Boot door speakers...

OK, after spending ages hunting about where the sterio goes I can't find the wires to use for my subs in the boot door. I'm assuming they are either too low in the dash to find or they have been cut out

Anyway, the subs are working but not as subs - as normal speakers so my questions are:

Does the amp power these as normal speakers when used just through the headunit

Can I replace them with normal 3 way speakers that are of a better quality and will the amp still work?

If the above is yes, then can anyone advise on a set of 6" 3 ways to use in the door?

Thanks...

"Does the amp power these as normal speakers when used just through the headunit" I don't really understand the question...
The amplifier takes the bass audio signal from the head unit but will still work even if a midrange signal is provided, it's just an amplifer... the existing loudspeakers would be bass biased so able to use the low frequencies but you can use any loudspeaker with the amplifer and match then to the audio input signal.

Had this issue a few weeks ago and the solution was simpler than the journey to find it!

Behind the head unit you should find a small connector tucked away (probably pushed towards the driver's side) with 2 wires (black & red). This is a dedicated feed to the subs and utilises the crossover and amp built into the rear door. Chances are if they're not behaving as subs, this has been bypassed at some point.

Depending on the model you may also find a CD Changer connector. This is much bigger and has more wires, just push it back where you found it and pretend you didn't see it *ahem*.

The rear subs are bolted to a small amp which is powered separately from (but activated by) the head unit. Turn on the head, provide volume and all's rosy, but you'll need to strip the wires from the connector block we found earlier and splice them in to the rear right or left speakers in order to provide an audio feed to the amp/subs. (I used wires 7 & 8 as I recall).

As for a replacement set of speakers, before I managed to fix mine I looked into this and the first problem is that you'll find the originals are bonded to the speaker box and won't be fun to remove. I considered building a new box from MDF but was lucky enough to find the wiring solution above and an expensive refit turned into a 15 minute fix with ear-drum shattering results.

Worth a deeper look behind the head, just in case. if, as you say, the connector / wires aren't there, this may be the root of the subs-behaving-as-mids problem, in which case it may be worth looking behind the subs to see if the crossover was bypassed. Fingers crossed the amp is still there, just not connected...

Dufty said:

Behind the head unit you should find a small connector tucked away (probably pushed towards the driver's side) with 2 wires (black & red). This is a dedicated feed to the subs and utilises the crossover and amp built into the rear door.

Click to expand...

Both myself and a guy from a sterio shop have looked for the illusive Red and Black connector but can't find the bloody thing behind there. I even had one of my kids with his arms down there hunting for it! I can only assume the previous owner has really tucked it away or cut it off...

Dufty said:

The rear subs are bolted to a small amp which is powered separately from (but activated by) the head unit.

Click to expand...

Now that I have! The fella from the sterio shop managed to take a feed from a live to another part of the connector block (not the one with the speaker cable, or the dash controllers - the other one) and the speakers came on!

Dufty said:

Turn on the head, provide volume and all's rosy,

Click to expand...

Ah, this is where I'm starting to get confused...

When I turn the volume up, its not only base coming from the speakers, its mid range as well so the subs are not acting like a sub but like a normal speaker (hope that makes sense) as the subs are not using the RCA\Red_Black connectors.

Dufty said:

but you'll need to strip the wires from the connector block we found earlier and splice them in to the rear right or left speakers in order to provide an audio feed to the amp/subs. (I used wires 7 & 8 as I recall).

Click to expand...

Not sure i need to do this as I have sound coming from them...

Dufty said:

As for a replacement set of speakers, before I managed to fix mine I looked into this and the first problem is that you'll find the originals are bonded to the speaker box and won't be fun to remove. I considered building a new box from MDF but was lucky enough to find the wiring solution above and an expensive refit turned into a 15 minute fix with ear-drum shattering results.

Click to expand...

The only reason i asked about speakers is, I assumed, if i changed the subs to 3 way speakers will it sound better (because the subs are just acting as speakers anyway - which is not good for subs I guess).

I was thinking of something like these? JBL GTO638 6-1/2" (160mm) 3-Way Speaker | In Car Unlimited Can i still connect the amp to these?

DISCOOL: Thanks for your help on this and the other thread!! I think you have answered with this sentence: but you can use any loudspeaker with the amplifer and match then to the audio input signal.

As you can see i'm crap at this kinda thing so all help appreciated

I was thinking of something like these? JBL GTO638 6-1/2" (160mm) 3-Way Speaker | In Car Unlimited Can i still connect the amp to these?

Click to expand...

In a word, no. The amp will destroy them. They'll probably sound better than the subs since they're currently not behaving correctly, but won't give you earth shattering bass.

To install these you'll need to bypass the amp in the boot door and wire straight to the speaker wire. They have an in-built crossover so will separate the bass out in-speaker.

An alternative to consider, boot space and inclination depending, is a small active sub with a signal routed from the head's RCA outif it has one.

"Ah, this is where I'm starting to get confused...

When I turn the volume up, its not only base coming from the speakers, its mid range as well so the subs are not acting like a sub but like a normal speaker (hope that makes sense) as the subs are not using the RCA\Red_Black connectors"

Thats because your loud speaker has been tapped into the left or right stereo channel instead of the - neg of the right and the + pos of the left and using a Tri-way crossover which will give you L & R stereo channels and a mono channel to put into a mono amp with adjustable gain, you then have your low sub bass 8o Hz or lower... thats how it use to be done in the days before head units with pre-amplified outputs.