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E46 Ti - Front speaker replacement using existing speaker housing (with pictures)
E46 Ti - Front speaker replacement using existing speaker housing (with pictures)
Published by vatovey
08-10-2007
Default E46 Ti - Front speaker replacement using existing speaker housing (with pictures)

For car: E46 Ti
Modification: Replacing factory installed speakers with standard 6.5" speakers.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1286

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1287

For whatever reason, its seems impossible to get hold of any speaker adapters for E46 Ti to replace the factory speakers with standard 6.5" speakers (see pics). As such, I investigated the possibility of installing a set of new standard size 6.5" speakers but utilising the existing factory speaker housing, this makes life alot easier in the long run due to the following.

1) no adapters need to be made.
2) original factory speaker connectors can be used.

We start off by removing the front door panels and speakers themselves, I am not going to explain how to do this as I'm sure its been covered in other guides.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1288

Upon removal of the speakers, we can now proceed to remove the existing speaker from the housing, the first step is to remove the plastic strip with foam protection, you can do this with a standard flat edged screwdriver, keep this band of plastic/foam as it can be re-attached later. (see pic).

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1289

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1290

We can now proceed to remove the speaker cone. (see pic)

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1291

You should be left we something which looks like the below pic.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1292

We now need to cut out the speaker magnet and plastic splines holding the magnet in place, for this i used a wire stripper, but you can use any appropriate cutting tool. (see pic)

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1293

Upon cutting all the plastic splines and the cables connecting the magnet core to the speaker terminals, the magnet should pull out very easily, and should look like the below pic.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1294

Unfortunately, I could not cut all of the splines away, as such - I took a pliers and wiggled the remaining spline plastic up and down until the plastic spline lifted away leaving a flat edge.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1295

Once you have done all the splines, it should end up looking something like this.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1296

You can now proceed to slot your new speakers into the modified housing, see pic.

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1297

Once the new speaker is in place, we can proceed to start drilling holes in the band of plastic which will hold the new spaker in place with a screw, the size of the drill bit used should be about half the diameter size of the screws being used, this will allow the screws to grip/bite alot better. (see pic)

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1298

Personally, I drilled one hole - and inserted a screw 90% of the way in, then proceeded with the next screw, until all 4 screw holes had been done, once all 4 were inserted at 90%, i then made sure that that everything lined up perfectly, and then proceeded to tighten the screws fully, note - as you are screwing into plastic, make sure you do not over tighten. (see pic)

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1299

Upon tightening all 4 screws, you should now have a solid structure. (see pic).

http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1300

For this next section you will need a soldering iron - what you will now need to do is join up the electrical connections from the new speaker, to the electrical connections of the factory housing, positive to positve, negative to negative, doing this will allow you to use the existing factory connections in the door panel.


http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1301

We have now got to the final part of the modification, and this part is optional - refitting of the plastc/foam rim which we removed at the beginning, if you try and re-fit, you may find that the screws holding the new speaker in place are not allowing the plastic/foam band to sit perfectly as it did previously. (see pic).


http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1302

In order to fix this problem, small notches can be cut out with the aid of a flat head cutting tool, the notches are only slightly bigger than the width of the screw head diameter, you will need to cut out 4 notches, the end result should be like the attached picture, with the band sitting flush, you may want to glue the band in place, I used superglue.


http://www.318ti.org/forum/picture.p...pictureid=1303

Refit to car, replug in factory speaker connections - Test, you should now find your front speakers are much better, I know I did, I mine were just fitted cheapish 3 way Sony coaxials.


Cheers, Vaughn.
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  #1  
By Evilpeople_inc on 01-26-2010, 07:10 AM
Default

Wish this still had pictures as i think i will be trying soon to retrofit some 6.5"s into the front and back of my ti.
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  #2  
By vatovey on 01-26-2010, 10:03 AM
Default

Your wish is my command.

Images now have been re-linked, enjoy.
Last edited by vatovey; 01-26-2010 at 10:08 AM..
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  #3  
By roadrash on 01-26-2010, 08:22 PM
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by vatovey View Post
Images now have been re-linked, enjoy.
Thanks for doing that, I was going to send you a PM in the next few days.

You might consider putting the pix in your gallery here at 318ti.org and linking to them there. That would keep the links from breaking if you ever close the PhotoBucket account.
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  #4  
By vatovey on 01-29-2010, 11:51 AM
Default

Done - linked pictures to 318ti.org gallery.
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