Ugh. On the way in this morning I noticed one of my speakers was popping occasionally. I'm not sure if I blew it or what. I think a speaker replacement may be due soon. I have the HiFi system, fyi.

 

How many miles on it? It's may be a warranty issue.

 

I dunno, 2200 maybe? I was planning on replacing the speakers myself anyways, so maybe I'll just do it now. Maybe it was just a fluke this morning.

*shrug*

 

For anyone doing the fronts, it helps to see the main door panel from behind. I found this either in this thread or elsewhere at NAM, so props to the person who actually supplied the picture.


http://picasaweb.google.com/euroeuro...11259008209986https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=140287

[original posted in this link-

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=140287

but note: you don't need to take off the arm rest]

When attempting to get this sucker off the metal door panel, you are basically pulling or prying quite hard, attempting to "pop" the assorted white, grey & red flexible plastic "clips" out of their associated holes in the door wall. You almost feel like you'll break the thing. You don't use your plastic putty knife on the clips - you use that tool to get some leverage on the panel or to get your fingers between the panel and the door. Once a few of these "clips" have popped out, you keep pulling the panel away from the door, disengaging the remaining clips as you go.

When re-attaching the panel, you want to be sure you have carefully lined up the clips with their hole before you pound them back in place. If you are off, you'll break a clip - which is not the end of the world. Get extras at your MINI or BMW dealer before attempting any panel removal jobs on your R56. 86 cents apiece is what BMW charged me, making them the cheapest MINI/BMW part on the planet by a factor of about 50.

 

Wow! Lots of clips! thanks for the photo

 

I'm going to attempt replacing the front speakers this weekend. One thing I'm not clear on is whether the 4" speaker cover needs to be removed prior to removing that panel in your supplied pic. I just have to remove the pin on the door handle insert, and start yanking on the door panel correct? Does the armrest have to come off too?

Thanks

[quote=eurotrash01;2543794]For anyone doing the fronts, it helps to see the main door panel from behind. I found this either in this thread or elsewhere at NAM, so props to the person who actually supplied the picture.

 

You don't need to do anything with the arm rest. Leave it where it is.

You can work off the cover for the 4" speaker after taking off the C-Shaped big door panel. It is hard to remove because the plastic is very stiff. Find a diagram with the location of the plastic barbed tab that holds it in place, so you know exactly where to apply pressure. You'll test your patience and finger strength on that part of the job, but you'll eventually get it.

Follow the instructions on removing the pin below the door latch. Don't lose it! Use a zip-lock bag to hold any loose stuff...even though there is not much of it in the front speaker surgery. Definitely use 3-4 of them if you try the rears just to keep each section straight.

 

does anybody know if these Polks
DB401

fit?

 

Here's my scenario -

I have a HIFI system and just recently added a Boss bass600 powered 8" subwoofer.

I ordered JL Audio 6.5" and 4" coaxial 2 way speakers to put in the front doors. What was delivered was the 4" coaxials and 6.5" component sets (TR650-CSI). I am ready to send the 6.5" components back for the coaxials, but before I do, I have a few questions.

1. If I plan to put both 6.5" and 4" two way coax's in the doors will this be too bright with the existing HIFI system?

2. Would it be better to put in the 6.5" component woofer in and use the 4" coax two-way speakers? (Is there really going to be much of a difference?)

3. In general, which performs better: a component woofer or coaxial woofer with a two-way tweeter?

4. I have the HIFI system with tweeters in the A columns. If the consensus is to keep the component 6.5's, would it be worth replacing the stock tweeter with the tweeters that came in the component set?

Thanks as always!
Brent in Houston

PS - I put my sub in the spare tire well in the back of my clubman. I have a few pics in my gallery if interested. Sounds great!

 

FWIW, you seem to be replacing 2-ohm speakers with 4-ohm ones, since you have the HiFi. I'm not the one to tell you whether this is good/bad/indifferent.

My guess is that since you have the tweeters in the pillars, component speakers are the way to go. You'll have plenty of high response aimed at your head so co-axials will likely be redundant and too bright.

Those of us without the pillar speakers have to gain back the treble wherever possible - both in the doors and in 6x9s behind our heads.

 

Thanks for noticing the difference, but my understanding is that you can replace 2-ohm speakers with 4-ohm, but cannot replace 4-ohm speakers with 2-ohm.

I might expect a slight decrease in volume due to the greater resistance, but should otherwise be fine.

Correct me if I am wrong on this.

Brent

 

Hey there--

The short answer is that they won't fit without work. The mounting holes on the OEM 4 inch speakers are tres weird.

Here's a post (with pics) about replacing the 4 inch drivers with tweeters; it will give you an idea of how the 4 inch speakers mount to the plastic door frame:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=120290

The longer answer is that with enough work, you can get them to fit.

Have fun!

 

Brent--

I'd go whole hog and (try to) put the tweeters that came with the 6.5 inch in the "A" pillars, and then the 6.5 and 4 inch units. If it's too bright, I'd disconnect the tweeters on the 4 inch ones.

have fun and let us know how it works out!

 

That would be my understanding (2 vs 4 ohm) as well, but you should hear it from someone else.

Are you replacing your rear 6x9s?

Here's some color on mine that may or may not extrapolate to what you have. I put JL co-axial 4" and 6.5" in my doors, and Polk 6x9 co-axials in the rear. I definitely have more than enough treble response now, and I equalize some of it away with the HU controls. I wish I had more mid-range and less tweeter most of the time with my set up, but mine are still settling in. Because I like a lot of bass, and don't yet have a sub, I tend to crank my 6x9s, but that just moves more treble behind my head, as they're co-axials. I think my eventual solution is to get a Boss Audio Bass600 (like k6rtm) and not have my 6x9s work so hard for both treble & bass.

So I can't really imagine that with your tweeter in the A-pillars that you'd want co-axials in both door spots, as well as a co-axial 6x9 behind your back. That would definitely be too much tweeter. Treble from the doors is very much influenced by the presence of a person in the seat, as human legs block both the 4" & 6.5" speakers.

I'd have thought you'd put a co-axial in the 4" spot, and a component 6.5" in the doors, with its paired tweeter in your A-pillars. Again, you should hear from a satisfied HiFi tweaker, not me. I'm only good for vouching for the clarity of the JL co-axials.

Good Luck.

 

Air bag issue:
When openning the rear trim the air bag pops out.
Where is it connected there? Should it be connected with the screw?

 

At the bottom of the air bag...the flat part of the fabric...you'll see a rough, tightish, opening where the "Christmas tree" clip fits through on its way to its hole in the metal.

I'm not sure if there would be any problem not feeding this back through the hole when you reassemble, as long as everything else is free and clear.

 

Oh, got it.
Well, I did try it before and so I broke the two "Christmas trees" there (I'm using the screw only now).
I guess I should have put it through the "Christmas tree" before closing.

 

You can get new "Christmas trees" from your dealer's parts dept. Best to replace them to avoid rattles.

 

thank you for your help!

 

I replaced my 6.5" & 4" front speakers in my '09 MCS Non-Hifi yesterday. That coupled with the channel swap makes a world of difference, as pretty much everyone has stated already. The notes here were very helpful. It took me about 4 hours, including setup and cleanup. I have never replaced speakers before, but am familiar with stripping and crimping wires. I have a few things to add:

First, the wire colors were slightly different for the drivers side 4":

From page 11 in this thread:

Second, I replaced the stock 4" with Sony XS-W4021 that I purchased on ebay for about $28. People like to bash Sony but I thought they were pretty decent for the money, and they include wires and connectors, which is less soldering I had to do.

While installing these, I found an easy way to get the 4" speaker cover off without scratching. First, starting with the passenger door, stick your plastic putty knife between the speaker cover and door panel at about the 9 o'clock position (3 o'clock for drivers door). Next, insert a flathead screwdriver between the speaker cover and putty knife. Put pressure on the cover while prying the tip of the screwdriver on the putty knife. The cover should come off fairly easily.

Two of the stock holes match up. I drilled a third into the door and broke off the 4th tab on the speaker since it was not needed.

I went with 6.5" Polk Audio db651, again from ebay ($78), for the lower speakers. They did not come with leads or spade connectors, so if you don't want to solder, purchase those ahead of time. None of the 4 holes in this speaker match up with stock, so I just used the included mounting hardware to install.

Lastly, the mirror control switch was not that difficult for me. It separates in two pieces. It's probably easier pulling it apart once the speaker cover is removed. The top half gets removed by slightly prying it away from the cover. Inside the top half (pictured below) are 4 tiny paddles. These kind of float inside the switch. I believe these are what others had a problem with. Just make sure they don't fall off of their tiny shafts. Note the center of the **** is keyed with the bottom half of the switch. Try to pay attention to the orientation when it is removed.

I just want to reinforce the idea of putting masking tape or dots on the opposite side of the door panel marking where the popits are. This is crucial in making sure the panel isn't loose and won't rattle once assembled.

Good luck!

Prying off 4" cover


Tabs on cover


Top cover of mirror switch


Bottom half of switch

 

Superc00per-

You and I must have been on the same page this weekend. I changed out my front speakers in my Clubman with HIFI, and had the same experience. In fact, I took very similar pics, and have a few more in my gallery if anyone is interested.

Ditto on putting tape on the door where the clips are - whoever suggested that is a genius! I was able to get everything back with no broken clips!

I pulled my speaker covers off the same as you did.

To Eurotrash - thank you for your thoughts on your speakers. I decided to keep the 6.5" woofer and the 4" two-way JLs (TR650-CSI and TR400CXI). They sound fantastic!

Brent

 

A couple more thoughts -

I bought Boom Mat speaker baffles to go in the doors behind the speakers in the front doors (thought they might keep down the possibility of rattles and might improve the sound). After completing the passenger side, I found that the JL's sounded TERRIBLE! There was hardly any deflection of the woofers and they sounded very, very thin. The stock speakers on the driver's side sounded much better. I thought I might have had the wiring wrong, but didn't. I had decided to take the speakers out and put the stock back in, but before I did, I took out the 6.5" speaker to look at it closer. I decided to turn the radio on with the speaker held in my hand and guess what... big deflection of the woofer! What I surmise is that the Boom Mat was creating an air tight seal behind the speaker and was inhibiting its movement - alot! This was not subtle. So I took the boom mats out and reintalled the speakers and they sounded GREAT! Much deeper bass and the bass was so much "rounder" than the stock speakers. So - I would not recommend any sort of baffle like the Boom mats.

The TR650-CSI is a component system with separate tweeters. I may go back later and try to swap these with the stock tweeters in the A columns.
Does anyone know if I would expect much difference between the stock tweeters and JL tweeters??

 

superc00per and allmonb: , your photos and details of the mirror-switch were where my description was definitely weak -- thanks! ... and for sharing that all of this thread, collectively works for pretty-much any new speakers
superc00per: also my bad on the wiring color; checked my notes and corrected the text (post 274) above!

 

Boom mats may nto be any good but "Deflex pads" are the bomb. They stick to the outer wall behind the speaker and break up standing waves. It made a noticable difference for bass.

 

So if you can take the speaker cover off before dealing with the mirror control switch, why can't you take the speaker cover off, leave the mirror control switch on, and position the speaker cover out of the way so you can remove / replace the speaker? Am I missing something here?