This is by no means a 100% all inclusive installation manual, but it should guide someone trying to do this for themselves. I had to do some mods and fabrication, so if this is scary, stop reading
REAR DOOR INSTALLATION
Here’s the car before speaker surgery. The rear doors first:
These are the speakers. For me, Polk makes some of the best speakers for the money. They were bought at Crutchfield.com and cost me $199 for the db6501 series for the front, then db651's ($49, as they were 1/2 price) for the rear. I chose the coax speakers because I did not want to drill a hole in the door for a component tweeter:
These are some of the tools (I would grab more, because I did not know what to expect). Anyway, the foam on the left is old packing foam. I used a few chunks inside the door to absorb some sound. The Metra mounts that Crutchfield sent are next to the foam. Of course they do not work, but more on that later:
The first step is to remove this plate. There’s a slot for a screwdriver on the top. I suggest putting some tape over it so you do not ruin the plastic. Just a pry up and it will snap out.
Here’s one of three screws that secure the door:
The instructions from Crutchfield say to pry this piece off, exposing two screws. Well, you really can’t pry this off like this picture shows.
To get this piece off, you need to use a covered screwdriver and pry a little on the top. This will expose a tab on the top right of the handle cover. Once exposed, then pry forward and it will come off. Not really easy, but it does pop out:
In this shot, you can see the screw at the bottom of the door handle. There’s one hidden underneath that I am pointing to, along with the screw by the door handle.
I didn’t have a fancy pry tool, so I used my brain and got a golf divot repair tool out of my golf bag. As long as it’s plastic, it will work. Do not use metal, as you’ll chip the paint. Just go around the outer edge. Once an area pops, you can put your fingers behind it and pull around the edges.
This is not a good picture, so forgive me. The cables for the door lock and handle are here, underneath a door. You have to lift it off (this shows it open). Just pull the cables up at the grommet attaching it (on the right). Once you do that, the cable comes off after pulling it a little to the left and lifting it out of the carrier (it is a ball end, sitting in a recess on the lock and handle).
Here’s the power door lock wire connector. Just wiggle it up and out. Once that’s done, just lift the door panel up and out. Be sure you set it somewhere that will not get it scratched up.
Here’s the factory speaker; quite pathetic if you ask me. The thing weighs about 5 ounces, and I wouldn’t give this thing to anyone. Note the three hole locations. There’s a cardboard surround that lets the speaker touch the door panel. I thought I would need it. You’re better off not trying to pry it off, as you’ll destroy the speaker and the cardboard is useless.
This is the back of the speaker. I show this because I saw water on the back of the connectors, and rust as well. Apparently, Subaru does not seal the doors real well, so they designed a rain shield above the speakers. When hooking this up, I assumed the red striped wire was positive.
Here’s the new speaker, the Polk DB651. To the left of the speaker is a foam ring that comes with it. This is needed when mounting the speaker to the bracket. Oh, the bracket. After going to an auto parts store here (and finding nothing), I took my saber saw to work and cut some mounts from some packing crate wood. ¾ inch plywood. It does not look pretty, but it works.
I drilled pilot holes on the wood using the foam ring, and mounted the speaker to the mount. Once again, not pretty, but it worked great.
The screws that were included with the speaker worked to mount it on the bracket. But to mount it on the door, I used 1 ½ inch wood screws, as they dug into the plastic screw supports just fine. All wire connections were sealed with electrical tape. The wire harness from Crutchfield was not correct for the rear door. The one for the front does work.
From that point, I placed some foam in the recess above the speaker and put the door panel back on. I didn’t take pictures of the panels, but it looks like a car door. And the sound is much better. I don’t know about those that did this and say it sounds terrible, but I think it’s a huge improvement over factory. The key is to jam some foam into the door so it doesn’t rattle. You can also use Dynamat, but hat is a bit expensive.
See the next thread for the front door. But refer to this for door panel removal......
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