Hi there. I just got my 2001 Spa 5 days ago. I wasn't disappointed with the factory sound immediately as the factory HU would not power up, so it was return to dealer to fix. Turned out to be the accessory fuse. I had pulled the radio fuse and not seen it blown, but was before I found this site and saw a post that pointed exactly to this problem. Oh well, dealer tech took about 1/2 hour to figure it out...

So the drive home after the fuse fix really disappointed. Low volumes were just fine, so if I stayed in the parking lot, the sound wasn't half bad. But I like top down driving and tunage. Higher volumes seemed to have either amp clip/distortion and/or speaker distortion. Reading the posts here, I decided on a plan to replace speakers first, then add a HU, add Qubes factory control fix, then add an amp/sub. Eventually I may either try to install some speakers behind the seat -- either make my own S-pods or do some panel cutting behind the seat a la Darknight.

To give some background, I am 6'4", so I kinda wear the car and with my foot on the dead pedal, my leg covers the speaker grill. So components were the only real choice, and after listening to a dozen pair, I decided on a set of Infinitys. My problem was that the '01 doesn't have component speakers. This meant irreversibly modifying panels only 3 days into owning the car...

In one of Darknight's posts indicated a preference for an A-pillar tweeter mount (though his ride has door panels -- perhaps because of the gauge cluster...) The best piece of advice he had in the post though, was to mount everything other than the tweeter, sit in the car and move it around until you found a place you were happy with.

I pulled the A-pillar plastic to look, but with the reinforcing ribs and wire run, this seemed like more work than I really wanted to jump into. The sound there was nice, but the sound with door panels was just as good. I finally decided that for looks and performance, a tweeter mount just above the door handle would work. The location chosen was just behind where the convex/concave portion of the door skin ended.

The following pics and commentary outline the installation should anyone want to do something similar.

Step #1: The stock speaker basket was not deep enough to mount the speaker. I wanted to keep the basket, however, to maintain clearance on the window glass and to avoid any unneccesary drilling. The solution was to cut the back of the basket flush with a Dremel tool. I then used a wood chisel to smooth it all out and to trim out clearance for the binding posts. Note that there is a protruding tab used for alignment on the top that you want to keep..





Step #2: Attach the universal mount ring to the basket frame using the 3 screws removed when taking the factory units out of the basket. Put the foam gasket on speaker in the channel and then attach the speaker to the ring, compressing the gasket in the process.



Step #3: Now on to the "fun" part. Note on the pictures that the doorskin plastic has a couple of quarter sized marks from the molding process. After a couple of measurements, it turns out the marks are in the same exact spot on both driver and passenger sides. I decided to use these as reference marks, centering the tweeter at the top dead center of this mark. This location required using the chisel again to trim back a support rib.





Step #4: The door panel is in 3 pieces

 

Good info, looks great!

 

Looks good.

 

Thanks DK. I noticed in one of your threads, you (and others) recommended against mounting the crossovers in the door. I might have to revisit this when I install an amp. But then again, I live in Arizona, so moisture is not really an issue...

Just curious, though -- if moisture is a problem for the crossover, how do you protect the binding posts on the woofer and the solder points on the tweeter?? I assume that shorting would be a problem regardless of where in the circuit it occured...

 

Its not so much as it shorting but being effected by the moisture in the sense of erosion on the board itself....
Besides lets face it if you have enough water on your binding posts to short out the speaker...nevermind the tweeter... you have MUCH bigger problems

But besides that reason, its easier to replace a fuse(should your crossover have them), or just get to them in general.

 

Speaker Condoms I used little rubber grommets, then heat-shrunk them to fit.

John

 

Nice job! You biggest concern for the moisture issue is whether you still have a moisture barrier between your components and the inside area of the door. If the plastic moisture barrier is still completely intact, that will keep any rain water (however rare in PHX) off of the electronics. If that barrier has been compromised, consider using some Dynamat type material to seal off any areas that could drip water onto your components.

You may not get much rain down there, but your summer thunderstorms can present a problem for water in the door panels in a matter of minutes.

 

Yeah that's a good point. If you've removed or cut into the moisture barrier at all using Dynamat or that type of product will help reseal it and help with the sound. Its a win win

 

Thanks. I did not put in Dynamat, but left the moisture barrier in place.