Over the last couple of evenings, I’ve installed a couple of upgrades that completely change the audio experience for me. Since I usually use iPad or iPhone for navigation and streaming, I didn’t feel I needed to replace the head unit or amp. From the factory, I have the Harmon Kardon with 6 CD changer and no nav. I would rate the sound as a 4 on a scale of 1-10. The speakers were really dull and muddy and the aux in at the rear of the console was broken from kid’s foot (plug wiggled and the left side would cut out most of the time. The volume needed to be at max to even hear it.

So, after some research and pulling one of the doors apart, I ordered some stuff from Amazon. I did make a mistake and thought that the rear doors did not have seperate tweeters. Should have ordered the same seperares that I did for the front. Had I looked, I would have realized there were two speaker grills on the rear doors.

I bought Inifinity Kappa 6 1/2 speakers for all four doors. The fronts were a set with crossovers and 3/4 inch tweeters. I used 2 ohm speakers to match the one I pulled out and measured. Many say you can use 4 ohm, but I liked the Kappas and were reasonably priced.

I’m not a professional installer by any means, but it went smoothly. Al and Ed’s wanted $125 to front the front and another $125 to install the rear. It probably took an hour to do the first one and another 1 1/2 hours to do the other 3 speakers. I did not buy the spacers as suggested by another write up. I just drilled new holes and screwed directly into the doors with the foam tape that came with the speakers. These particular speakers did not interfere with the operation of the windows. I clipped off the OEM speaker connectors and used those wires to the rear speakers directly or to the crossovers on the front.

Fronts:
Tweeters- dig out the glue and pop out the mounting bezel from the sail grill at the top. Dig out more glue and pop out the speaker from the plastic cup. I clipped the plastic protective dome out with wire cutters to give needed room for the dome of the Infinty tweeters. The 3/4 inch tweeters popped right in. I added some contact cement to join area as I couldn’t find my hot glue gun to hold the speaker in. Then just popped the tweeter back in. Attached twisted wires 16 gauge using butt connectors and wired to the crossover. Took about ten minutes each. I only did the fronts as I had purchased speakers with tweeters integrated for the rear. Left the original connector and wires tucked away.
Mids- the 6.5 had a diameter that was big enough the drill four new holes (3/64 bit, I recall). Just centered the speaker and rotated until all four holes were over metal. Didn’t worry about the open oblong area that the OEM speaker had integrated into the mount. There’s a nice hole near the speaker opening that I inserted a rubber grommet and ran twisted 16 gauge wire through as the speakers were no more recessed into the door.
Crossover- used double sided tape to mount the crossover to the door just below the handle. Plenty of room for it there. Took about an hour for both front doors.

Rear: drilled holes in doors for speakers as above. Drilled a hole for the speaker wires. Left the OEM tweeters installed but unplugged. Spent about an hour on the first one figuring out how I would mount it. Second door took only thirty minutes or so.

Results: definite improvement! Maybe an 7-8 on the 1-10 scale. No buzzing or rattle. Very clear sound. Now,I’m thinking of replacing the sub in the tailgate. Research shows it a dual voice coil 10” shallow mount. 3 3/16 inch depth will fit with some trimming apparently. The doors have nice bass already and I don’t need the “bump”, so I may just leave it alone.

Cost: $136 front, $99 rear, $5 wire, $5 for connectors and grommets.


Adding Bluetooth: I hav the Aux in Jack in the back of the console. I purchased a Cerwin Vega Bluetooth receiver CVBTR4 with built in line driver for amplification and two RCA to wire adapters from Rockford Fosgate (cheap and good quality). I popped out the AUX/12volt port by levering in a plastic trim tool into the top and pushing down. By doing the left and right sides of the top, the clips will release and the port comes out. After disconnecting the power port, I clipped off the green connector with four wires red, blue and two black. One of the black wires tells the system that a plug is not in the jack. I wanted to retain the 12volt power source, so spliced the positive of the Bluetooth module to the purple wire and the black to the black wire to power the line driver when the key is on. The grey wire for Audio was butt connected to the RCA wire (red) and the white was connected to white. The grounds from the RCA were the connected to the larger gauge ground wire that went to the Aux port. I left the thinner black ground unconnected. I had read that just unplugging the green connector would allow the radio to think something was plugged into the jack. I had used a small torn bit to remove the circuitry and plastic box from the face plate to give some additional room in the back of the console. Stuffed everything back in to the hole. Reconnected the 12v power connector and popped the plastic trim back on. Pairing my phone was very easy...no buttons to press on the receiver, so it could be completely hidden away ( no access). Works very well. Before, the volume needed to be at max to hear it. Now, it cranks! It’s a little quieter than the other inputs. 15 on CD equals about 20 on Bluetooth. That’s with the phone output most of the way up. Sound is very good, no engine noise. So, no ground isolator needed!
This took all of 30 mins and cost $40 for the receiver and $8 for the RCA! One of the best upgrades I’ve done so far. Not a hands free for the phone, just sound in. Can use it for Navigation now!

Anyway, I didn’t take any pictures, but if you get in there, this will all make sense!

Good luck!

 

Link us to the items you purchased? (assuming amazon has them?)

Dave aka Ghan