Hey I was wondering how hard it is to install the rear speakers? I have a small problem... I built my sub box in the rear and I don't think I can get to all the panels back there now without taking the box apart, which I don't want to do. I want to remove the factory rear speaker grille from behind the headrest, but I don't know how to do this. I am thinking that if I can remove the grille then I can just take out the factory speakers and put the new ones in, without having to remove all the panels. Is this possible?

 

I think the grills are molded in place

I have seen people that have cut them out. But even then I think they would have done with with the plastic off of the car.

 

Can't just remove the grille, gotta rip out the interior to get access to the speakers. Lotsa plastic and plastic clips. Don't cut yourself!

 

Yep it's a whole lotta work. I think there is a DIY about it that you can reference from. It really helped me a couple of weeks ago when I changed the rear speakers out.

 

You can remove the grills, but you have to litterally pry them out. They are fastened on to the plastic panel via 2 rivets on each grill. This will only allow you to see the rear speakers. You can only remove the speakers if you remove the entire rear panel.

 

I did a how-to, you can find it here:

http://www.activetuning.com/pat/4/6/

 

Best way is to take off all panels as shown above. However, as you say you can't take the panels off because of your box construction, there is the alternative of ripping the grills off. They will pop off but you will be breaking two plastic rivets in the process. Another problem is the original speakers are not dead center of the hole in the panel. Therefore it will be a pain in the a to get to unscrew and pull out the originals. It will also be a pain to put in new speakers without widening the hole.

How do I know this? Because before I learned how to pull out all panels I changed the rear speakers. I had to pry off the grills and widen the hole with a dremel in all the right spots to get the speakers out and in.

If I had to do it over, I would recommend pulling out all panels. Or forget about rear speakers.

 

Yep, just pull off all the plastic. It seems like a lot at first and can seems a little scary if you've never done this before, you're tearing your brand new car apart after all, but it's really very easy and everything goes back together just as easily.

It should only take you maybe 30 mins the first time as you learn what goes where and I'm sure that people that know what they are doing can do it much more quickly.

I'm a complete novice when it comes to cars and I was able to do it without breaking anything. In fact I've done it twice now (second time to add sound dampening and get rid of rattles).

 

Can any of you recommend a decent brand of speakers for replacing the stock factory ones? Also anybody know what a ballpark figure for a decent stereo upgrade at professional installer would be? I'm not about to rip apart anything in this car myself.

 

I have been very impressed with Phoenix Gold Elite (Morel). Have mid-bass that others lacked, and the crossover setup seems to lessen harsh highs that I noticed on other sets. I had 3 other pairs of speakers in the past year including Diamond, PG was the best sounding to me.

 

This is very helpful, looks like a lot of work, I'm pretty nervous about ripping into this much stuff... After seeing this I might just stick to the head unit and let a local shop do speakers in the Spring, I work a lot and I don't know if I can take the time to do this right. I might try it though, I'll see how the head unit goes and if I am comfortable...

 

Dude, you ended too early. In your write-up, your rear speakers look similar to mine, and if that's the case, when you put the stock covers back in place, they will smash the tweeter! You either have to rip out the stock grills, or figure out some way to make room for the tweeter. I know because that is where I am right now.

 

I cut the stock ones out and used the grilles that came with the new speakers.

 

Yeah, looks like that's the way I'm going too. Unfortunately, my new speaker grills are not as wide as the stock ones, so the broken/cut plastic rivets are showing. Hmmm, guess I will have to cut out the center section that holds the plastic rivets? My kingdom for a Dremel!

 

Skip the rears, the added cost and effort will not be worth it.