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      08-14-2017, 10:39 AM   #36
havinfun
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Drives: m240i
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Arkansas

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Solarphil View Post
Update with steps for replacing rear speakers:
First, pry up the grills with a thin edge of your trim tool. I think it's a little easier to work on the speakers if you put the rear seats down, although these photos have them up. Live and learn.
Attachment 1421091
I've got the HK so I've got tweeters, I believe the base stereo doesn't but here's a photo of the stock HK setup for the history books.
Attachment 1421092

Each speaker is held in place with three torx bits, same bit as the front speakers. You will need a low profile driver, but a stubby torx driver might fit.
Attachment 1421093

You can then pull up the speaker to find two sets of wires if you have the HK. The ones with the black heatshrink bundle go to the tweeter, and can be tucked back in out of the way unless you're replacing with a component set. I'm using Coax JL's, so I'll just leave the old tweeters there. The wires with the cloth tape are the important ones coming from the amp.
Attachment 1421094

I used a pick to disconnect the latch. A small screwdriver would work fine too.
Attachment 1421095

If you're using JL speakers from Selmeralto's post, you'll need to break two tabs off one side.
Attachment 1421096

Closeup of the electrical connections. Pay attention to polarity, it matters.
Attachment 1421097

Good crimpers are like sliced bread. Once you use them, you'll never figure out how you got along without them.
Attachment 1421098

I think I'm ready to rock here. I picked up the wiring harnesses from ebay, search for BMW OEM speaker connector harness.
Attachment 1421099

You know when I mentioned polarity matters? Well, apparently you can't trust BMW to be consistent. I connected everything up like I *thought* it ought to work, but I was less than happy about the bass response from the rear. Well, it turns out the left and right factory harnesses have the + in opposite spots. F**** f**** f****. Lessons learned - don't just trust the way the plugs fit into the socket, confirm the wires on one side of the plug match the wires on the other side.
Attachment 1421103
I should also mention that I don't think it's fair to hang this on the ebay vendor - i bought two sets of adapters (4 total) because I wasn't sure how many I'd need, and they're all identical. I think this may be a BMW thing. Or i'm just lucky.

Anyway, back to installing speakers. The stock speaker has three mounting points, and the JL has four (two that you snap off earlier to fit). I could have left it hanging on the two points, but that seemed likely to cause a lot of vibration and noise not to mention crappy sealing. I thought about cutting up some scrap metal to catch the 3rd mounting point when I realized the Jeezus clips shipped with the JL speakers might offer a solution - they had a hooked tang on one side, and the offset of the screw hole was just the right distance. I just had to drill out the snail shell screw hole to clear the stock BMW mounting screws. A 3/16" drill bit worked great. Use a vise or maybe visegrips if you've got nothing better - the clips are spring steel and will grab, which will seriously fubar your fingers if you're silly enough to try to hold them by hand while drilling.
Attachment 1421104

Here's a shot of the third clip, installed.
Attachment 1421105

Much happiness. Cervesas, all around!
I confirmed that the rear speaker wiring on the 2018 M240 is STILL inconsistent: the right rear speaker (behind passenger side) has a red stripe wire connected to + on the speaker. The - wire is brown stripe. On the rear left speaker (behind driver's side), the + speaker wire is brown stripe whereas the - wire is red stripe. By the way, I installed Morel Maximo Ultra 4" coax speakers. They have a much larger magnet than the OEM speakers and just clear the bottom of the speaker opening. They seem to really smooth out the mid-range: significant sound improvement even without replacing the door speakers.
Appreciate 0