dannichols

OK, so it rains like two weeks a year here. I noticed yesterday when working on my 6.5's that some amount of rain water does seem to penetrate inside the door frame. Could be a mixture of condensation, rolling up/down windows, etc..and the door does seem to be built to drain out the water through the bottom. Anyway, I also noticed a few drops of water on the rubber surround of the speaker magnet.

I was wondering for those of you who live in Wet climates, if this is actually something to be concerned with. I would assume a lot of water in this area could damage the electronics/cone of a speaker. My car was only in the rain 1 hour yesterday, I can't imagine how wet it could get in there if it rained all day...!

rplink

I can't remember anyone reporting blown amps, damaged crossovers, etc from water in the doors. But it is something to consider during your install. I personally wouldn't mount crossovers in the door for that very reason.

A good tip to follow when installing speakers in the doors: Since the speaker wire is coming thru the door higher than the speaker itself, any water that happens to accumulate on the wire will run down the wire. Last thing you want is for that water to bead at the inputs to your speaker causing a short circuit. So, always run the speaker wire so there is a "u" shaped bend at least an inch or two from the speaker connections. This will allow any water droplets to form at the base of the "u" and fall harmlessly to the water drains in the bottom of the door.

Also use good quality insulated speaker spade connectors. If you plan to solder the wires to the speaker connections, heat shrink should be used, but remember that all that heat generated during the soldering and heat shrinking is being conducted through the speaker voicecoil. Don't over-do it.

dannichols

Excellent information! thanks rplink. I ran two heavy gauge wires to my door, it was a real pain..I'm gonna check if they could possible channel water.

dannichols

Thanks again for the info on speaker cable length. Another rain storm today and after taking out the 6.5 speakers I noticed the wires had a lot of water, luckily since they were long it didn't channel to the speaker posts. I'm still amazed at how much water gets in the doors.

rplink

No problem! Enjoy the ride...................