My car needs new speakers. Nothing earth-moving, just to replace my current set.
Can I do this myself? I can figure out how to get to the rear ones, but the ones in the door (1995 Ford Escort) are totally enclosed. How woudl I even get to these?
I have moderte experience with soldering and such, so I’, not worried there. I’m not sure about compatibility though.
What do I need to know?
The ones in the door might be difficult. I guess you’d have to remove the interior door panel. I have no idea how to do that. The ones in the back are usually accessible somehow through the trunk. I don’t think there should be any soldering necessary, most of the time the leads just clip or slide onto the tabs/posts on the speakers. Disclaimer: most of my experience in doing this was on a 1986 Buick, back then everything was easy (except I never could get around to replacing the speakers in the dash).
Door speakers suck to get to. I personally would rather pay the 40 bucks or whatever at a Best Buy or something to save me the hours of pain trying to take the door panel off without breaking something. But if you really want to do it yourself its not too involved usually. You just have to take the whole panel off your door and pop out the speaker and put a new one in. Unless you are running an amp or something its pretty much just plug n play. You shouldnt need solder or anything as long as the speakers are the same size. Good luck.
This is one of those jobs that every car is different and you just figure it out as you go. To get the door panels off you may just have to pry the tabs (like a positive locking type thing) out and the panel comes off. Some have a few screws that you have to remove also. A library will have a book on your car and how to remove door covers. Photo copy that page and bring it home. Or check the book out. The rear ones are self-explanatory. You can also get any crimp on lugs that you may need in lieu of soldering.
The store will let you know if the speakers you are bying are going to fit in your car. The door speakers can`t have the magnet/coils extend too deep for clearence reasons. The rear ones can be bigger than stock if the covers will fit back on (if there are covers). Or you could leave the covers off, but you reduce the bass in the car then.
Chiltons makes excellent manuals for small repair jobs like this. Any large bookstore should carry them - your local library may also have coppies.
I’m a little surprised nobody’s mentioned Crutchfield yet - head over there and find the “What fits my car?” button. One of the things they brag about is providing application-specific installation instructions.
In addition to the speakers themselves, they also sell door panel removal tools.
I’ve personally replaced the front speakers in a 1995 Escort Sedan (well, 95 Mercury Tracer anyway). Here’s how I did it:
1.) Removed the power window button mechanism. This thing pops out, just pry it up with a flathead screwdriver and disconnect the wiring. This will probably be more complicated if you have manual windows…
2.) Remove the screws located in the door handle. I think I remember there being one small one in the actual door handle, and two large ones located in the armrest thingy, situated horizontally.
3.) The rest of the door trim pops off at this point, apart from the previously mentioned screws the rest is held into place with plastic retaining clips that just pop out. Try to do it carefully enough to keep from breaking these little plastic doohickeys, 'cause you’ll need them to remount the trim.
4.) Remove the speakers. There are a number of screws holding them in, and once they’re out the speaker lifts out. The speaker wires feed into a plastic quick-connect device which only needs to be unplugged.
5.) I cut the quick-connect thingy on the speaker wires off and then soldered the wires directly to the speaker tabs. There may be a “female” adapter that can be attached to the quick-connect thingy you can buy to make this easier, I dunno.
6.) Do everything else again but in reverse!
I think I put a solid hour’s worth of work into it, and I’m by no means a gear-head or audiophile. I just made it up as I went along and it was a snap. Personally, I don’t recommend using bargain-basement installation services like Best Buy. Definitely check out gotpasswords link to Crutchfield, and pick out a speaker system that fits with a 95 Escort. I believe the speaker holes up front were 5 1/4", but this was a while ago that I did this. You can also custom fit a different speaker size to your car, but it’s a pain in the ass. ALSO, the speaker depth in a 95 Escort is unusually shallow, which only complicates the pain-in-ass-factor. But if you go with a speaker Crutchfield says will fit your car, it’ll be easy and will fit her like a glove.
Mobile electronics installer checking in here.
A '95 Escort is a pretty easy car to work on. desdinova has it right–the entire door panel must come off–which isn’t too hard. Also note that if you have manual windows, there is a special tool to remove the cranks, which costs around $10. And I think he’s right about the mounting depth being somewhat limited on that car.
There is a set of wiring adapters available to mate the Ford-style speaker plugs to your aftermarket speakers. This not only makes the job easier, but it’ll be easier to put the factory speakers back in for resale time. A pair of these speaker harnesses costs about $5.
If you routinely do other work on your car, consider buying a Chilton’s or Haynes manual, each about $15 at an auto parts store. The manual will tell you how to perform many types of repairs, but there should be a section that’ll tell you how to get the door panels off.
I’ll also second gottpasswords’ recommendation of Crutchfield; they have a good reputation. You’ll pay full retail for the product, plus shipping. But in exchange for that, you’ll get free speaker harnesses, a free tech sheet with disassembly instructions, and telephone tech support too. And I think they also sell the window crank removal tool, if you need it.
Another thing to remember is how to remove the door panel without damaging it. At the dealer, the clips were only 6 cents for a CADILLAC! Using only your hands to pull it out can actually tear the fiber or plastic material from the door panel vs: destroying the clip. Use the proper tool. It is a small version of a “wonder bar” A flat fork type tool with a screwdriver handle. If you ruin the clip, most are available auto parts store. Tool should be cheap too. Most car stereo stores will probably change them free if they are expensive speakers. Check your options, decide if you plan to ever do it again etc. and the answer will be clear as to which route to take. It’s a simple job, but can become expensive if not done right.
If you have the tools and feel confident working on your car, you should be able to do it. I recently changed my speakers for my car and the hardest part was putting the door panels back on. It took me a few hours, and the instructions and speakers I got from Crutchfield were good. I had to drill holes and cut into my door frame, which I didn’t like and that wasn’t mentioned in the instructions. Other than that it went well. Before you do it consider how much your time is worth-- its a lot easier just to pay Circuit City or someone else to do it. But if you like working on your car and getting to know it then go for it.