DanSS

Hello All,

I have a 2002 Honda Accord LX with the "6-speaker" sound system. (6x9's in the rear deck and 6"(?) speakers in the front doors and tweeters in the extreme corners of the dash by the windshield.) Based on what I've read in other forum messages, it appears the woofers in the front doors are wired in parallel to the tweeters in the dash and the tweeters have a capacitor at their connection point to block bass frequencies.

Here's what I'd like to do... I've already replaced the rear deck speakers with a pair of Kicker KS69s (a great improvement). I'm not at all impressed with imaging of the "component" front speakers. What I plan to do is replace the speakers in the door with a set of full-range speakers, disabling the front tweeters. I'd like to eventually remove the capacitors from the front door speakers and use those for communications equipment in my vehicle.

My question is this: Where exactly does the one set of wires for the front speakers at the factory wiring harness split into two sets (one for the woofer and one for the tweeter)?

Also, would my best bet be to run new wire to the door speakers and use the existing wiring at the wiring harness to feed the tweeters from my communications equipment? If so, how difficult is it to run the new wiring into the doors?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

-Dan

wrx-killer

I would check the kick pannel and look for the split. What is the communication units are you trying to install. The factory wires will give you good sound up to 40-50 rms power. You are not going to be able to tell. Anything over 50watts I would upgrade the wire. You could upgrade before that and it won't hurt.

DanSS

The amp I have is rated at 111W RMS x 4, so it sounds like I'd be best off running new wire to the doors. This would also elminate the need to find the junction point of the dash tweeters and door woofers. I'm just concerned about how difficult it will be to pass aftermarket speaker wire through the door wire grommet.

The communications equipment I was planning to hook to the tweeters is an amateur radio transceiver. It just puts out around 3W to a mono speaker output. Assuming the dash speakers are 4 ohm I could probably wire them both in series to the mono jack of the radio to present the radio with an 8 ohm speaker load.

Thanks,

-Dan

DanSS

I took off the door trim panel and the dash tweeter tonight. I was somewhat disgusted to find the wire running to each speaker is very thin (18-20 gauge?). Also disappointing was the entry point of the door wiring. It's very high up on the door pillar which would make replacement of the speaker wire difficult without removing the dash assembly.

On a positive note the tweeter did appear to be of moderate quality - not simply a very small paper driver. It had three terminals on it, with the speaker input wires going to two of the wires and an orange component (stamped 1L8 824) going between the third terminal and one of the speaker input wires.

With the speakers in place, I did continuity checks between all the terminals. Between some of the terminals it was 0 ohm resistance, others it was 4 ohm resistance, and between the legs of the orange component it was around 7 ohms resistance. My best guess based on my tinkering around tonight is that each speaker is a 4 ohm speaker, they may be wired in parallel as some have suggested, and there is a 7 ohm resistor inline to boost the resistance (to keep the head unit happy... two 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel without additional resistance inline would present the head unit with a 2 ohm load).

At this point it appears:
- Running thicker wire to the door speakers would not be an easy undertaking at all.
- The tweeters can easily be unplugged. Perhaps this is an easy way to put full-range speakers in the door and get rid of the poor imaging provided by the stock tweeters?
- I could just replace the door speakers with aftermarket ones, leaving the tweeters connected, but there's no saying how that'd sound or if the resistor(?) on the tweeter could handle the power of an amplifier.

I think I'll probably leave well enough alone and live with the factory door speakers and tweeters, powered by my head unit. I wish Honda didn't make it so impossible to replace the factory sound system with superior aftermarket components.

Any other advice??

-Dan

b00gers

111 watts x 4 is a pretty big amp. Is that the RMS rating or max?

I would go ahead and attempt to run new wiring. You wont need anything bigger than 14-16 gauge. But I am not too familiar with the 2002 Accord's door. If they are similar or the same as the new 07s then i can take a look at my friend's car to see if there is an easy route.

You say that the stock location gives poor imaging. Imaging is mostly due to the location of the speaker and where it is pointing...will replacing the tweeter but keeping the same location fix that problem? You always have the option of hacking a hole into your door panel or sail panel to house a new tweeter...but that will pretty much be a permanant mod.

A better option would be to leave the tweeter as is, and replace the woofer with a coax setup. There are higher end coax setups that allows the tweeter to pivot. I've heard a CDT coax used as a front stage, and it sounded awesome. The car was an Integra, and the speaker was placed on the lower left of the door. The tweeters were aimed at the opposite side headrest. I believe the speakers were these. This option will still require you to run new wiring though. I am not sure what is required for your transceiver, but if all you need is a tweeter, then you always have the factory one dedicated for it.

totalimmortal

The doors have molex plugs, which are a bitch to get wire through

JerryS

That it is... took me awhile to do it on mine, but it is possible. Just becareful not to damage the other wires as you attempt this procedure. You will need to snake it through.

Gook luck man!

DanSS

Any advice on how to run the new wires? It appears that the rubber grommet exits the door, turns upwards for about six inches, and then enters the hinge pillar area about 8" below the top of the dash. I felt up underneath the dash area and was not able to feel where the wires came in due to obstructions. However, there were a couple of wires that plugged into a wiring panel (behind the removable fuse door) that were the same colors as the wires to the speaker. Perhaps they are the same.

Also, when I measure the resistance of the tweeter at the wiring plug (and not the speaker terminals themselves), it did not show continuity. So it appears I was probably wrong and the orange component between two of the speakers may be a capacitor. Whatever it is, I'm curious how much power it would take before blowing.

Somebody asked if the amp was rated for RMS or peak. The 111W/Channel is the RMS rating. It is the Infinity 7541a. Here is a page with the info:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-kXAaUtX...20&I=108R7541A

I was originally planning on powering the rear 6x9's with two of the channels and bridging the other two channels for an Infinity Perfect 12" sub. However, if I could find a way to route new wires to the door I'd consider powering the front/rear speakers with the 7541 and getting a mono subwoofer amp for the sub.

-Dan

b00gers

Can you take a picture of the door's wiring? Mainly where the loom enter the door and cabin.

DanSS

Yes I can try to take a picture and post it to the site here - it may be a few days as I have to hunt down the digital camera.

-Dan