Continued...

Here are the OEM Door Speakers:

Once Removed, remove the wires to the cones, rip out the cone foam surround, and clip off the arms attaching the basket and magnet to the trim ring and jack with large wire cutters. Clip off the ring around the very top of the speaker next to the foam surround so the new speaker can be placed on top of where the old cone was. See the photos of the OEM speaker next to the new JBL. I used a high temp glue stick in my glue gun to attach the speakers, wires, and cross overs.

This is the basket and magnet I cut off:

I used what was left of the OEM speakers as mounting rings for the new speakers. I soldered wires to the integrated jacks and ran them to the crossovers on the new speakers, and glued the crossover to the bottom edge of the speaker magnet. Be careful to attach low and on what will be the bottom of the speaker. The window comes down a little over halfway down the magnet and will hit the crossover if you attach it too high or anywhere but the bottom. Also the rings will only fit one way due to the pins on them.

Once done there is no sign the were replaced except for the clear, full range sound you get.

 

Altima 2013 Front Dash Speaker Install

Altima 2013 Front Dash Speaker Install:

If you are going to keep the factory Radio or Navigation system, you’ll need 2 Ohm speakers to maintain the volume and quality since the factory system is build for 2 Ohm speakers, not 4 or 8 ohm. I found Infinity and JBL offer speakers that work as direct replacements. I choose the following for my install:
JBL P662S 6.5” Shallow Mount 2 Ohm Speakers For Doors (~$88 Amazon)
JBL P963 6x9 2 Ohm Speakers for Rear Deck (~$130 Amazon)
JBL GTO18T Tweeters For Dash (~$65 Amazon) {little bright, might prefer P26T Tweeter or GTO 329 for a two way}
Infinity BassLink Powered Sub (~$199 Crutchfield) I had this all ready from my previous car .


First you will need to pull the door Jam rubber seal away from the front piller covers that are between the windshield and side window.

The Pillar covers just snap on, but are also attached with a catch that prevents the plastic from hitting you when the airbag is deployed. I was not able to remove these, but they have just enough play so you can get the front clips out of the speaker covers without totally removing them.
Now the cover should just pop off, but the light sensor (If you have auto headlights) will keep them from just pulling off.

The speakers are held on with three screws and a plastic stud in the 4th hole. Just remove the three screws and pull the speaker up, disconnect the speaker wire jack.

I used a large flat head screw driver to pry off the magnet and removed the flex wire to the cone from the speaker jack. I then ripped out the driver, surround, and voice coil as well, just leaving the empty basket.

I then used hot glue to attach the new tweeter to the basket and soldered the crossover to the tweeter and jack, be sure to connect to the jack and not after the Cap they used as a filter.

Now reinstall everything and you are set!

 

Awesome info. Thanks again for the detailed write up.

 

Wow, kudos for taking on a big project! I've done a few installs but not as intricate (cutting brackets) as yours. I tend to break tabs here and there so i think im just going to start with a sub like you have. Thanks again for the write up!

 

Yes, nice post. According to crutchfield these adapter rings will work in the door if you don't want to cut the stock ones.

Metra 82-3412 Speaker Mounting Brackets Fits select 1998-up vehicles — adapters for installing 5-1/4" or 6-1/2" speakers at Crutchfield.com

 

If you sent me your current OEM speakers, and then had the new ones delivered to me, I'd do the modification for you, $50 for all six speakers (it does take some time). You would also need to pay the shipping for me to send you the completed, ready to drop in, speakers. Just thought I'd offer that option if you don't think the work is your thing.

 

Thats a very kind offer! Im going to see how the sub deal works out for me first, then i'll decide if im going to swap out my other seperate speakers. Thanks again for the offer though.

 

For more photos showing the modification of the trim rings, see my post in the Juke forums with an almost identical speaker:

2012 Juke Door Speaker Upgrade

 

OP-Great write-up

you can also buy something like this if you don't want to tear up your current speakers....6½" 6.5 6 1/2 6.75 Nissan Infiniti Speaker Mount Plates Adapters Brackets Ring | eBay

 

I thought about using something like that, but then I would have needed to cut the factory wires and find a place to run them into the door. I wish I could have found a jack for the factory plug, then I migh have gone that route. I guess if you're running new wire and amps it would not matter.

 

I found these speakers with 2 ohm.
6.5 P662 and GTO638, which is better for sound? Can GTO638 fit in front door of Nissan Altima?

for 6x9, which one is better? GTO938 vs P963..

Thanks.

 

do you mean something like this?
NISSAN INFINITI 2004-UP Speaker Harness Adapter Connector | eBay

I just cut the factory harness off and crimped on these things:

Your install looks great though, I'm just trying to give others options incase they wanted to keep their factory speakers intact (just incase they plan on reselling or returning leased car).

 

Yeah, that ebay item looks really close, but the pins do look like they are slightly further towards the center. I was told by Crutchfields that they are different and the older ones do not fit my car, still it looks really, really close. Almost makes me want to try it, lol. Doesn't make sense to change it to something so close and not have it be the same.

I know most just cut the factory wires, but I didn't want to cut the factory wires. Also if my Nav Stereo ever fails, it's not cheap. So I might buy the factory speakers and put them back if I'm worried they would try to blame the failure on the speakers and not uphold the warranty. That's also one reason why I went with the same rating speaker.

 

I have the SV with nav and i am very disappointed in the audio. Not convinced changing the speakers will help. Before you changed out everything, did it sound "tinny" kinda like listening to a mono source in an abandoned warehouse? My XM sounds the worst. The XM in my Z going through a FM modulator sounds better. The FM sounds better. CD is not that great either. Really worried it is the headunit and not the speakers.

Is anyone elses XM terrible quality?

 

To me it sounds 100% better, though XM is not as good as it should be, I'll give you that. Not having XM before I don't have much to go on, but it sounds over compressed to me, like a very low sampled MP3. The original speakers had no High's, no Lows, and very muddy and dull everything else. My previous system was a $1500 Clairion Navagation system with about 200 RMS .005 THD watts to Infinity Kappas and the same Sub. To me the Altima comes amazingly close for what it is, and I kinda like the JBL speakers better. It's not the same as with the amp power, but it does sound very good. It lacks some of the power and clarity, but I'm happy with it, and is so, soooo much better then the stock speakers. I just could not be happy at all with the stock speakers or even the Bose speakers.

 

I just installed new speakers in my new 2013. I was wondering if you have tried taking rear door panel? I was wondering if we have speaker wires in there. I know we don't have speakers. I would want to put some Polk MM651's in there as well. Also did anyone figure out the speaker wire diagram? which wire is + and which is -.

 

There is no speakers or wire in the rear doors on the non bose systems. It is easy to run speaker wires through the rubber boots btw. The speaker wiring in this car is very weird. I used a test light on the door and trunk speakers and was getting a signal on both wire lead of every speaker. I cant explain how this design works....

 

I found out that front door speakers.

green wire is your positive wire.
white wire is your negative wire.

My both front passenger and driver side had the same color. Now I have to figure out the dash and rear speakers polarity.

 

To the OP: You said you used P622s speakers in the front doors. I just want to make sure, before I order anything, that you meant P662s? I don't see a P622s on JBL's website.

 

You are correct, it's P662s, I'm amazed no one caught this before! thanks, it's been updated.

 

Probably very few are as anal-retentive as I am. By the way, thanks for the great write-up!

 

westly197, a couple questions:

1. So you can't mount the speaker in the front door using just the holes on the speaker basket? That's what I've done on nearly every other vehicle that I've replaced speakers on. But it looks like you're saying that you've got to trim the plastic mounting bracket off of the OEM speaker and glue it onto the new speaker in order to get it mounted in the holes in the Altima door.

2. How much do you expect sound quality to improve if I only replaced the front door speakers? Or if I only replaced the front door and rear deck speakers but left the OEM tweeters? Do I really have to replace them all or will I see incremental improvements with each replacement?

Thanks in advance!

 

You probably could mount it to the door metal, but there would be several consequences to doing so, as I've detailed. Even with the approximately 1 inch thick spacer and the shallow speaker, the window seems to get pretty close the the large maginet on the speaker. The plastic door panel has foam and a formed surround that is made to seal up against the speaker, but without the 1 inch spacer, there would be an air gap of about 1 inch. Since there are open places on the metal inner door, it would be like placing the speaker inside a speaker box versus sealing it in the hole, which would effect the sound and bass response. Lastly, is the electrical and having to hack up the factory wires rather then just having it plug in, but that's more up to you. I didn't want to alter the car at all and no one had the proper adapter plug available for sale when I last checked. That's why I utilized the old speakers for the jacks.

I feel there is a big quality improvement with the new speakers, but the stock tweeters don't do well at all and your leg tends to block a lot of the high frequency's from the door speakers. The "tweeters" on the dash are not really tweeters, so they made a big differance opening up the sound, but it will still sound a lot better with just the door speakers. You will see an incremental improvement with each set of speakers. If you like your music "bright" and clear, the tweeters will be more important.

 

That makes sense. Thanks again.

 

snip.....

Next you need to remove the cover under the door handle, I had no luck and even pulled the handle off my tool trying. This is when I decided to just pull up the panel enough to access the screws without removing the door panel rather then risking breaking something. If you do remove the panel, email me the photos!

...snip

I'm in the process of putting Alpine SPS-610 speakers in the doors with the Ebay adapter rings. I don't have your email address to send you the pics but here is a link to the album where I have the pics I took of the passenger (right) side with my phone.

Altima_door Photos by wylee75 | Photobucket

 

I see now what my problem was, do you mind if I use some of your photos to update my posts?

 

Am i the only one not seeing the pics? They were there a couple of days ago and now that i came back to take another look they arent here.

 

Sorry guys, I got a few too many hits on my posts and went over the hosting site limit. My new allotment starts on the 10th of the month I believe, so after that, all my photos should be back. Sorry for any inconvenience...

 

Oh ok. It's all good man. I appreciate you even tackling this project and throwing up all of the info.

 

Sorry to ask this, but it looks like nobody is asking/talking about
the center of the dash single speaker where is an empty hole.
What kind of speaker can we add there, is that hole pre-wired?

Any info on that would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

The center is the same as the other front speakers as far as I know. Cars, like mine, that did not come with a center speaker, don't have wiring to that location. I would not add a speaker there if your stereo does not have processing for a center speaker as it would destroy the imaging of the sound if you tried to run a left or right channel to it. I'm not sure what sounds would be sent to the center, but it would make sense to send midrange vocals, so you would want a speaker to match. Perhaps someone with the BOSE system with the center speaker can give us some feedback as to what the system sends to that speaker? A photo?

 

Westly197,

Thanks for your great posts on installing speakers. I just finished installing the front door and dash speakers. Two things that I would suggest / modify:

You said that the JBL P26T Tweeters would be a good substitute for the right and left dashboard speakers... DON'T USE THESE!!!!!! The crossover that comes with these speakers is relatively large ( 2 inches by 2 inches by about 1 inch thick). You cannot glue these onto the speaker housing as this assembly won't fit in the space. I ended up using about 8" of wire from the speaker housing (where the plug from the car attaches) to the crossover, and then 8" from the crossover to the speaker itself, and tucked the crossover next to the speaker (in the space where the auto headlight sensor is).

Also, I was able to remove the pillar covers completely (I had a similar issue with my previous car... but the tweeter were IN the pillar covers). The pillar covers are attached to the car with two green tabs... the tabs are "horizontal" as they go into the covers. There is also a horizontal slot where the tab attaches. If you grab the tab with a needle nose pliers and gently twist it 90 degrees ( from "horizontal" to "vertical") the tab will release from the cover. To reinstall, do the same thing... twist the tab vertically and you will be able to insert it back into the slot.

Thanks

Don