Freelander 1 speaker woes

Hi All,

After something of a decade long hiatus, I have got a working Land Rover again (a 2000 W-reg 1.8 five door).

It is very shiny car, but has been thoroughly mechanically neglected over the past 2-3 years and clearly ragged around delivering fast food in London (even now the interior pongs on a hot day).

I got it dirt cheap in February to do a project. It was that or a CRV that looked like it had been banger racing in the woods!! I needed a small, but half-competent 4x4 with space for three plus chainsaws, sledge hammers etc, but (because of council tip restrictions) anything vaguely "commercial vehicle-ish" like a pick-up was not possible.

I now find myself investing too much time in this too-cheap-to-be-true Freelander - fixed the sunroof for a few quid...botched recovering the headlining (90% of it looks fine, but 10% looks awful)...then it went downhill: 4x Cooper Discoverer ATT tyres, new pads / disks / calipers / shoes, recon'd VCU, ARB links & bushes, tie rods, diff bushes and soon a recon'd rear diff.

Now the mechanical work is at an end (I hope) I've turned my attention to the radio...it came with an aftermarket Sony head unit fitted and the only noise came from the door tweeters (branded Harmon Kardon) and two aftermarket low range speakers screwed to a piece of wood covering the cubby hole in the boot floor.

I have finally replaced that radio with a Land Rover R770 head unit. Knowing that didn't have a display I bought one of those clock / display things (£60 quid new, £160 second hand...go figure). Plugged it all in after work today and was relieved to find the wiring appears not to have been chopped about.

This is what I've found:

• R770 radio powers on (no tapes to test the tape player works, but I have a plan to do a CD changer and blue tooth module).
• The clock / display seems to work fine (showing the preset radio stations that the radio had last been tuned with like Heart, Radio 1 etc).
• The ariel plug doesn't fit the radio (I think it is an aftermarket one as I found two when I took the headlining out...it was the "extra" one that was screwed to the roof). Guess I just need to connect the original to the ariel and find the other end of it.
• I only have hissing (no surprise, no ariel) - however most importantly it's only coming from the tweeters again (I suspect if I can induce some beats I would also hear those speaker in the boot floor).

I am guessing that the system really is / was a Harmon Kardon one (the car has a Land Rover Special Vehicles plate on the bulkhead), so I want to see if the wiring to the amp between the radio and the speakers is still intact.

Does anyone know where that amp lives? My Haynes manual is no use on that...and nor is Google.

malcolm_durant said:

Does anyone know where that amp lives?

Click to expand...

The HK amp is normally under the passenger seat. It might not be a complete HK system though, as HK tweeters are common on ebay, which would also explain the lack of the proper HK sub in the boot.
However if the tweeters are working, it suggests the main door speakers are FUBAR, which is a pretty common fail point.
Unfortunately the main speakers get wet inside the door, which either causes bad connections at the plugs, or complete failure of the speaker motor assembly.

Sorry for the slow response Nodge68.

Yes, there is a "shallow" metal case bolted to the passenger seat base (I can't see any labels on it in the gloom, but it looks / feels very much like the HK amps listed on eBay). I checked and there is definitely a multiplug securely connected to it and a chunky bunch of cables coming from the multiplug and heading under the carpet. So it looks like I might actually have a full HK set up after all (minus the sub in the boot for whatever reason).

I think my next step (on Saturday...if the weather is kind...and I get the time after swapping the diff which take priority as the last "big" job) will be to pull the air-con / heater control panel and get a proper look at the condition of radio / speaker wiring lurking in there (and find the original ariel lead hopefully). Then I'll pull a door card and see if the speaker in that door is getting any current.

Is there any way to "bench test" the HK amp while I'm at it? I have a multimeter.

malcolm_durant said:

Is there any way to "bench test" the HK amp while I'm at it? I have a multimeter.

Click to expand...

If you're getting sound at the tweeter, then the amp is passing the sound on. It'll be the main speaker in the doors that are knackered.

Thanks Nodge68,

The end result of this weekend's fiddling was:
1. I didn't even start on the diff replacement job (I spent Saturday sawing up wood instead...).
2. I cannot find the end of the original aerial lead...but my neighbour has pointed me to some likely looking adaptors. The most likely one is in the post to me now.
2. I do definitely have a HK set up. What I'd assumed was a homespun subwoofer set up in the boot floor cubby-box is actually an original Land Rover one...just rather rusty and water damaged.
3. My speakers are shagged (although the front tweeters and the pair in the subwoofer box "work" but are at death's door!)

So my follow-on questions are;
1. Can I replace HK speakers with any speaker of the same size; or are HK ones rates differently (so for example are they 4 ohm impedance like almost every aftermarket speaker out there)?
2. Can I use coaxial speakers in the doors and not bother with tweeters without any appreciable degradation in quality?
- In theory, I need a total of four 16 cm / 6.5" mid-range door speakers, four door mounted tweeters and two 16cm / 6.5" woofers in the boot, so the costs will mount up!
- I'm also not what you might describe as an audiophile...I just want acceptable noise!

And on the subject of cost, has anyone any experience of using these cheap speakers from Halfrauds?
Vibe 6" (16.5cm) Replacement Speaker | Halfords UK

Thanks in advance!

malcolm_durant said:

And on the subject of cost, has anyone any experience of using these cheap speakers from Halfrauds?

Click to expand...

Vibe are expensive garbage.

JVC coaxial speakers work well, but I left the factory tweeters working, as they add stereo depth.

Here's the JVC from Amazon.
Amazon don't allow links, but they're £22.50 a pair from the JVC store on Amazon at the moment.

Thanks (yet again) Nodge68..!!

Just to sense-check because I had a similar question answered rather differently by a supplier ('Bass Junkie' of Wolverhampton), are folk sure that "any" after market speaker will work with a Freelander's Harmon Kardon system?

Shortly after posting my last reply above, I asked Bass Junkie (via an eBay question), because I saw they do Freelander 1 "replacement speaker kits" for about the £40 - £45 mark. Here are two of their listings as an example:

• https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25344413...DnnMEHLTSQNSv8DqMHOW9Op4jLPa|tkp:BFBMprGWp6xg
• https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264349467507?hash=item3d8c74c373:g:BUMAAOSwSFZajsZI

They replied that the speakers in those kits are not compatible with a Harmon Kardon system. And, perhaps more worryingly, they went on to qualify that statement with the follow-up that not one single speaker they supply is (and if you look at their main website, they supply a lot of different makes and models of car speaker!).

Cheers,
Malcolm

malcolm_durant said:

Thanks (yet again) Nodge68..!!

Just to sense-check because I had a similar question answered rather differently by a supplier ('Bass Junkie' of Wolverhampton), are folk sure that "any" after market speaker will work with a Freelander's Harmon Kardon system?

Shortly after posting my last reply above, I asked Bass Junkie (via an eBay question), because I saw they do Freelander 1 "replacement speaker kits" for about the £40 - £45 mark. Here are two of their listings as an example:

• https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253444130786?hash=item3b027287e2:g:BUMAAOSwSFZajsZI&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAA4GVN1VoT5HgtdMn6Fkb98QsY8Q5GnbLqGznRYc4q7IA1iJWfCWazqgDHqtMpcoar+bcNdJIMVG6TNFtEgwc58Upqhvq/zUbhZi+jhX8q5Fk9Y2DbmFzreBvqvY61IOzXMqQhMkSLhmOOu4dxCpgtRyclCg/AduivF68fDOLqOwnzoOtmgXFUcmjsM/fNUNi0ppEC+D2YsObW8B+XNJpIt00qkwyw7C5axiOIZOJ8/iHJZ/vcj2edjMV5E0kkGcVkGdTqrKlkqFttZFwUDnnMEHLTSQNSv8DqMHOW9Op4jLPa|tkp:BFBMprGWp6xg
• https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264349467507?hash=item3d8c74c373:g:BUMAAOSwSFZajsZI

They replied that the speakers in those kits are not compatible with a Harmon Kardon system. And, perhaps more worryingly, they went on to qualify that statement with the follow-up that not one single speaker they supply is (and if you look at their main website, they supply a lot of different makes and models of car speaker!).

Cheers,
Malcolm

Click to expand...

Those speakers are expensive, and to all intense and purposes are identical to the JVC speakers from Amazon for ½ the price, except the custom speakers come with a silly connector block, but that's an expensive piece of plastic.

The HK system used standard speakers, nothing special at all, except they were designed to take the higher output power from the amplifier, rather than the low power from the standard HU.

The HK speakers were rated at 30 Watts IIRC, possibly at 2 Ohms, but I would think a 4 Ohm rating is more likely, as the amp isn't beefy enough to drive a 2 Ohm load at those power levels.

There are plenty of people that have changed broken HK speakers for standard 4 Ohm replacements without an issue.
The JVC speakers from Amazon for £22.50 a pair will do what you need, but you'll need to change the plugs on the end of the wires, as LR used silly plugs (hence the adapters in the custom fit speakers).
The LR plugs will be probably be rusty anyway, so replacing them won't be a bad thing.

Right - thank you Nodge68....that is (or will be?) music to my ears.

(BTW: I think part of the justification for the cost difference is the adaptor plates in the kits - they ask about £20 for a pair of them and the plugs alone...https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265291263968?hash=item3dc4976fe0:g:vc8AAOSwfo5hLLSm...). But I can probably make some from MDF.

Googling for cheap speakers later tonight..!

malcolm_durant said:

But I can probably make some from MDF

Click to expand...

No need. The holes in the door are perfectly sized for a 6.5" speaker. You just need to drill the screw holes.

I put sound proofing material on my doors too, which reduced the buzzing and vibration on the door frame.

I've some pictures somewhere of mine.

malcolm_durant said:

Googling for cheap speakers later tonight..!

Click to expand...

JVC 6.5" on Amazon £22.50 free shipping on prime.

Yup...I ordered mine on eBay for £21.00 for one pair and £22.95 for the other (both post free)

Saved me working out what my Amazon account was too..!

In other news - my neighbour's suggestion of an aerial adaptor was bang on the money. Arrived this AM and was easily fitted at lunchtime.

I'm now looking forward to receiving and fitting new speakers on the weekend..!

malcolm_durant said:

Yup...I ordered mine on eBay for £21.00 for one pair and £22.95 for the other (both post free)

Saved me working out what my Amazon account was too..!

Click to expand...

Good stuff.

I've some pictures of my speaker upgrades.

I didn't take a picture of the factory speakers, but here the door minus the speaker.
You'll notice the hole is round, with only the screw holes being in custom places.


I applied a 5mm thick layer of neoprene sound proofing material to the door frame, and a large piece to the inside of the outer skin, directly behind the speaker.

I then installed a Fli speaker that I had lying around, as a test of concept.

However the Fli speakers didn't like the music I like (bass heavy), so I replaced them with some JVC units which I knew to be good, especially for the money.

I treated the rear doors to the same soundproofing and JVC upgrade.

The pic's are very useful...thank you!

And the soundproofing is a good idea (that may need to be a follow-up job as I'll be focusing on my Jag X-Type's front wheel bearings on Saturday, whereas Sunday looks like rain, rain and lots more rain).

Nodge68 said:

Good stuff.

I've some pictures of my speaker upgrades.

I didn't take a picture of the factory speakers, but here the door minus the speaker.
You'll notice the hole is round, with only the screw holes being in custom places.
View attachment 267245

I applied a 5mm thick layer of neoprene sound proofing material to the door frame, and a large piece to the inside of the outer skin, directly behind the speaker.
View attachment 267246
I then installed a Fli speaker that I had lying around, as a test of concept.
View attachment 267247
However the Fli speakers didn't like the music I like (bass heavy), so I replaced them with some JVC units which I knew to be good, especially for the money.
View attachment 267249
I treated the rear doors to the same soundproofing and JVC upgrade.

Click to expand...

Hi Nodge, after drilling the appropriate holes for the JVC's did you just re-position the LR 'yellow' fixings, self tap to the metal door or use 'u' nuts?
My drivers door speaker has packed up (HK set up) & I've a o/s rear window reg. to replace so I might as well do all four with JVC's whilst I'm there.

@Nodge68 - thank you!! I have:

• Replaced the front door door speakers with the JVCs
• Replaced the subwoofers in the boot (16.5cm Pyle subwoofers for £20 each) but will need to replace the wooden (MDF) panel they bolt to as it is too warped....will use 18mm marine ply.
• Rear doors still to do (ran out of time).

Main point of this post is to thank you and categorically confirm these speakers (the JVCs) work perfectly as replacements for the HK originals, and it is every bit as easy as suggested.

@Andy Warren:

• I simply drilled four 2.5mm holes into the door (using the template printed on the JVC speakers' box) and forcefully screwed in using the supplied screws. Sharp drill required, otherwise it will snap...
• I aim to go back and sort out the wiring more permanently (I cut and spliced using little "chocolate blocks", but that needs re-doing with something more waterproof)...when I do that I will primer the holes and put some Waxoyl or similar on the screws.
• The problem I see with using plastic plugs is the screw holes are already really quite close to the edge of the circular speaker aperture in the door; and the supplied "U" nuts won't reach over the lip on the circular aperture.

Another archive thread for which I’m very grateful (especially to @Nodge68 for the info., and to @malcolm_durant for the Columbo questions ).

Saved me hours of research. The aforementioned JVCs are now £16.99 on Amazon FWIW. I inserted yellow 3mm rawlplugs from inside out, butterflied them and they served as perfect recipients for the screws provided.

Thanks again everyone who takes the time to share their expertise and experience.