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Sixbanger - can you post a few notes on how to access the sub woofer? What trim panels needed to come off and in what order? Any fragile steps or tricky snaps?
I’m planning to get at it and am looking for tips to save time.
Sixbanger - can you post a few notes on how to access the sub woofer? What trim panels needed to come off and in what order? Any fragile steps or tricky snaps?
I’m planning to get at it and am looking for tips to save time.
thanks
Unfortunately I found this after I did mine, but it should help you. I wasted time trying to get the rear deck out without pulling the rear pillar pieces. they definitely have to come out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Ni...ature=youtu.be
someone on this forum had posted it awhile back and I just found it again.
Bump for more updates ! I have 1- 12” Rockford Fosgate p3 sub and looking to find the best amp for my buck to power this. Please let me know what the deal is out there! Thanks you!
FYI. The 17+ with a bigger screen will not work, there is a tab that holds the screen to the dash and it obstruct the aftermarket speakers.
what I did was put two of the mb quarts on the outside and move one of the outside speakers to the center, it barely fits and is louder since it has a built in capacitor which the orginal centers do not.
I got a little carried away and ended up upgrading every speaker in the system. My previous posts in this thread cover front dash. Below are some details for the door speakers and rear deck sub.
Here is a shot of all OEM speakers, laid out per in-car configuration:
Front doors - fixed the muddy bloated mid-bass
PartsExpress 6-1/2" Poly Cone Midbass Woofer 4 Ohm (p/n 299-609) @ $5.99 ea - this was an experiment (I was paying shipping anyways for speaker baffles), which turned out really well for only $6. These have a good response ~100-3,000 hz.
PartsExpress 6-1/2" round small frame shallow foam baffle (pair) @ $8 - the inner diameter was too small for the woofer (above) to fit. So instead of mounting this baffle between speaker basket and the plastic adapter, I mounted the baffle between the plastic adapter and my plywood spacer.
TSB-910 speaker mount adapter (pair) w Metra 72-8104 connector (pair) @ $15 on Amazon - the adapters were not the right fit and needed modifying. The Metra connector is exact fit for the OEM front door speaker wiring harness.
Custom plywood spacer - cut from 5/8" plywood
50mil sound deadening applied inside the door behind the speaker, $33 for 25 sq ft on Amazon
Front door Front door panel Front door speaker depth Stock front door speaker Front door w Parts Express 6-1/2" woofer
Rear Doors - improved mid-bass, added high freq. clarity to the rear cabin. Originally I was going to install 2 more PartsExpress 6-1/2" woofers in the rear doors, but I figured out that the rear doors get a full-range signal, so I pivoted...
Kenwood KFC-1695PC 6-1/2" 3-ways - $25 from Amazon Warehouse. Nothing special, but good enough for the rear, and clean enough that it doesn't detract from the other speakers.
PartsExpress 6-1/2" round small frame shallow foam baffle (pair) @ $8 - fit perfectly with the Kenwoods (which have a smaller woofer diam. and basket). Installed by clamping between speaker basket and plastic adapter.
TSB-910 speaker mount adapter (pair) w Metra 72-8104 connector (pair) @ $15 on Amazon - looks like I could have bought TSB-920 adapters and they might have been direct fit without modification. But I already bought an additional pair of the TSB-910 so I cut those to fit instead. The Metra connector is exact fit for the OEM rear door speaker wiring harness.
50mil sound deadening applied inside the door behind the speaker, $33 for 25 sq ft on Amazon
Rear door Kenwood w adapter and foam baffle
Subwoofer - followed in Sixbanger's foot steps.
Polk Audio DB842DVC sub $60 on Amazon
Metra 72-8104 connector (pair, only needed 1) @ $6 on Amazon - direct fit to stock sub woofer speaker harness
50mil sound deadening applied generously to top and bottom side of rear deck, $33 for 25 sq ft on Amazon
Custom spacer - cut from 5/8" plywood and foam rubber. The shape of the rear deck is odd, and cutting a custom spacer that fit was a pain. I used thick foam rubber between rear deck sheet metal and the plywood spacer to fill gaps and get a secure fit. Bolted the spacer to the rear deck using "U" type sheet metal clips, and then screwed the sub-woofer to the plywood spacer.
I can't seem to find all the photos I took of the subwoofer install, so some further notes:
At first I used an 8" XTC foam baffle to try and isolate the sub-woofer from the trunk, but the tiny air volume proved to be a big problem. I ended up cutting trimming it all off and the sub is now open to the trunk.
I cut a hole in the felted/plastic trunk-upper cover to make room for the foam baffle and magnet. In hindsight (knowing that the baffle was pointless) I should have just used a slightly thicker spacer on the top of the rear deck, and I would've been able to not cut the cover (see pic below).
Trunk rattles: two torsion rods that span the trunk in an "X", plastic covers on the hinge arms for the trunk lid, and the felted/plastic trunk-upper cover are all noisy. I used various pieces of sound deadener, adhesive felt pads (from a kit of floor protectors for furniture), and adhesive foam rubber strips.
trunk upper cover
Altogether this is a great upgrade vs. stock system. I like clean/clear sound and a good sound stage. I have tempered expectations for car audio, and this setup hits the high side of my expectations. I'm not listening OEM eq at treble = 0, mid = 0, bass = +1.
Couple of lingering shortcomings:
Trunk resonates around 45-55Hz. Still a little boomy/muddy in this range.
The open air Polk install rolls off quickly at about 35 Hz.
Something in the front door is rattling around 100-120Hz. It only comes up on certain tracks (Radiohead's Kid A album in particular). I haven't decided if it will bother me often enough to pull the front door panel off again.
Awesome post Mitch1979! such great info and really goes to show you that some of the upgrades don't cost much at all. Your parts express speakers are proof! Sound deadening is always a good investment!
I haven't done much lately, was -30 degrees f here about a week ago. Still haven't gotten my Focal speakers from my friend yet.
I am now reconsidering how I handle modifying the trunk upper cover. I also contemplated using a deeper spacer on top. wish I would have.
I never really like those baffle things, except maybe in the door to protect them from the elements. I imagine it sounded terrible on the 8" sub.
I too am pleased with my upgrades so far. Lexus really should have tried just a little harder.
I've said it before... You can install foam baffles behind the factory speakers and make a huge difference on sound. Crutchfield has them cheap, and they even have the rings that you install between the speaker and door. Baffles force all of the sound from the speaker, into the car instead of all inside the door and body. Makes it a lot quieter outside the car too.
Mitch1979 what did you replace your dash speakers with? Thanks !
See here (for dash L & R) and here (for dash center)
And since my last post I can say the Infinity REF 4022's I put in are my favorite part of the upgrade.
Last edited by Mitch1979; 02-13-19 at 08:50 PM.
Reason: added link for dash center speaker
I've said it before... You can install foam baffles behind the factory speakers and make a huge difference on sound. Crutchfield has them cheap, and they even have the rings that you install between the speaker and door. Baffles force all of the sound from the speaker, into the car instead of all inside the door and body. Makes it a lot quieter outside the car too.
I finally got around to looking into the front door rattle that was audible whenever something played @ 100-120 Hz (see my earlier pic heavy post). Turns out... it was the XTC foam baffles buzzing (the flat surface at the bottom of the baffle). I cut the bottom out and wrapped a band of gorilla tape around the sidewalls to stiffen them a little. Problem solved.
Those foam baffles are now 0 for 2. They may be ok for smaller drivers, but I will never bother with them again for anything bigger than 4".
i also bought these. They took over a month to come in, but they did. I’ve been away for work and haven’t had a chance to install them either. Please let me know what you find if you get to it before me thanks!
added some sound deadening in the trunk. you can reach a good chunk of the top inside skin through the metal holes. should help a little, but I know I'll be chasing trunk rattles forever. Now that the weather has been a little better here in Wisconsin, I should be able to start making more progress.
Metra 72-8104 speaker harness plugs right into factory speaker connector, no cutting needed. $5 on ebay.
This particular Polk Audio subwoofer is no longer made, but any 8" 4 ohm Dual Voice coil Subwoofer should work.
I wired my subwoofer just like this picture.
I had quite a few rattles when done. I had about 2 square feet of sound deadening that I used to chase down rattles. Put in a variety of types of music, etc... while the car is apart to do this. The majority of my rattles was from the torsion bar holder thing in the center of the trunk area/rear deck where the torsion bars crossed each other. I used little bits of sound deadening and a zip tie to keep it from rattling.
The trim panel in the trunk will need to be modified for the magnet of this speaker, it hangs down farther than the stock one. I haven't decided the best way to do this yet, so I have that trim piece out of the car. the trunk light is just hanging for now. This should be pretty simple and barely noticeable when done......update-I have decided to leave the top trim piece off, it looks fine to me and the trunk light clips right into the metal hole in the rear deck.
1. So you did just a straight driver swap, same amp outputs from the original system?
2. Ran it at 2 ohms, how was the output? Depends more on speaker sensitivity, but at least as much volume and probably tighter/cleaner than factory?
3. Do you know if the non-ML sub is the same as ML?
4. What is the diameter of the cutout, is it a full 8" and is there any/much room to enlarge it? From pics I've seen it looks pretty tight, but I've always enjoyed my 10s Opening requirement is 10" but could probably mount and seal it lower on the basket with a bit less opening.
12-31-18, 01:41 PM
I wired my subwoofer just like this picture.
Opening requirement is 10" but could probably mount and seal it lower on the basket with a bit less opening.