Loaned my 2003 GX to my son for prom and it came back with a bad sounding woofer in the driver's side door, I hate rap music even worse now. Anyway, can I just buy a used levinson speaker for this vehicle, remove the door panel and replace the unit? Thanks for your help. Ed

 

Removing the door panel and replacing the speakers is easy - I had to replace both front door woofers in mine.

I wouldn't be too hard on your son - the Levinson speakers are not all that impressive. When I removed mine, the surrounds on the speakers were completely disintegrated.

I looked all over the place trying to find an aftermarket replacement in the right size and impedance, but wasn't successful. Had to bit the bullet and buy a pair from Sewell Lexus.

 

"not all that unimpressive" is an understatement. I'd say they are complete $h!t.

Now what do I do? I read somewhere that those 6x9s are 8 ohm, therefore not even car speakers. I say that because car systems run at 4 ohm, 2 or in some rare cases at 1 I guess ML had to bridge a whole bunch of home grade speakers in the system to compensate for the amount of 13 speakers and a cheap amp that wouldn't run at low ohms.

Does any one know where to get cheap 8 ohm 6x9s?

 

I also suspect that I have some damaged drivers in my ML front doors. I was doing some research on replacements for the 6x9s and here is the best solution I could find... Using a 6x9 to 5.25"/6.5" adapter opens up many more 8 ohm possibilities then looking for a true 6x9.

I am looking at the Vifa NE149W-08 which is made by Peerless. They do have some cheaper options as well. I'm just a little worried about mounting depth, if anybody has a depth measurement of the stock speaker the info would be appreciated.

 

Should not be a big deal. I have replaced all the door speakers in my car along with the subwoofer in the back. The doors are easy. The sub in the back was the hard one. The enclosure is a parcular shape that requires some fabercation.

 

Ok, after searching for any reasonably priced 6x9s that would run at 8 ohm, I decided to take DIY approach, trying fixing the old junk that came with the car. So, I went out and bought a couple of 6x9 foam surrounds some glue and a hobby knife from a local surplus store. $22 total bill. So far so good, I hope the glue will hold up, after it dries

 

Guy in case you haven't heard try this web site...... for $40 per spearker, plus shipping simply speakers will do a high quality job on reparing your speaker gaskest! I've used them to do both my mids on my sc40 and the sub woofer and mid on my ls430.... NO PROBLEMS!!!!
Try it................... here's the link!

http://www.simplyspeakers.com/speaker-refoaming.html

 

I did this repair last year and it's been holding up great. Doubt I'll see the torn surrounds again. The aftermarket replacement is far better quality.

 

Agree those stock speakers are awful, if your tight on $$ agree just get it replaced/repaired. Although for the money just pull the speakers out and have them replaced with something decent that will last.

 

Just fixed the second blown 6x9 in my wife's car. Damn, this ML thing is getting annoying. This time it cost me only $3 for the foam as I had the glue and the knife left from the previous repair. Something tells me there will be more to come... BTW, Can I replace the 6x9s with the round 5.5 or similar size? I found a couple of cheap 8ohm circle ones.

 

They do make 6x9 adapters to mount either a 5.5 or 6.5 in a 6x9 opening. The only concern would be depth of the 5.5/6.5 speaker with the adapter in place, and clearance between the speaker and door panel. This is the route I will go, replacing the 6x9 with 5.5 -- when I get around to it.