front speaker options

An extensive search didn't seem to come up with any relevant threads, so here is my question:

I spent 3 hours yesterday breaking my back replacing my driver's side door speaker. I had order a Kenwood HU and 4 speakers from Crutchfield to replace the door speakers. Just like most people have commented, the factory door speakers are riveted in. Getting those out were a complete PITA. Then I was forced to drill new holes in the door to mount the adapter plate that came with the speakers, as the screw holes on the adapter did not fit the rivet locations. (Crutchfield was very disappointing as they never indicated the necessary mods required on this car. They're always touting that they have the exact fit adapters for car equipment, but it certainly wasn't the case this time). I had ordered 6.5" speakers as Crutchfield had indicated that those were the only ones that could fit in the doors.

When I finally finished the install, I did a quick sound test. It sounded absolutely awful, not even half as good as the original cardboard speakers. Now I know that part of it is that the factory stereo is weak so isn't able to power the new speaker adequately, but the bass was completely missing. The original speakers look like 6x9s, so what is the reason that I cannot replace them with new 6x9s?

The other question is, should I be concerned about corrosion at the new holes I drilled. I know that car steel are galvanized, but I think that the galvanizing process usually occurs after all the necessary holes are drilled/cut in the parts beforehand so the holes themselves are galvanized. With a new freshly drilled hole, that part of the steel is no longer galvanized.

I am now completely regretting changing the speakers. I am hoping that it will sound better once I replace the HU, but given the downsize on the front speakers and the resulting penalty on the bass, I may be forced to consider adding a sub.

One final question, is there a way to remove the crossover feeds signals to the squawker? I would think that I wouldn't need any sound from them now that I have 3-way door speakers, and having this factory crossover is probably causing me to lose the mid and highs to the Kenwoods.

thanks in advance for any help on this.

 

Yes, I got the polarity correct. I used the Crutchfield quick-connect speaker harnesses. The black and white wire metal clips of the harness are actually different sizes so it is practically impossible to get the polarity reversed unless you force it in.

These are the Kenwood KFC-1662S. 4 ohms. Is the factory stereo not rated to handle 4 ohm speakers optimally?

 

was very curious about the squawker the other night. I remember the posts about removing the cover, but it involved removing the A pillar plastic cover, and I wasn't about to have the airbag explode into my face. I started digging around the squawker cover, and it actually almost came out entirely. The only part that wouldn't come out was the front outer corner where one tab was tucked under the A-pillar cover. It was still enough that I could get a good look at the squawker and access the 10mm nuts. Will remove the squawker later this week and try out the Kenwood component tweeters I got. I am hoping the factory crossovers will be close enough because I don't want to do any more surgery on the car than I have already.

 

I had gotten the Kenwood 709PS. I popped in a tweeter in the driver's side and it sounded quite nice.

I did see the built-in crossover in the factory squawker on the underside of the speaker. The wiring harness looks like it is pulling the signal/power from the headunit to the squawker to the door speakers. There are 4 wires in the wiring harness, 2 pink and 2 purples. One of the pink and purple is the (+) and (-) from the HU(the inner pink and outer purple wires(this will make sense if you are actually seeing the harness with your own eyes. When I disconnected the squawker from the harness, I initially lost sound to the door speaker. I stuck short wires connecting the two pinks together and two purples together and that restored the sound to the speaker. When I wired the inner pink and outer purple wires to the Kenwood tweeter, I was able to get sound from the tweeter.

If I remember correctly, the pink is positive and puple is negative. When you look on the underside of the squawker, the pink is closer to the (+) terminal of the squawker and the purple closer to the (-) terminal, which was why I hypothesized the pink/+ and purple/- associations.

I had a idea of flush-mounting the tweeters to the squawker cover. I may eventually cut out a round hole on the removable squawker cover on the dash so that it will be able to flush-mount the tweeter. The tweeter grill of the Kenwood and other brands all seem to be black. I think the tweeter will blend in well enough to the black/dark cover and seem unobtrusive enough that it will reduce the chance of theft. Personally it seems to be a more ideal/safer place than mounting in the area by that little glass triangle right in front of the front doors as they stand out quite a bit from a passer-by. The Kenwoods also have tiltable tweeters so even when they're flush-mounted onto the squawker cover, I should be able to redirect a little towards the driver for better imaging. The most challenging part is probaby dissecting that harness. Anyone know if there is a harness adapter similar to the standard door speaker harnesses for the squawker area so I can preserve the sound to the door speaker without too much Macgyvering?