Front speaker upgrade

55Difficulty5Tools required5Time required5Price

A few points: Firstly, this will only work with normal 13cm speakers (ie not components), as components are too deep and get in the way of the window. Secondly and more importantly, please do not do this expecting amazing sound and mega bass from your new door speakers. You will never get mega bass out of some 13cm car speakers. Although you will hear an improvement compared to the standard paper speakers.

Parts required

• Set of 13cm speakers
• Set of original Metro door speakers
• 8 screws
• Fat blade and phillips screwdriver
• Pliers
• Chisel
• Knife

Fitting steps

1. After removing the door pocket and speaker, take your standard Metro speakers and bend round the metal clips. I used a flat blade screwdriver to prise them up and some pliers to straighten them out. Once you've straightened the clips, you will probably find that the speaker still won't come out, due to also being glued in. Get a knife and go round the inside of the speaker so it's loose. Remove speaker from grille. Do the same for the other side. You should now have two empty grilles.
   
     
2. Next the messy part: get a chisel (I used a wood chisel because it was laying around, feel free to improvise), and chop out the plastic grilles. Advise caution due to the fact that the entire thing is only thin plastic, but saying that, I've found that they're pretty sturdy.
   
   
3. Get your new speakers. You will see that they will sit perfectly on top of where the grille used to be. Use the holes where the clips used to be to screw in your speakers. It does sound crude, but it does work!
   
     
4. Mount back into car and plug in.
   
     
5. Available from any good in car entertainment store (i.e. Halfords) you should be able to find the Rover to aftermarket speaker adapter wires as shown in the picture below to save any cutting and soldering of the original loom which is a pain. Fords also use these speaker wire adapters.
   
   
6. Mount back into car and plug in.

Other ideas are to make custom door builds using wooden base plates or filler to construct a pod or mounting. These can give good results but require more time and expertise.

To improve the sound quality further it is recommended to use Dynamat \ Silent Coat to deaden the door panels, which prevents rattling. This will, however require the door card and associated door furniture to be removed during the process.