Since I got my Jeep in February of 2011, I have gone through 2 pairs of speakers in the front doors. The first aftermarket set I put in were the basic 50 dollar Kenwoods that Best Buy sells. They were not getting the job done, I returned those about a month ago and got a set of kicker 6inch speakers. Those lasted for 2 and a half weeks for some reason.

So when I heard it pop and then turn into sounding horrible I said to myself, what did I do wrong? There's no way these speakers should be blown this early, my Alpines in the back are still perfect and these supposedly have a better rms rating.

So today I returned the kickers to Best Buy and picked up a set of Polk Audio DXI 650. 1) These were rated as the best sounding speakers at best Buy and ABC Warehouse. 2) from what i was told these speakers are salt water and marine tested even though they are meant for just regular cars. Their rating at 100rms on the Best Buy shelf tag turned me on. 3) With the fact I have a cherokee that probably has a water leak somewhere in the door I figured this was a good buy.

So I also picked up a package of speaker wire at Meijer (Michigans Walmart or aka the company that battles Walmart in the mid west), basically I'm making this thread to explain how to run fresh speaker wire and how to install the speakers in the door with cutting out the grille on the door. Sorry if someone else made this type of thread, I just wanted to shed light on how to do this because my expertise is car audio.

Step One,

Obviously you need to remove the panel by taking off the screws and pulling the panel via the clips off the door. Then you remove the screws that are in the speaker whether it is stock or an aftermarket one.



Step Two,

Take the radio out and disconnect the wires that are connected from the harness to the radio. I disconnected these and then connected fresh speaker wire to the ones coming off of my radio that were grey and grey with a black mark as well as the ones labeled for passenger.



Step Three,

Run the wires along through and under the dash along the wires that came stock. Then when you remove the trim piece by the hood release you tap into the grommet that goes into the door. You make a slight cut to be able to get in there. I had to play with the wires to get it into there and then use another wire to pull it through and into the door.



If you look here you can see the fresh speaker wire being run into the grommet.

Step Four,

I held off on connecting the new speaker to do something else that i hadn't really seen anyone do. I tried to put the new speaker in and door panel in, but with the Polk Audio Speaker the middle piece of the speaker which I believe is the tweeter stuck out too much. I began to trim my door panel.



This is prior to me beginning the cuts, after I finished the install on one door, I figured it'd pry be a good idea to make a post about this while I'm eating dinner.

Step Five,

After I trimmed out the grille I kept comparing it to the cover for the speaker and making sure that the hole was good enough. I may even have to trim it a little bit so it sits better, but it worked out.



Thats the finished product, but if anyone has any questions I'd be willing to help explain it better. I have no idea how to submit a write up so I did it this way.

 

Never know when it might come in handy. Thanks

 

If I didn't want to run new wires, just put new speakers in the stock spots, how simple would it be?

 

The stock speakers have a clip-style connection so your going to have to cut off the clip and connect/crimp/solder (whatever your preference) new connections on. thats what i did at first, but then one of my speaker wires shorted out so i had to run new wire. Now my other one is doing it as well so i have to run new wire again.