How to - A3 2004 sportback speaker replacement

[thesaint08]

I am not knowledgeable about all the different speaker combinations in the A3, so this guide is for those whom have a set up exactly like mine. I have a 54 plate Audi A3 quattro with a concert head unit.

It's not going to be an exhaustive "How-to", but hopefully there's enough to get you through.


I am replacing the stock Blaupunkt speakers in the front, which consists of a midrange in the door, and a tweeter in the A pillar.



I have purchased a pair of 6.5" component speakers for the front, and a pair of 6.5" coaxial speakers for the rear.








The speakers need adaptors to fit in the door.







The red connectors are used on both the + and - terminals, so no need for the blue ones:






The door card needs to be removed. There is a thread on the forum on how to do it, so I am not going to spend too much time on this part.
The boxes are where the torx screws are.


There is a difference on my car than the one in the guide, on my car there is no chrome strip. The torx screw at the top of the door is behind the cover. I am yet to do the drivers side, so yet to find any differences that may be there:


http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/how-to-door-card-removal.77472/






Whilst I was at it, I fitted some sound deadening sheets. This is of course optional:






First thing I did was to sound deaden the speaker collar.







Then fit the speaker to it. The fixings are supplied.







Then it's time to remove the speaker from the front door, and the A pillar.


It's pretty self explanatory. The midrange in the door is held on by torx screws. The tweeter in the A pillar is clipped in.











While the door card is off, it's time to add sound deadening. It's of course optional. Some can be added through the speaker aperture, the majority through the aperture (black plastic cover needs unclipping) where the door handle cable goes through from the door card to the inside of the door.











The next thing to do is to cut off the connector that went into the old speaker. The exposed wires are going to be connected to the input of the crossover unit with either block connectors,.

 

[thesaint08]

Now it's the hard bit.


We now have the crossover unit that is going to supply the sound to the midrange in the door, and the sound to the tweeter in the A pillar. The speaker wire supplied with the crossover appears to be too short to reach the tweeter position, so I joined some more so that it reached without a struggle. The crossover unit will be attached to the inside of the outer door skin with the supplied double sided tape.



The speaker wire needs to go through the door boot that carries the cables from the door to the main cabin.


It unclips on the door side. You have to get it from inside through the speaker aperture, as there are four tabs that prevent you from simple levering it out with a screwdriver without stripping the tabs off







The cabin side unclips, and then the wires plug out.











Then it's time to get the tweeter wire from the door to the tweeter aperture. I used a wire coat hanger for this part. I used a combination of insulation tape and garden wire to attach the speaker wire to the coat hanger.







In this picture, I have removed the grommet from in the door jamb:







There is a grommet in the tweeter aperture, that needs to be removed.







Then it's time to get the coat hanger through the speaker aperture down through the post to the hole in the door jamb:



















Then pull the speaker wire back up through, and then replace the door boot.


I will probably take a Dremel to the door boot so that it will sit flush, and be water tight.







Then it's time to replace the tweeter.


The old one can be unclipped from the housing. Push the tab in, and twist to remove











Then the new tweeter can be put in. I glued it into position with a little glue in 4 places where the housing grabs the tweeter:











Then it's time to connect it up to the speaker wire that was pulled through, and then put everything back together. Don't forget to slit the grommets so that you can pull the speaker wire through.
The old speaker wire is just left in behind the old speaker with the original connector still attached, as it is not needed.



Once I did the front, the rears were really easy to do. I didn't replace the tweeter in the rear doors, just kept the stock one, and took out the midrange and replaced it with a coaxial speaker.



I won't detail it all, as it is much the same process as the front, without the annoyance of pulling speaker wire through. I did find that you need a few inches of speaker wire though, as there is absolutely no play in the stock set up once you have cut the connector off.



Thanks to Sayam who gave me a lot of advice in order for me to get this done.

 

[Sayam]

Great write up!

 

[shadow1993]

Great Write up!

1 question though, was it worth it quality wise to upgrade the tweeters? I have a completely custom sound build apart from the tweeters and im wondering if its worth the hassle?

 

[Sayam]

The tweeter is the first thing to do!

 

[milkyjoe01]

No photo of the new speaker attached before refitting the door card? Do 6.5” speakers go straight in (with adaptor of course) & can you just replace the speaker only & use the existing wiring loom, with new connectors, for both the door & tweeter instead of doing the wiring mod. that was done?