Are the front component speaker replacements THAT difficult to do properly on the Type R?

[spdmn75]

yes I would primer and paint after cutting, no reason not to. The strength of the mount comes from that rolled edge.

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[bikejog]

what did you use to cut the door frame so cleanly? That is really really clean. I purchased the Ai HS526 mounts b/c those apparently are the stock fit mount rings but since the door has to be cut does it mean the adapter ring I have is no longer useful?

A metal nibbler can be used to make precision sheet metal cuts. I was gonna use a manual one like the one showed below, but ended up didn't need to cut any metal. The one showed below is very labor intensive.

There are at least two types of ring adapters on Amazon. Some fit better than the others. I think (not 100% sure) I used the ones that came in a combo deal with the spk terminal adapter for $12.

If you don't care about the rotational orientation of the mid-ranges, then there's a chance that your ES165 will fit without cutting sheet metal because my 165 KR fit without cutting and yours are kinda similar in size. Just mount the adapter ring and rotate the speaker until you find a fit. Chances are you'll have to drill mounting holes into the ring adapter and that's what I had to do. My speaker terminal is pointed at about 2-o'clock if I remember correctly. I used silicon grease and/or speaker gasket tape to cover the terminals to prevent moisture. A word of caution when you rotate the speaker around the ring is to make sure you know where the speaker terminals are at all times or you could accidentally hit them against the bumpy part of the oem hole and potentially damage them.

Use speaker gasket tapes where different surfaces meet and use 1/2 of the rain baffle on top to shield out the rain.

 

[stevescivic]

A metal nibbler can be used to make precision sheet metal cuts. I was gonna use a manual one like the one showed below, but ended up didn't need to cut any metal. The one showed below is very labor intensive.

There are at least two types of ring adapters on Amazon. Some fit better than the others. I think (not 100% sure) I used the ones that came in a combo deal with the spk terminal adapter for $12.

If you don't care about the rotational orientation of the mid-ranges, then there's a chance that your ES165 will fit without cutting sheet metal because my 165 KR fit without cutting and yours are kinda similar in size. Just mount the adapter ring and rotate the speaker until you find a fit. Chances are you'll have to drill mounting holes into the ring adapter and that's what I had to do. My speaker terminal is pointed at about 2-o'clock if I remember correctly. I used silicon grease and/or speaker gasket tape to cover the terminals to prevent moisture. A word of caution when you rotate the speaker around the ring is to make sure you know where the speaker terminals are at all times or you could accidentally hit them against the bumpy part of the oem hole and potentially damage them.

Use speaker gasket tapes where different surfaces meet and use 1/2 of the rain baffle on top to shield out the rain.

that is awesome news! I want to avoid cutting my car doors if at all possible. It's actually a Type R so if I can do as little modification to it as possible then that is the preferred route. Thank you for sharing!

 

[aerodynamics]

This won’t help since you already have the speakers but what I learned from recently doing an install in my Honda Fit (which has an identical speaker opening) is that depth really isn’t the issue like most people seem to be concerned about, it’s the shape of that damn opening.

I didn’t want to cut metal either so what I ended up doing was going a size down to 5-1/4.” You may be able to get away with your Focals but what you need to do is measure the diameter of the opening and the speaker basket. If the basket is bigger then obviously you’ll have to cut. Either that or you’ll need a spacer thick enough for the basket to clear. Otherwise, most manuals that come with speakers have a CAD drawing with dimensions. You might have to do a bit of research before you find a speaker you like spec and dimension-wise. For me, I went a size down.

 

[stevescivic]

This won’t help since you already have the speakers but what I learned from recently doing an install in my Honda Fit (which has an identical speaker opening) is that depth really isn’t the issue like most people seem to be concerned about, it’s the shape of that damn opening.

I didn’t want to cut metal either so what I ended up doing was going a size down to 5-1/4.” You may be able to get away with your Focals but what you need to do is measure the diameter of the opening and the speaker basket. If the basket is bigger then obviously you’ll have to cut. Still not willing to cut? Most manuals that come with speakers have a CAD drawing with dimensions. You might have to do a bit of research before you find a speaker you like spec and dimension-wise. For me, I went a size down.

Yes I considered the smaller speaker at the time of purchase but I want maximum bass performance and going from a 5.25 -> 6.5 is a pretty big jump. I'm not 100% against cutting the doors, I will cut if I absolutely have to but being that this is a type R that I wanted to avoid that if was even remotely possible.

 

[stevescivic]

This is what I did in mine:

All done with about $30 retail in metra adapters, some extra screws, and hot glue for the tweeter mounting ring.

Also maybe not a fair comparison cause that's what I do for a living.


Also not an FK8 but the point stands.

I forgot to ask... did you simply use the 1" universal metra spacer rings to mount these? I think I have no choice but to cut the damned door to fit my larger than normal speakers otherwise I'll be relegated to using 5.25" speakers and I definitely don't want that.

 

[CopperPeacock]

I forgot to ask... did you simply use the 1" universal metra spacer rings to mount these? I think I have no choice but to cut the damned door to fit my larger than normal speakers otherwise I'll be relegated to using 5.25" speakers and I definitely don't want that.

Metra 82-7805 adapters

 

[stevescivic]

Metra 82-7805 adapters

thanks!

 

[bobbysport]

I did the baffles before, but didn’t keep them fully enclosed. I think I cut the bottom rear section out so it could still breathe and use the door cavity as the “box” but still have a “hat” to the speaker to protect it. I didn’t do that on the R this time. You could prob put some dielectric grease on the connectors, etc. if you wanted to protect those too. Haven’t done that with speaker stuff yet.

For the tweeters, feel free to use this adapter if you want to retain your factory stuff without having to cut it up. I was so happy when I found this.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C4MQDP...t_i_FC3YFZ62ZPQ3GYGCVE7B?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Did you check polarity using those tweeter wires? They are wrong.
-Bobby

 

[NHCivicGuy]

Did you check polarity using those tweeter wires? They are wrong.
-Bobby

I didn’t but I definitely will have to in the spring. They sound great to me so I never took a second guess.

 

[jeffreymartin]

Question about speaker installation but probably more of a rant and may even get flamed for this post...

I finally managed to get a nice set of front speakers for my Type R and while I'm generally proficient in installing my own equipment given the cost and caliber of these speakers, I want to make sure I get the best install possible which to my understanding on the Type R isn't all that difficult.

I want to install a set of Focal ES165 KX2 series components. Of the various shops I have called around they all said they'd build me a custom mounting/spacer ring on the car to put the mid bass drivers in and then they'd put in the tweeters into the factory sail panel tweeter pods.

I'm not looking for sound deadening or even crossover installation as I'll be shortly installing a Helix V Eight DSP/Amp combo to amplify the front, center and rear stages of the car and installing appropriate sound deadening materials to the door where needed.

What I'm failing to understand is WHY are the local install shops for a BASIC install where they undo the door panel (takes me 5 minutes to remove), tracing the shape of the existing factory speaker and fabricating a solid ABS plastic mounting ring. Each shop has quoted me a MINIMUM charge of $360+ to install these components and couldn't really answer me on why the costs are as high as they are considering that the woofer and tweeter are literally plug in. The only unique thing is the ring mount which in this car's case is hardly unique. The focal tweeters are a plug and play affair as far as mounting in the stock sail panel is concerned yet they want to charge additional for that too.

I went on to ask them to install a bass blocking capacitor inline with the tweeter as a safeguard when using active crossovers and they told me that the cost is $40 to add a cheap $0.05 Chinese branded cap inline with the tweeter wiring. Maybe I'm overly neurotic about this but I would put NOTHING less than a top tier nichicon 105C rated radial capacitor in line with my tweeter wiring and have it all nicely shrunk wrap. Hardly $40 worth of materials or even labor

Does it really cost THAT much to do an install on a set of component speakers where there is NO wiring or tuning that has to be done? I'm admittedly floored and outright annoyed that shops around my neck of the woods can charge what they do and people are willing to pay that premium and then some. I get it, there is SOME fabrication that needs to happen but anyone with a jigsaw, drill, and router could easily build something like this even if they're NEW to the hobby in a span of maybe a couple of hours at best. Am I missing something here?

When I asked for the details of the installation they said they:
1. Custom fab a mounting ring
2. Mount speaker and tweeter
3. Retain the factory wiring and avoid drilling holes at all costs unless absolutely necessary.
4. The $400ish install price tag does not include a bass blocker capacitor (I want this to protect my tweeter even if my active crossovers will be set up correctly), does not include ANY sound deadening or water protection.

I am probably going to get flamed here for my opinions but this doesn't appear to be rocket science and the ONLY reason why I considered paying a pro to install was for the interest of time and mildly cold weather. I've done MANY installs in the past on older hondas that I'd argue were MORE difficult to work on due to the limited door space but the Type R has BOATLOADs of speaker depth available so I can't imagine this being hard at all.

Thoughts on this and any recommendations on fast rings or anyone willing to send some pre-fab ones they built doing their cars??

Speaking as someone who did car audio for a living for 24 years, and owned a shop for 5, I'd say I would scheduled a comp set for probably 3 hours for a tech. (as of 5 years years ago the hourly rate was $100/hour) in order to cover my costs for the tech and make a small profit. On a high end set of speaker I'd probably schedule 4 hours as I'd assume the customer would be very particular. Now bear in mind assuming you have your own speakers, that means that same tech can't be installing the product they sell, so they need to make sure they aren't losing money on installing product they didn't sell. So I don't know, assuming they don't just have some random teenage kid putting it in, and have an actual professional tech who is passionate about what he does? It doesn't sound insane to me. But then my experience was there was always a shop somewhere willing to cut some corners so they could do it cheaper.

 

[bikejog]

You could prob put some dielectric grease on the connectors, etc. if you wanted to protect those too. Haven’t done that with speaker stuff yet.

For the tweeters, feel free to use this adapter if you want to retain your factory stuff without having to cut it up. I was so happy when I found this.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C4MQDP...t_i_FC3YFZ62ZPQ3GYGCVE7B?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Do not put dielectric grease on metal terminals before you make the connection. Dielectric grease is an insulator. Dielectric grease is usually put on rubber to keep it from cracking.

 

[stevescivic]

Do not put dielectric grease on metal terminals before you make the connection. Dielectric grease is an insulator. Dielectric grease is usually put on rubber to keep it from cracking.

That's a good tip. I only use it on spark plug boot and occasionally on certain connectors that are exposed to water like a trailer power connector on my truck.

 

[stevescivic]

Speaking as someone who did car audio for a living for 24 years, and owned a shop for 5, I'd say I would scheduled a comp set for probably 3 hours for a tech. (as of 5 years years ago the hourly rate was $100/hour) in order to cover my costs for the tech and make a small profit. On a high end set of speaker I'd probably schedule 4 hours as I'd assume the customer would be very particular. Now bear in mind assuming you have your own speakers, that means that same tech can't be installing the product they sell, so they need to make sure they aren't losing money on installing product they didn't sell. So I don't know, assuming they don't just have some random teenage kid putting it in, and have an actual professional tech who is passionate about what he does? It doesn't sound insane to me. But then my experience was there was always a shop somewhere willing to cut some corners so they could do it cheaper.

That is a valid point and this is why I haven't tackled the job by myself. Being that the car is a Type R that I plan to keep forever that I'd rather not hack up the car if I can absolutely avoid it. I think what gets me is that I've always done all my own work (and done reasonably well) so paying someone to do the work IS a bit of a shock to my system especially when I am presented with a price that costs a lot more than I was expecting. That being said, I do agree that you have to pay for good work and I also look at what my personal time is worth. I think what really gets me is that I'm actually the mechanic that people pay to fix other's screw-ups and when I take apart what a "supposed professional" installed that the results are often grossly disappointing. In other words, I really DO have trust issues with anyone meddling with anything that I own. I'll have to learn to get over this...

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