage now you've got the OEM speaker out to size up your new replacement speaker for fitting. My replacement speakers outer rim just stuck out over the rim of the mount. I also looked at the screw positioning of the new speaker before taking the plunge and hacking the OEM speaker to bits.



Step 3:

The image above shows the rear or the standard front Impreza speaker. Between the blue arrows lies what I describe as the water protector (?) It's a bit of plastic that sits at the top of the mount to protect from splashes and stuff I reckon. Here comes the fun bits. The green arrows show where to nick or cut the white insulating surround, I used a kitchen knife but anything will do to separate the tape. Next remove the three screws indicated with the yellow arrows, these were pretty delicate so I ended up using a small flat headed screw driver even though they are philips headed screws. You may or may not have to slice some black glue where the red arrow is ready for the next step.



Step 4:

Pull the splash guard as hard as you can until it comes away in your hands, you should be left with the same as the picture above. In this process I broke a small plastic tab near to the base of the guard which I later taped over (shown as the red arrow near to the ground level).



Step 5:

Rip out the old speaker wire at the speaker end, we'll need this later on for the new speaker connections. Be as brutal as you like but keep the wires as long as possible. Turn the speaker over and rip the entire front fabric out right down to the magnet. Now get the jigsaw out or a fine bladed manual saw if you've got one. I'll show you the cut points on the above picture and the end results on the below picture (cut points in green). Before cutting I used a pair of pliers to snap off the vertical bits of plastic (yellow). The red arrow shows better the bit of plastic that snapped in the previous step.



Step 6:

The picture above shows the speaker and the mount separated, there's no going back now, I just sanded the loose plastic edges on the mount after the sawing process.



Step 7:

Fit your new speaker over the mount making sure the new speaker connectors will be behind the splash guard when you screw it back on. Mark the holes and drill. I found 3 screws were enough but I guess it depends on your speakers. I drilled at a slight angle from the outer edge inwards. Under the new speaker holes is a lip of plastic on the new mount. Using the soldering Iron I soldered the old wires onto the new speaker connectors (making sure I got the + and - the right way round) then as in step 3 replaced the splash guard and put back the 3 little screws. On the splash guard you might get a hole (where the plastic snapped) I taped this over with black electrical tape.



Step 8:

Screw the speaker back to the door, connect it up and put the door back together. How much does that speaker look like it should be there?

Unlike the fronts I had to make MDF mounts for the rear 16cm speakers. If any of you need a template that screws from the underside (in the boot) rather than the top side (Original - have to strip half the car apart to get to them) for 16cm speakers email me. I'm sure I could knock up a guide to the rears if needed

Chiark, if you want this for your ICE FAQ feel free to use it

If any of the steps are a bit iffy or I've explained something wrong again feel free to tell me...

Once again I cannot take any responsibility for what you do to your car blar blar blar I'm just trying to help people out and add to the already growing Impreza fan base.

Mike

[Edited cause I briefly forgot how to post pictures ]

[Edited by Mickle - 7/23/2002 10:32:33 PM]

STI MAN

Post of the Month!!!


Mickle,

You're a star!

chiark

Mick, wanna add that to the FAQ? I'll email you a username and password if you're up for it...

Nick.

Mickle

Hi Chiark,

Yeah I'll add it if you like

Mike

STI MAN

Mickle,


How good are the Pioneer speakers, as i'm a bit miffed with MCS direct for d1cking me around when i ordered some 605's.

chiark

Mike

Did you get my mail?

Mickle

Here are the dimensions of the speakers I used, hope this helps

Mickle

STI-MAN - The speakers are good for the money. Wouldn't go as far to say they're bassy, but combined with a sub in the boot you're laughing for the money. On my Pioneer head unit I can get it up to 51/52 out of 60 before they start distorting and they are loud. Must say I've replaced all 4 speakers with them though so you'd have to do all 4.

Chiark - YHM

fireblade929

Top.....

I was just about to cut some MDF for my front JBL's. This job sounds a more violent method Which I like !

Looks good as well.

fireblade929

I gave this a whirl, but unfortunately my JBL GT 6.5" speakers don't fit as they are too large. At least after butchering the OEM speaker, I had a easy to draw around template to use..

Still, I enjoyed using the hammer getting the old speaker out

Mickle

Sorry to hear about your speaker mounts going wrong. You could try adding a thin MDF collar to the top of the mount or is it way out. Just another thought but I reckon you could also make a couple of quid selling the hacked speaker mounts to someone that's got 6" speakers for a couple of quid

phaynes

How r those tweeters fitted m8?

Where did u get those brackets from?

have i missed something here?

Paul

fireblade929

Those tweeter brackets look std fitting for the existing tweeters.
Only my MY98 and MY99 Jap WRX came with these, none of my UK cars ever had them.

I had to drill the doors on my UK cars and knock up a mount myself. If these mounts are available from your dealer, and your doors are drilled for them all ready it will save you a lot of hasslee and vibrations, I should imagine.

The existing tweeters came off easily with a.....erm........ hammer. The JBL tweeters I fitted used the existing mounting hole and the nut/washer that came with the speaker kit.

HTH

Andy Holmes

Dr Hu

I may be wrong but the All-in-One speaker and mount may be a P1 only speaker (& jap WRX).

They are Addzest units which are NOT fitted as standard to UK cars, which DO have seperate speakers/mounts.

But still very informative for import/P1 owners. Nice pics by the way

NB - the factory tweeters are available as an Subaru Accessory, they were fitted as std to P1's.

Are you keeping both tweeters then? - the original factory & the new pioneer one in the centre of the speaker?

Mickle

Can't be asked to pull them out

I asked a dealer before cutting mine to bits if I can buy the mounts separately because I used to have them separately when I had the MY97. I saw the parts and part numbers on his screen thingy and they were sold as one big unit, speaker and bracket together as one.

So who knows for sure, is it import cars or is it all cars, I certainly couldn't get mounts from a dealer.