Factory Tweeters and new speakers... 2003 ES

[Slash621]

I know im not an MSP but nobody seems to be answering over in the gen 3 ES forum. I wanted to see if you fellas had any ideas as to what i should do...



I purchased a new Clarion head unit and some infinity reference 6x8 front door speakers and 6x9 rear deck speakers.

While the 6x9 are fairly self explanatory, im having trouble with the front door speakers....

I'm worried mostly about the front door tweeters..

Here are my questions.

1. Can i run the factory tweeters with my new speakers connected to the same lines the old speakers were?
2. How does the wiring between the headunit and factory speakers go? I'm guessing its Head Unit, Crossover box, (Splits to speakers and tweeter).
3. Where is the crossover box if I need to disconnect it?
4. Has anyone bypassed the box and how would I go about setting up a direct path from the new speaker to the head unit using the factory harness as much as possible?

Please let me know, im a bit worried and frustrated and dont want to toast my new HU or speakers.

 

[hornsfan10609]

I didn't find a crossover when I installed my door speakers, I just hooked them up and left the stock tweeters alone. Sounds great.

 

[haveahotcarl]

I know im not an MSP but nobody seems to be answering over in the gen 3 ES forum. I wanted to see if you fellas had any ideas as to what i should do...



I purchased a new Clarion head unit and some infinity reference 6x8 front door speakers and 6x9 rear deck speakers.

While the 6x9 are fairly self explanatory, im having trouble with the front door speakers....

I'm worried mostly about the front door tweeters..

Here are my questions.

1. Can i run the factory tweeters with my new speakers connected to the same lines the old speakers were?
2. How does the wiring between the headunit and factory speakers go? I'm guessing its Head Unit, Crossover box, (Splits to speakers and tweeter).
3. Where is the crossover box if I need to disconnect it?
4. Has anyone bypassed the box and how would I go about setting up a direct path from the new speaker to the head unit using the factory harness as much as possible?

Please let me know, im a bit worried and frustrated and dont want to toast my new HU or speakers.

MSP or not, you have come to the right place. I realized I had never torn apart my door panels since I bought the car 4 years ago so after seeing your question I ventured on in.

1. Yes, you CAN hook up the factory tweeters to the same wires as they were on the factory 6x8s.
2. Wiring between the HU and speakers is pretty dirty, but nothing abnormal. The wiring goes straight from the HU to the speakers. There is no "crossover" in the sense of the aftermarket crossovers that I assume you are referring to. If you take a look at the attached picture my pick tool is pointing to the factory crossover. It is a simple capacitor sized to block the low frequencies; often referred to as a "passive" crossover. This meaning that the tweeter positive and negative are hooked up directly to the 6x8 positive and negative, respectively.
3. See answer to #2.
4. You can use 100% of the factory wiring, there are no crossovers or funny connections to worry about.

Plus, don't worry about toasting your HU or speakers. You would have to connect the HU's positive and negative speaker outputs together and hold them there to even get close to frying the HU. And, without an amp, it is pretty hard to kill speakers...except of course if you turn it up too loud and clip the HU amp...but that is a whole other can of worms I'm not going to open.