how do I get to the rear speakers? I think that I have to remove the rear seats right? if so how do I remove the upper portion of the seats?

 

You need a ratchet (10mm) -remove the 4 bolts. Two on the bottom corners and two inside the ski hole.

 

ok thanks.

 

What year Max? The 99 has I think 6 or eight holding the rear seat in. Can't remember because it's much easier to take back out if you don't put all the bolts back in.

 

97 max. so far I got the bottom portion off and the back part has 2 bolts on the bottom corners and supposably 2 more in the ski hole which I havent looked at yet.

 

That sounds right.

 

I've done this twice now, once to put in some Infinity Coaxs, then again when I upgraded to the Polk units. Make sure to have plenty of daylight, or get a good shoplight! I've done this in partial darkness, total nightmare. You'll want a blanket or cushion to work on, the frame under the bench seat is not friendly. Especially for extended periods.

On my 98SE. You may be able to do this without steps 4 & 5. Of course it would be pretty hard on the rear deck trim. If people have a better way, please share.

1. Bag the seat belt buckles in shopping bags. Otherwise you're liable to get black ick on them from the sound deadening applied to the frame under the bench seat.

2. Remove bench seat. There are two retaining clips facing forward. Pull carefully! These things break easy. Once you've "popped" the clips the bench lifts out.

3. Remove bench backing. I remeber 6 bolts. Two in the corners near the doors, and 4 near the pass-thru. Make sure to pop the pass-thru's trim piece off the frame so you can take out the cushioning.

4. Remove the weatherstripping around the rear doors and C pillars. This is really easy, it just pulls off.

5. Remove the C-pillar trim/panel. This is a pain, the trim is held on by those plastic clips. Make sure not to lose any of them, otherwise rattles may ensue. Also, make sure the sound deadening stays in place after you remove these panels. Also, the seat belts can get in the way. Patience needed.

6. Pop out rear deck/carpet. Again it's held in place by those damn clips. Pop the panel up, then slide out. Speakers are top mounted with screws. Take some time to align new speakers, make sure they're stable/right size, whatever. I actually had to use good old duct tape from the bottom inside the trunk to damp any vibrations and such.

Make sure the top of the new speakers clears the factory grills. I had a problem with this on a Gallant I owned, ended up using a dremel tool to remove excess ribbing from the bottom of the factory grill to fix.

IMHO: The stock grills look good. Not worth messing with spanky aftermarket ones unless you want to advertise "Steal my #@$^!" Run your own speaker cable, the factory wiring is puny.

 

wow thats more steps than I waas expecting. still havent got to doing it yet but Ill try to remember those steps when I get to it. THX

 

a BIG pain in the ***. I finally installed my rear speakers yesterday. Like he says take your time. I did mine in the dark cause I have no patience. BE CAREFUL when you pull up the deck. Try to pry up slowly where the plastic clips are.

 

They must have made it more difficult in the early years because mine was definitely NOT a pain in the ***.

 

3rd Gens are way easier. The rear seat is held by two U shaped plastic things and the whole thing just comes right out. Oh well, have fun spending more time taking the seat out than installing the speakers.

 

Did anyone run speaker wire to the front speakers, and if so, how did you do it?

 

Couldn't be easier if it was an American car!

Everyone said the right stuff, just take your time, don't get frustrated, everything pops off nicely with a bit of gentle muscle and goes back just as nice.

U can paint the grilles and crazyglue the emblems from the aftermarket speaker grilles on them, example- the small 'eclipse' emblem on the grilles that came with my 6.5's came off witha little heat and I glued them on my factory grilles. Looks nice. Doesnt advertise unless your in the back seat cause the tint.

 

I actually posted this question a month back or so with no replies. So I just went for it..... I'm assuming you want to do away with the stock wiring?

I have an Alpine amp mounted under the passenger seat for the front speakers. Polk DX components and crossover IN the doors. This would work a little different if you have a crossover mounted behind the kick panels or something. Most of all be patient and work in good lighting. It's easy to rush things and do a crap job. Not worth it, give yourself a few hours to do this preferably with some sunlight!

1. Remove front seats. There are 4 bolts a piece, heavy duty ones, use a socket wrench. If you have an air wrench, kick ***. If you have electric seats you'll need to disconnect the harnesses. Not hard. You could skip this step, but it makes things SO much easier.

2. Pull up the door skid panels.

3. Remove the kick panels in the passenger and driver's footwells. These just pop off, I think there is one retaining plastic nut on each to be removed first.

4. Pull up the carpets to allow for wiring runs. You don't have to remove them or anything, just get them out of the way!

5. Run cables, start from the amp end! I ran the passenger side wiring right along the frame by the door. For the driver's side I ran the speaker cable under the center pod (cup holders, stick, etc) and then along the driver's side floor right underneath where the seat's front bolts are. This keeps cables out of areas where people tread, which is a necessity. Don't want wires to short.

6. Take the door panels off. There are posts in the audio forum about this already. Do a search. I know I posted one a while back.

7. Now the tricky and somewhat poorly engineered part. With the doors open you can see the tape wrapped conduit where the current wiring already runs between the frame and the door. It looks like a black electrical tape wrapped pipe, and it's very flexible. I thought about cutting this open, adding my cables, then resealing. This would have been a pain in the ***, and I don't think the cables would have fit thru the stock opening anyways! So.... pop out both of the rubber grommets that surround the conduit. One in the door, and one in the car for each side. They come out pretty easy. for the interior ones you'll need to reach up under the dash and feel around a bit. They are within easy reach!

8. Now. Sigh. With an x-acto blade cut a SMALL slit in the rubber grommets for your speaker cable. Thread the cables through these slits and run the cable into the door opening. Reinsernt the grommets, make sure they are firmly and correnctly sealed. If you're paranoid you can use some sealer around your new cable runs. MAKE SURE TO LEAVE SOME SLACK IN THE CABLES!!!!!! The actuation of opening and closing the doors will pull on the cable slightly, if you make the run too tight you risk pulling the cable off the speakers or amp!

9. Wire the cable to your speakers and/or crossover. I removed the stock wiring as it ends up rattling around if you leave it loose in the doors.

Reverse steps. You might want to test everything before you put the panels back on and seats back in. write me if you have nay questions.

 

I still need to do this some other time cuz its raining hell outside and no time at all to do anything right now

 

Thanks for the info, I installed my Kappa 652.1 today, I luv them. I also enjoyed taking my car apart. Sound is great now I have to turn the gains down on the amp. I will replace the stock wire. Not good enough for me. Thanks for the info.