Front 6.5" Speaker installation (doors)

Wildman

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Difficulty: Easy :p

Alright well I finally did this today. I've had new speakers in my trunk since Christmas lol. I'm going to use a lot of pics and stuff in this tutorial just so it will answer all the question's out there. You can probably skip most of the text and figure it out from the pictures, text is there for people that want more details.

See the bottom for some recommended tools that aren't listed as needed, and an overview of the installation.

I started off using a tutorial that artzglass had posted, but it didn't really give as much detail as it could have so I thought I'd write this up. That tutorial is here http://www.morningz.com/mz/integra/audio/installs/g6accord_doorpanel.asp

What You'll Need:

-Phillips head screwdriver
-Couple sizes of flat head screw drivers
-Wire Cutter
-Wire stripper
-Heat shrink tubing or Electrical tape
-If using heat shrink tubing, you will also need a hairdryer, heat gun, or cigarrette lighter

This is 18-22 gauge heat tubing you can get at a hardware store or somewhere. It cost $2.81 with tax at Ace Hardware. I prefer this tubing to electrical tape from experience. Electrical tape can unravel, wheras this tubing is good forever.
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Installing the speakers

1. Ok here you have 2 options. If you want to listen to your radio for about 10 more minutes, you can partially unscrew the screw in the second picture and that will make the driver's side door stop beeping (if you're working on that side). Otherwise, remove the circled fuse in the picture below
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2. Here you're going to just pull back this plastic panel. It doesn't come easy. Just when it feels like you're going to break it in half it pops off. Just grab behind it and pull forward.
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3. Next there's like a little plastic rivet that you're going to pop out. Grab one of your flat head screw drivers and just pry underneath the head and pop it out.
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4. Look by the door handle, and you will see a little piece of plastic that is actually a cover to hide a screw. Using a small flat head screwdrivers, pry it off. I couldn't figure out any easy way to get these out - I broke both of mine in the process :( . If you break yours, don't worry. You can get a new one at your honda dealership. Remove the screw.
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Once you've removed the screw, slide the door handle assembly towards the front of the car and it should loosen up. If you don't slide it forward before trying to pull it out, you can break some plastic tabs.

Do the same thing in the "cup" in the armrest on the door
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5. Now, using a flat head screwdriver, pry the back of the trim piece until you can get your fingers on it. Once you can get your fingers underneath the back of it, pull up and towards the front of the car, then slide it back towards the rear of the car to get it out. Unplug any harnesses and set it aside.
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6. The next step is pretty easy. Basically, slide your fingers anywhere underneath the panel (you can use a screwdriver to help with this if you need to) and pull back slightly to "pop" out some body clips that are holding the panel in. Work your hands all the way around.
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7. Now that the entire panel is loose, slide it up over the lock and let it hang back down. It won't fall - the door handle assemble and some wiring harnesses on the backside are still holding it fine
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8. The door handle assembly should be loose, as well as the door panel. With some maneuvering, slide the door handle assembly through to the backside of the door panel.

9. Here you can see in between the door panel & the door. As you can see, there is still 1 harness towards the top and one harness farther down that are attached. Unclip both of these. I found it easier to unclip the top one, and then rotate the door panel to unclip the bottom one only because there isn't much, if any, slack in the wires.
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This is what it should look like now
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If you haven't yet removed the fuse in the first picture, remove your keys & pull that fuse now to disconnect power to the speaker

10. Unscrew the 4 screws holding in the stock speaker and pull it out. Don't let it hang by the wires if possible
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11. Now unclip the wiring harness from the stock speaker by pushing in the side tabs and pulling it out. Set the stock speaker aside.
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Getting the wires out of the Stock Wiring harness:
Because the wires are so short, I highly recommend that you do this rather than just cutting the wires behind the harness. It will give you an extra 1/2" of wiring that can make a big difference when you're working with such short wires.

12. Using a small flathead screwdriver, push down on this tab to open up part of the wiring harness
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It should now look like this
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Again using a small flatheaded screwdriver, put the head of the screwdriver in this hole and twist it to pop off this piece of the harness
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Now pull forward & up on this piece and it should rest on its plastic hinge pieces.
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13. Looking at the other end of the harness, you can see the connectors. They are being held in by 2 clips, one each. Using your small flathead, pry underneath each clip and push up on it to pull each wire out of the harness.
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14. Now using a wire cutter, clip the wires just at where they meet the metal connector. Then, using a wire stripper for 20-22 ga, strip about 1/2" of the wire.
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Here we can see the stock speaker next to the one we will be replacing it with. I chose Pioneer 3-way coaxial speakers, rated at 80 watts rms each and 240 watts peak. Not only will the new speakers have less distortion, but they will be able to reproduce higher notes that the stock full range speakers couldn't, and they will have much better musical clarity
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Note: These speakers came with wires to connect the stock wires to the speaker terminals. If your speakers didn't come with any wiring, All you need to do is solder the corresponding wire to the proper speaker terminal (negative to negative, positive to positive). The speaker terminals are the metal tabs shown below.
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Use this picture for reference in the next steps:
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Wiring diagram courtesy of morningz.com

15. Using the wires supplied with your speakers, Cut a piece of heat shrink tubing 1-2" long and slide it over one of the wires. There are several different methods you can use to connect the wire leads, I simply twisted them together. However you choose, Connect the corresponding wires (negative to negative, positive to positive) and then slide the heat shrink tubing to where it covers any exposed wire. Do the same with the other wires.
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16. Now, using any kind of heat source (hair dryer, heat gun, even a cigarrete lighter) heat the tubing until it shrinks and conforms to the wires.
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17. Now, to finish your installation, install the new speaker into the door and re-use the 3 screws to secure the speaker in place.
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18. All that's left is to put everything together! Once you have the speaker mounted, put your fuse back in, and simply work backwards to re-install the door panel. One tip, however, is once you have the door panel loosely in place, before you secure the door (via the body clips & screws) test to make sure you have it in place correctly. For people with power windows, simply reconnect your wiring harnesses & put your keys in to make sure your windows go up & down without any trouble. Sometimes if you don't have the door panel lined up correctly the weather stripping on the door panel puts too much pressure on the window and makes it difficult to use.

Comments
After doing this for myself, I was amazed at how easy it was. I'm not sure why, but I thought it would be more difficult than it was. Anyone can do this, it's just a matter of confidence. Oh, and i have a newfound anger for Best Buy. They always try to tell people they need a wiring harness to install speakers -- that's total BS.

Recommended Tools
I got this a couple years ago when I used to have a dirtbike that I worked on. It's awesome, and definitely worth the $3 i spent on it at Sears. It has a very powerful magnetic bottom, that is also rubberized to prevent it from scratching painted surfaces. Here's a pic showin it off, it's stuck to the side of my car holding a bunch of lugnuts & other stuff in place. It comes in handy whenever you're working on your car, so when you take screws out you can put them in there and know that they won't fall out & be lost
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ryon527

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very good tutorial. I got these for the speakers because I don't like cutting wires in the car.
h12071012-F_dg.jpeg
 

Wildman

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thanks man. yeah those would work too, save you a few minutes of stripping & soldering/twisting
 

blackaccord69

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just to add some input,

I just installed new front speakers yesterday. And with never doing it before, it was very simple. Took a bit of time (little over an hour while messing around), but overall easy to do and anyone with little/no car experience could definetly accomplish this task.

PS-I used Wildman's guide, didn't even need to print it, just read it and did it. Thanks!
 

Wildman

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no problem man. yeah it really is easy as hell, makes you wonder how the hell Best Buy charges $50 for labor huh? lol

oh and welcome back Jeff haha
 

ryon527

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you could not pay me $50 to get something installed on my car at worst buy.
 

Hush

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what if you dont' want to buy coaxles and use componts, how do you get to your stock tweeters?? or can you even swap them out?? i'm wondering because i'm going to start upgrading my audio stuff finally, and what i wanted to get were Diamond Audio D3 componts for the front and D3 coaxles for the rear and run a ID v2 10iinch sub.
 

ryon527

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I wouldn't even bother swapping out the stock tweeters. KJust leave them in and put the component tweeter in here
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or I've seen it mounted in the door panel. The location of the stock tweeter is not an ideal location.
 

TitaniumACC

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nice tutorial! It's true that the hardest part is to remove the door trim panel without breaking the clips! I did it yesterday! I changed both my rear and front speakers and i installed a cd player.. Very very easy and it was the first time i did some car audio installation. Now sound is good. Just a question, OEM front speaker i saw in the tutorial aren't the same than those i had in my car. Stock mines are Pioneer 30W max and 15W nominal. Those in the pic are 20W nominal. Maybe that's an EX ?
 

Wildman

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probably the model difference, or it may even be the year. i have a 2002, what do you have? whoever the OEM supplier is may have simply re-tooled at one point between 98-02 which would explain the 5 watt difference.

Hush, I'd agree with ryon527. the stock tweeter location sucks for 2 reasons.
---It doesn't sound good
---It's a pain in the *** to get to anyways

Like ryon said, if I were you I would just mount them in the sail panel
 
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