notabot

I'm looking to upgrade my front door speakers, but I like to keep things looking as stock as possible.
I've done some searches on the forum for door speaker replacements and from what I can garner, the front door speakers are 6.5".
Now, I've always had good luck using Crutchefield in the past for disassembly, wiring harnesses, fit guides, but they don't have anything for our gen ES. I'm super paranoid about taking apart the door to get to the speakers as I don't want to break any clips or brackets.

Here's my question:
Assuming that the stereos (or at least the speakers and wiring) for the same year/gen 2013 Toyota Avalon are similar/the same (they have tons of guides and fits for the 2013 Avalon), can I just order those speakers from Crutchfield and assume that the included wiring harness and disassembly instructions will work for the ES? Has anyone had any luck with this?

Sorry for the rookie post, I just really don't want to mess up my new (to me) car!

Thanks!

crichnikov

Great question

notabot

Well, I took the plunge after a bit of research. I bought JBL 6X9 three-way speakers, the included wiring harness plugs in perfectly (no splicing required), but the job isn't complete yet (spoiler alert: the included bracket didn't fit). I think I found a work around with a third-party bracket. With all the times I've taken the door apart now, I'm now a relative pro. Key word: relative.

I'll post pictures of the disassembly, parts, and speaker replacement when I get the new bracket. Hopefully by the end of next weekend.

notabot

Sorry it took so long for me to post this.
Mods - if you want to make this a sticky, go for it.

This is for a 2013 ES with the premium audio (nav, but no ML). I only did the front doors, but I assume the rears (a future project) are very similar.

Changing the door speakers isn't difficult. And this is from someone who has little experience in car audio. I've used Crutchfield before for my previous cars, but the tricky part here was that the speaker bracket (Metra) they sent didn't fit, but I was able to find a different source for an exact fit. The wiring harness was a perfect fit (plug and play with no splicing required).
Proceed at your own peril, but honestly, once I had the correct parts, it wasn't too tough a task at all. I watched videos and researched this for a few weeks before making the attempt because I really, really didn't want to mess up my car.

Here's where I got the speaker mounting bracket:
http://www.car-speaker-adapters.com/
Fast shipping and it was a perfect fit for both the speaker and the door.
*Disclosure: don't worry, I don't work for these guys.

After-market speaker, mounting bracket, and wiring harness.
Deep breath. Here goes:

The door trim removal is surprisingly easy. (There are YouTube videos out there on how to remove Camry and Avalon door trim. The ES is similar, but there are crucial differences - mainly the placement of the screws and there is no need to remove the sail plate trim piece near the rearview mirrors.) Really the only thing you need to take off the interior of the door is a phillips head screwdriver. The whole thing is held on by 4 different sized phillips-head screws and a LOT of retainer clips.

Tools:
1. A phillips head screwdriver, an adjustable wrench or small socket set.
2. Trim removal tool ($9 on amazon).
3. A tiny bit of courage. Really. Just a tiny bit.

1. Prep work: I went ahead and installed the speaker into the mounting brackets before I got started. Luckily I didn't have the foresight to do this with the Metra brackets that were included with my JBL 6x9 3-way speakers from Crutchfield because those don't fit the door (too small). In fact, the speakers didn't even fit the brackets so, I didn't commit any serious errors. The first time, but I gained valuable experience taking that door apart and buttoning it up again.

2. Disconnect the negative terminal for the battery just in case something goofy happens.

3. There are four Phillips head screws that you need to remove:
a. At the back edge of the door in a little rubber
b. Behind a small plastic trim piece (easily popped off with a trim piece removal tool) at the chromed door handle you pull to open the car door
c. Under a small piece of fabric/backing (again use a trim removal tool) at the door handle you use to close the car door.
d. Under the power window switch. Use a trim removal tool to pry this up and unclip the lock/unlock and the power window switch.
What? You want pictures? OK:
#1 Phillips head at the back edge of the door This just pops right out with a pry tool.

#2 Phillips head at behind the plastic piece by the door pull

#3 Phillips head under that little piece of felt at the door pull. This just seemed a little cheesy and flimsy but hey whatever.
Believe it or not, the driver's door is easier. There's just one wiring harness to unhook, not two.

#4 Phillips head under the window switchDon't worry, all four screws are different sizes, so you're probably not going to mix them up. If you have poor short term memory, maybe take pics like I did, so you remember.

4. Now the slightly tricky part that requires some courage. There are retaining clips all along the perimeter - bottom, front, back - of the interior trim piece (it's all one piece) of the door. The first time I did this, I used a trim piece removal tool to work a couple of them free along the bottom edge and the rest sort of pop off after that if you pull away from door. It's difficult to break these clips, they're more like oversized plastic thumbtacks with a grippy end. You start at the bottom and then move up along the trailing edge of the door with the front top (near the rearview mirror) last. The short cut way for this step? (courage required here). There's a little handhold near the front bottom corner of the door. Pull with a short, sharp pull and you'll hear the little retainers popping out/disengaging. I did this a bunch of times (5? 6?) and it worked every time. I found it a lot easier than blindly rooting around with a trim removal tool. Remember how you pulled it off though, because you do everything in reverse to get it back on.
Pics:
This is one of the many retaining clips. Some may even get dislodged, but as you can see, it's easy to pop it back in.

There's a little hand hold area here if you just want to pull the bottom interior door trim to disengage the clips along the bottom edge. 5. That's pretty much it. Once you dislodge the clips, the door trim is just held on at the top near the window edge. Pull up (starting at the back) and out the the whole thing just lifts right off. You can disconnect the lock mechanism and courtesy light wire pretty easily.

6. From here it's just a matter of disconnecting the wiring harness, unscrewing the four screws holding the speaker in place and voila! It's out! To be fair, the OEM speaker isn't bad. It's not great, but it's not the garbage paper cone stuff you find in some cars. But come on - we didn't buy our Lexuses for "not bad." Pics:
Stock speaker

Stock speaker next to the 6x9 JBL 3-ways already in their mounting bracket.

Not much to drive the bass in the OEM (left) though.

Hey look, some OEM soundproofing!

Just screw in the four screws and attach the wiring harness. 7. Now button everything back up. I actually found this to be harder than taking things apart, but that's the case with anything I take apart... Here's the thing to keep in mind: When putting the interior door trim back on, start at the top front corner, and you'll see that there's a natural slight bend (inward to the interior of the car) in the middle that helps to keep everything snug, so apply a little bit of pressure in the middle as you ease the entire top edge in from front to back. This provided quite a bit of frustration for me before I got the hang of it. (Also some momentary panic, but I eventually got it.) Top frustration: It didn't fit right the first few times, so some of those retaining clips kept popping off. They are very easy to put back in their holders so don't worry if it takes you a few times. You'll know when you've got that top edge in correctly because everything else (all the other clips at the outline of the door trim) fit/align perfectly.
8. Put those Phillips heads back in and pop in the trim pieces, then re-attach your battery and start it up.
9. Final panic moment? When I tried to start the car after the battery was reconnected, it didn't start the first time I pressed the button. This happened all five/six times I had to disconnect the battery. Not a big deal - it starts fine with the second press of the button. It takes about 20-30 seconds for everything to boot up again, but then you're all set.

10. Now about those dash speakers....

bc6152

Nice job. Thanks for the photos and narrative.

notabot

Replaced the rear door speakers over the weekend. The door assembly removal is exactly the same as the front door, down to the screw placement and everything. Parts are a little different: it only takes a 6 1/2" or 6 3/4 inch speaker, but the mounting bracket is off the shelf (Metra 82-8148), and the wiring harness is the same Toyota standard speaker wiring harness. Easy plug and play. I replaced with Infinity Reference 6502ix with the angled tweeters. As usual, the OEM speakers were not terribly impressive.
Stock speaker on the left, Infinity 6502ix in the bracket with harness attached on the right

Infinity on the left, OEM on the right

The only difficult part of the install was buttoning everything back up. Due to the length and angle of the top part of the interior door trim assembly, it took me a long time to get it clipped in properly. It was a real PITA where I faced more than a few moments of doubt and panic. BUT. I persevered (somehow) and when I figured out that the middle part can be "popped" in after the edge was set in properly, I was tremendously relieved.

So now I've replaced all the speakers: All three dash speakers, and all four door speakers. Is the sound better? YES. Much. Bass response is much improved and the highs are much cleaner and louder. Pavarotti sounds like he's sitting in my lap. Which would be gross and would hurt. Cause he was huge. And he's been dead for awhile. Or if you prefer, Drake sounds like he's right in my face. Which he probably wouldn't do, because...Canadian. Or, I feel like I'm actually at the Clapton unplugged performance. Anyway, with the upgrades, it's still not as good as a ML system (they just have more speakers and hence better staging), and the bass is still a weak point, but it's much much improved - even the bass.

So here are my takeaways: If you're looking to improve the sound, the easiest, cheapest way to do it is to replace those dash speakers. If you replace the door speakers, try to get speakers with angled tweeters, given the low mount. As has been stated before in the forums, fade to the front a notch or two. If you want better bass, get an aftermarket sub. I haven't done that yet and I'll take a few months to mull it over. If I do do it, I'll likely go with a powered woofer like a bazooka or a sound ordinance type thing (and maybe a bass restorer). I'm trying to keep everything looking as stock as possible, and I'm not looking to set off car alarms as I drive down the street.

Cheers

vncasanova

did you have to install an amp to power all these new speakers?

danj

following this one

hisstojay

Great work done.....!

djlehman

Is the sound output to the door and dash speakers full range or does is it processed toward lower frequencies for bass? I'm wondering because I would hate to get a 2 or 3-way door speaker if they are powered for bass only. In other words, I'm trying to figure out if I would be better off going with separates (6.5" mid in door, tweeter in dash) or just go full range on all speakers. No, I don't plan on adding an amp.

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

Are you sure you did you not lose some Bass? Any time Stock door speakers are replaced, some how its always a loss of bass in the doors compared to the stock speakers. Happens just about all the time for some reason.

mbrogers

Exactly as I installed a set of Alpine S-S65's 6.5's in my rear doors and they actually sounded worse than the Lexus stock speakers. After doing much research on speaker magnet size and the correlation to sound quality, I was surprised to learn the size of the magnet doesn't equal better sound. Needless to say I removed the Alpines and reinstalled my stock. Now, the reason for there being no improvement per my ears (actually the Alpine's were to crisp or too much treble) could be due to not adding an AMP on top of the stock amp (not sure how powerful the Lexus OEM amp is) but I'm not trying to go all out and drop mad money on upgrading the OEM system so I'll settle for the decent OEM sound.

jgscott

iTrader: (1)

I want to see what He says. On the fronts could be the 6x9 offset to provide more bass than the 6 1/2s in the front door. The rear would be more like your story.

Every time I've done a speaker only (factory to aftermarket) swap in a car, it looses noticeable Bass. Everytime. Maybe His set up is that 1 exception I would like to know.

notabot

Sorry for the late reply!
Good question. I haven't noticed any loss of bass to the doors - if anything the sound is fuller and can take more power/volume. As I'm sure you know, it's important that you maintain a good seal when mounting the aftermarket speaker. When I put my hand down by the speaker grill, I can definitely feel it moving air when I turn the volume up. Frankly, just the quality of the speakers is greatly improved going from OEM to aftermarket - even if you don't go high-end aftermarket - as you can see from the comparison pictures I posted.
Of course, the biggest problem we have on the ES is the bass - and that's the fault of the sad little subwoofer (and probably some sound processing) on the package shelf in the rear. I have yet to replace the subwoofer as I'm still working up the courage and trying to figure out what I can do with minimal customization and loss of trunk space (answer is probably: nothing). A stroller takes up a LOT of space and I need all the space that that trunk has.
Cheers!

swfla

iTrader: (1)

I've read that choosing replacement speakers with an efficiency of 91db or higher means they will likely play well with the stock amp. The sub will need it's own amp if upgrading.