Adding door speakers - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

jeffm · 10-09-2013, 04:35 PM

After living with the dash only speakers for over 6 months, it is time to do something about the radio sound. The dash speakers were upgraded to Pioneers by the previous owner as well as a decent Pioneer single DIN head unit.

My issue is that my door panels do not have the factory cutout/grille for speakers. Upon visual inspection, it appears that the door panels with factory speakers are a different shape? If so, has anyone successfully added door speakers on the 986 that came without this factory option?

Prior to making any investments in the stereo, I'd like to confirm if I should purchase the factory door panels with the speaker grille. Or, can I just cut and add the mine existing ones?

Thanks
Jeff

jcb986 · 10-09-2013, 04:43 PM

You will need the plastic speaker holders that go in the door. Try the dismantles or the guys in Boxster Parts FS. You might get a deal from them. I think the wiring should be there.

The Radium King · 10-09-2013, 05:16 PM

wiring wont be there. cars without door speakers dont have the wiring in the harness that runs from the frame to the door. you can swap the harness (mucho work) or scab something in. door cards are a different shape, but you can easily mount aftermarket speakers in door panels that came without. note that the waterproof door liner is different also and will have to be changed (or a hole cut into it). if you go to ebay and search 'boxster door panel' lots of inexpensive options will come up.

jeffm · 10-09-2013, 06:02 PM

Hopefully 2 wires per door won't add up to too much work. In regards to the speaker "boxes" (in which the original door speaker mount into), I'm wondering if those will still fit without using the door panels that originally have speakers?

My thoughts were to just buy 2 new door panels with the OEM speaker grille and boxes. But these add up to at least $130 each for ones in good condition. I hate to drop $300 bucks in parts before I even purchase the speakers.

AKnowles · 10-09-2013, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffm

Hopefully 2 wires per door won't add up to too much work.

Forget that thought. Reason I say this is because I plan to pull 12ga wires to feed my 6.5" subwoofers. You have two choices:

A) Drill some holes through the frame and the door sill and pull the wires. You'll need some kind of loom to protect the wires and a way to make sure they don't cause a problem closing the door.

B) Pull the wires through the existing loom. Mine is fully populated, but has a connector and wires that are not in use. I removed that connector and plan to pull the wires through the remaining hole. I also plan to pull the existing wire harness, unwrap it, remove the extraneous wires form the old speaker plus the unused connector and then rewrap it.

I chose option B because it is the cleanest install. Plus it uses the stock method of routing and protecting the wires without causing any door clearance issues.

As for mounting, I'd suggest forgetting about buying stock covers. It'll be a lot easier to fabricate a mounting plate and use the supplied speaker covers that come with whatever speaker you buy.

jeffm · 10-10-2013, 03:54 AM

The more I look into this, it appears it may best best to replace the door wire harness with one that has factory speakers. eBay has a ton, but I'm not sure what the proper pins are for the factory speaker wires.

Attached is the pin out from the factory wiring harness for the Passenger Side door. Can anyone confirm the pin numbers that are used for speakers?

Thanks

urban · 10-10-2013, 04:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffm

My thoughts were to just buy 2 new door panels with the OEM speaker grille and boxes. But these add up to at least $130 each for ones in good condition. I hate to drop $300 bucks in parts before I even purchase the speakers.

This is in my project list too for the next months. I wont buy new door panels, just make a hole to put 6.5 inch speakers. I saw a Boxster with the round speakers without the factory mounts and I liked it. What I don't know is if I need to make some enclosures to put on the back of the speakers.

Please post your progress, as there aren't many posts about this.

urban · 10-10-2013, 04:43 AM

Oh, and btw, did you already choose the speakers? I'm thinking about getting something a little bit cheaper than Focal, but I really want to have good sound quality.

jeffm · 10-10-2013, 05:48 AM

I haven't even begun to look for the speakers yet...just doing some data collection. If I can figure out the pin out/harness, then I'll go ahead with the project.
My thoughts are to use some good quality 6.5" 2 way speakers. As I'll have to use the speaker grills from the manufacturer, I want to make sure aesthetically the grilles look nice.
I'm sure an enclosure would make a definite improvement, but I don't think I'll go to that extent. Anything would have to be an improvement over not having speakers at all. As most of my cruising is top down, my expectations of sound quality is not what it would be if it was an enclosed coupe.

The Radium King · 10-10-2013, 06:03 AM

if you buy the harness you can find the wires intended for the speakers and trace them back to the connector - that will tell you which pins on the body side are for the speakers (note that the car is not wired for door speakers on the body side either). then you'll have to find the little bosch pins to insert on the body side connector to run the wires to your dash speakers - for what it's worth they are the same as the pins on the rear defroster wiring harness. ps, confirm that you get the proper harness as there are many variants out there (search thr online parts cstalog on auto atlanta to see). final warning is that wreckers dont take a lot of care to remove these things so expect a lot of broken plastic tabs, connectors, etc.

jeffm · 10-10-2013, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Radium King

if you buy the harness you can find the wires intended for the speakers and trace them back to the connector - that will tell you which pins on the body side are for the speakers (note that the car is not wired for door speakers on the body side either). then you'll have to find the little bosch pins to insert on the body side connector to run the wires to your dash speakers - for what it's worth they are the same as the pins on the rear defroster wiring harness. ps, confirm that you get the proper harness as there are many variants out there (search thr online parts cstalog on auto atlanta to see). final warning is that wreckers dont take a lot of care to remove these things so expect a lot of broken plastic tabs, connectors, etc.

Yeah, that's why I was hoping someone could confirm the pinout. The wrecker could not verify if this specific harness was from a vehicle that had door speakers.

Thanks for the tip on the wire pins.

j.fro · 10-10-2013, 07:59 AM

My thoughts were to just buy 2 new door panels with the OEM speaker grille and boxes

I would delete this idea. The largest speakers you can get in the factory boxes are 5" round. Even if you are using the factory stereo and amp, a 6.5" or 6X9 will sound much better. For the factory stuff, I think you need 2ohm speakers to work properly. Infinity Kappa's will work with the factory stuff and sound nice.

jeffm · 10-11-2013, 04:12 AM

update:

Yesterday I purchased the door wiring harnesses that have the speaker wires. Once these are delivered, I can then look into what wires exist or need to be added from the body/chassis side. I'm hoping they exist, but I'm sure they don't so I'll have to figure out what would be needed to wire that up.
Once I pull the door panels off, I can then determine what size door speakers will work. I'm wondering if I could just mount the 6.5" speakers to the door panel or if I would have to fabricate a mount on the inner door to hold. As the plastic of the door panel feels pretty substantial, I'm hoping that will work.

As all of this will require to gut a lot of the doors and dash to work on, I may delay this project a few weeks. The weather is absolutely beautiful here and I'd hate to take the car off the road and not enjoy the top down.

The Radium King · 10-11-2013, 02:28 PM

what door panels do you have? if you have the sport design interior (ie, with the diamond pattern black vinyl) then i'd be willing to trade you for the same cards but with 6" speakers installed (looking to delete the stereo to lose some weight).

jeffm · 10-11-2013, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Radium King

what door panels do you have? if you have the sport design interior (ie, with the diamond pattern black vinyl) then i'd be willing to trade you for the same cards but with 6" speakers installed (looking to delete the stereo to lose some weight).

Standard pebble texture in black.

Dave S. · 10-12-2013, 06:03 AM

My 2003 had the cheap stereo package with only the dash speakers. Worst sounding stereo ever delivered in a high end car.
I had a local stereo shop install a new head unit, amp (with cross overs for the component speakers, upgraded dash speakers and component door speakers to my car. They actually didn't install speaker boxes in the doors, but I did go ahead and dynamat the doors instead (you can buy it really cheap on-line). I think it sounds great the way it is now. I can drive 65 mph with the top down and enjoy the music. My components used 6.5 inch woofers. I'm sure I'll get flamed by some audiophiles here, but in my opinion adding door speaker boxes is a waste of time and something you could do later if you don't like the way it sounds. Afterall it is a convertible with limited space and is only going to sound so good no matter what.
I expect that some folks will think this ruined the factory look, but I didn't care about that. It will not affect the resale value of this car, as I believe most people would rather have a nice stereo than would appreciate the factory look.