Guide to '09 xD speaker replacement
10-09-2011, 09:04 PM
#1
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 9
Guide to '09 xD speaker replacement
I replaced the speakers in my wife's '09 xD today, and took some pictures of the process. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of info on the web about doing this, so hopefully this will help others.
These are the original speakers. On the left is a front door speaker, in the middle is a front tweeter, and on the right is a rear door speaker. The OEM rears are 5.5", but you can put 6.5" replacements back there. The car's windows do not enter the area behind the speakers, so speaker depth isn't an issue. However, you should do this work with the windows all the way up, so there's no chance of breakage.
I selected some Infinity 6032cf speakers...they have rotating tweeters so you can point them towards the listener, sound good, come with rubber gaskets, and most importantly, include plastic mounting brackets that can be used with the xD.
Here are the harness adapters needed for the xD...they plug right into the original speaker connectors and make hooking up the new speakers a plug-n-play affair.
Door panel removal
The front doors have a plastic push pin near the tweeter. To remove it, use a knife to pull the center portion towards you. Once it's out about 1/2", the whole assembly will pull out.
The tweeters are located inside a sail panel. To remove it, pull the top of the panel towards you. There's a barbed fastener at the top that will pop when it comes out of the door. Then, just lift the panel slightly upwards so the tabs at the bottom clear the door panel, and it'll come out. The tweeter itself is held to the sail panel by some plastic tabs...just bend them back a bit and the tweeter will pop out. There's a small release tab on the electrical connector...press it in and remove the connector from the speaker. Note that this connector has two pairs of identically colored wires. This will be important.
Now to take off the door panels. There are only two screws in each panel that need to be removed. Once is located at the bottom of the door pull....
...and one is located behind the door handle. The curved trim piece behind the handle is held in place with tabs. Pull the handle back, and pry the curved piece away from the door...it'll just pop off. In fact, all of the trim on the doors is held in place with tabs like this.
The sides and bottom of the door panel are attached to the door with some barbed fasteners, which look like this:
With the screws removed, grab the lower edge of the door panel and just pull it towards you...you should hear some pops as the barbed fasteners attached to the back of the panel pop out of the door. Work your way around the bottom and sides of the panel until the panel is detached. The top edge of the panel hooks over the top edge of the door, so just lift the panel straight up, and it should come off the door.
You now need to detach the door handle from the panel...it's held by two plastic tabs, which look like this:
Just bend these tabs outward, and the handle will pop out.
Finally, you need to disconnect the electrical connection(s) from the panel to fully remove it. The back doors have a single connector:
Press the small white plastic tab in the middle of the connector, and pull it out of the door.
The front passenger door has two connectors...they both remove by pressing the white plastic tab in the middle of the connector and pulling the connector out.
The driver's door is the most difficult, as the release tab is difficult to get to. All of the window/lock controls are on a removable panel, so the best way to do this is to pull the door panel off, reach around the back, and bend some of the tabs holding the control panel to the door panel. The control panel will then pop out of the inner side of the door panel. You can then reach the white release tab for the large electrical connector:
This picture shows the driver's door connector with it partially removed. At the top right, you see the release tab on the wiring connector. Press it in, and slide the connector to the right to detach it.
Speaker replacement
Installation of all four "main" speakers is pretty much identical. The only difference between front and back is dealing with the OEM front tweeters.
Here's what the original rear speaker looks like...note the electrical connector at the top. It detaches by pushing the plastic locking tab sideways, then pulling out the connector. Here's a close-up:
The speaker is held in place with aluminum rivets that need to be drilled out. Be sure to reach inside the door and remove the back part of the rivet that fell down into the door. If you don't, you'll get rattles!
Here's what it looks like with the speaker removed.
Re-route the speaker connector so that it's inside the door, then attach one of the harness adapters:
It's also a good idea to wrap the connector in foam, so it doesn't rattle inside the door. You can get foam weatherstripping from any home center. I had some leftover replacement headliner material, so I used that:
Next step depends on what kind of speakers you purchased. My speakers have built-in tweeters, so the original front tweeters are not needed. The car is wired so that the wiring from the head unit goes to the tweeter first, then to the main speaker. Since the original tweeter will be removed, we now need to ensure that the wiring goes to the main speaker. If you look at the tweeter's wiring connector, you'll see two pair of identically colored wires...one comes from the head unit, the other goes to the main speaker. The identical wires need to be connected together. You could cut the connector off and splice them together, but I instead opted to add jumpers to the connector instead, made of 18-gauge solid copper wire:
The connector was then wrapped in foam.
Now, it's just a matter of mounting your new speakers. The original holes were too large, so I drilled new holes for the included plastic brackets, and used #10x1" sheet metal screws to eventually attach them to the door. The speakers were mounted into the brackets FIRST using #8x3/4" machine screws and nuts, with the screws fed in from the BACK. The rubber gasket was then applied to the back of the bracket, covering the heads of the #8 screws. I then slid the two electrical connections onto the speaker (they're different sizes, so you can't mix them up). Then, the whole assembly was screwed to the door. Here's what it looks like installed:
At this point, all you need to do is reinstall your door panels and give the new speakers a try. I found them to be quite an improvement over the OEM speakers.
These are the original speakers. On the left is a front door speaker, in the middle is a front tweeter, and on the right is a rear door speaker. The OEM rears are 5.5", but you can put 6.5" replacements back there. The car's windows do not enter the area behind the speakers, so speaker depth isn't an issue. However, you should do this work with the windows all the way up, so there's no chance of breakage.
I selected some Infinity 6032cf speakers...they have rotating tweeters so you can point them towards the listener, sound good, come with rubber gaskets, and most importantly, include plastic mounting brackets that can be used with the xD.
Here are the harness adapters needed for the xD...they plug right into the original speaker connectors and make hooking up the new speakers a plug-n-play affair.
Door panel removal
The front doors have a plastic push pin near the tweeter. To remove it, use a knife to pull the center portion towards you. Once it's out about 1/2", the whole assembly will pull out.
The tweeters are located inside a sail panel. To remove it, pull the top of the panel towards you. There's a barbed fastener at the top that will pop when it comes out of the door. Then, just lift the panel slightly upwards so the tabs at the bottom clear the door panel, and it'll come out. The tweeter itself is held to the sail panel by some plastic tabs...just bend them back a bit and the tweeter will pop out. There's a small release tab on the electrical connector...press it in and remove the connector from the speaker. Note that this connector has two pairs of identically colored wires. This will be important.
Now to take off the door panels. There are only two screws in each panel that need to be removed. Once is located at the bottom of the door pull....
...and one is located behind the door handle. The curved trim piece behind the handle is held in place with tabs. Pull the handle back, and pry the curved piece away from the door...it'll just pop off. In fact, all of the trim on the doors is held in place with tabs like this.
The sides and bottom of the door panel are attached to the door with some barbed fasteners, which look like this:
With the screws removed, grab the lower edge of the door panel and just pull it towards you...you should hear some pops as the barbed fasteners attached to the back of the panel pop out of the door. Work your way around the bottom and sides of the panel until the panel is detached. The top edge of the panel hooks over the top edge of the door, so just lift the panel straight up, and it should come off the door.
You now need to detach the door handle from the panel...it's held by two plastic tabs, which look like this:
Just bend these tabs outward, and the handle will pop out.
Finally, you need to disconnect the electrical connection(s) from the panel to fully remove it. The back doors have a single connector:
Press the small white plastic tab in the middle of the connector, and pull it out of the door.
The front passenger door has two connectors...they both remove by pressing the white plastic tab in the middle of the connector and pulling the connector out.
The driver's door is the most difficult, as the release tab is difficult to get to. All of the window/lock controls are on a removable panel, so the best way to do this is to pull the door panel off, reach around the back, and bend some of the tabs holding the control panel to the door panel. The control panel will then pop out of the inner side of the door panel. You can then reach the white release tab for the large electrical connector:
This picture shows the driver's door connector with it partially removed. At the top right, you see the release tab on the wiring connector. Press it in, and slide the connector to the right to detach it.
Speaker replacement
Installation of all four "main" speakers is pretty much identical. The only difference between front and back is dealing with the OEM front tweeters.
Here's what the original rear speaker looks like...note the electrical connector at the top. It detaches by pushing the plastic locking tab sideways, then pulling out the connector. Here's a close-up:
The speaker is held in place with aluminum rivets that need to be drilled out. Be sure to reach inside the door and remove the back part of the rivet that fell down into the door. If you don't, you'll get rattles!
Here's what it looks like with the speaker removed.
Re-route the speaker connector so that it's inside the door, then attach one of the harness adapters:
It's also a good idea to wrap the connector in foam, so it doesn't rattle inside the door. You can get foam weatherstripping from any home center. I had some leftover replacement headliner material, so I used that:
Next step depends on what kind of speakers you purchased. My speakers have built-in tweeters, so the original front tweeters are not needed. The car is wired so that the wiring from the head unit goes to the tweeter first, then to the main speaker. Since the original tweeter will be removed, we now need to ensure that the wiring goes to the main speaker. If you look at the tweeter's wiring connector, you'll see two pair of identically colored wires...one comes from the head unit, the other goes to the main speaker. The identical wires need to be connected together. You could cut the connector off and splice them together, but I instead opted to add jumpers to the connector instead, made of 18-gauge solid copper wire:
The connector was then wrapped in foam.
Now, it's just a matter of mounting your new speakers. The original holes were too large, so I drilled new holes for the included plastic brackets, and used #10x1" sheet metal screws to eventually attach them to the door. The speakers were mounted into the brackets FIRST using #8x3/4" machine screws and nuts, with the screws fed in from the BACK. The rubber gasket was then applied to the back of the bracket, covering the heads of the #8 screws. I then slid the two electrical connections onto the speaker (they're different sizes, so you can't mix them up). Then, the whole assembly was screwed to the door. Here's what it looks like installed:
At this point, all you need to do is reinstall your door panels and give the new speakers a try. I found them to be quite an improvement over the OEM speakers.
04-05-2012, 01:07 AM
#4
This is awesome. I have been wanting to do this to my '08 for a couple years now, but haven't found a good enough tutorial on it to do the job. What SSP do you recommend? Currently I'm using the "xB" setting with "Feel", which seems to work pretty well but the rear sound is definitely lacking for any passengers back there.
06-02-2012, 07:07 PM
#6
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 24
Wow I could've used this a few months ago, I got stuck at trying to get the original speakers off because of the lame pins that were holding the speakers in place, I didn't have a drill to get them out and my speakers I bought online didn't come with the baffle plate/plastic mounting brackets.
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