The speakers
in the front doors of the Cherokee were buzzing. They were so bad
Maria had set the fader control so that they were shut off and only the
rear speakers were giving out sound. When I learned this I decided
to fix them for her as part of her Christmas present.
I removed
the door panels using my Snap-on trim pad removal tool and a screw
driver.
This
involves running it under the edge of the door panel after removing the
screws that hold the door panel to the door. There is one near the
door opener and three along the underside of the arm rest.
With the
door panel off I then removed the two screws holding the speakers to the
door panel. It was a little tricky because the wiring for the
power windows, locks and the remote control arms for the door lock and
door latch kept the door panel close to the door. I could have
removed them but it was cold and I didn't want to break the plastic
snaps holding the parts.
Once I had
one of the old speakers out I was ready to identify and go find
replacements. I noticed the same factory speaker harness connect
as on my TJ so I made a mental note to look for connectors when I was
out shopping,
It got
interesting fast. The speakers are 5.5 inch (Chrysler factory
Infinity option). Mainstream speakers are 5.25 inches or 6.5
inches. Great... I don't have a sawzall... So I
decided I would just bring it with me and see what happened.
I stopped
at Wal*Mart and quickly decided that was not the place for me to buy
speakers. The main reason I left was there were no 5.5 inch
speakers but even at that, I just didn't feel really confident I would
have lasting happiness with their line of offerings. For me, sound
equipment is something like tires - you will never be happy with
inferior products even if the thrill of saving money never wears off.
I next
stopped at a hi-fi shop. The fellow saw me coming in with the
speaker in hand and correctly guessed what I was up to. We looked
at some speakers but I held out for the now mythical 5.5 inch speakers.
He did volunteer the wiring harness and I quickly snapped it up. I
was thrilled to have a snap-on conversion for the speaker connectors.
Metra 72-6512
A Metra speaker wiring kit is an absolute must when installing aftermarket
speakers. It provides easy connection of the speaker to the factory speaker
wiring. Each kit includes left and right speaker harnesses, and can be used for
either front or rear speakers (unless otherwise specified). Any cutting of the
factory wires is avoided so all connections are exactly right. Positive and
negative wires are color coded for easy identification, and are terminated with
small (-) and large (+) quick-connect speaker terminals.
Application Notes
- 2-Pin Rectangular Connectors
Only
Applications
- 1997-2004 JEEP WRANGLER
- 1993-2004 EAGLE VISION
- 1997-2004 JEEP CHEROKEE
- 1995-2004 PLYMOUTH
- 1995-2004 CHRYSLER
- 1995-2004 DODGE
I drove
down to their other store where they cater more to automotive systems
and have an installation shop. There I spoke with a guy who has a
Cherokee and had installed larger speakers in the openings without any
cutting. He suggested these Eclipse SE8365's. The price was
about right so I took them with his promise that they would fit and
sound good.
Eclipse offers uncompromised sound
quality, innovative technology, and
precision elegance in an intuitive and
easy-to-use package. From the first
all-transistor radio in 1959 to the
world’s first in-car DSP in 1989,
Eclipse continues its heritage of
innovation with some of the most
cutting-edge products in the car audio
industry. The SE Integrated Series from
Eclipse is the perfect affordable way to
add killer sound to your audio system.
The hybrid mica PP cone exhibits an
ideal balance of strength to weight to
reproduce midrange and mid-bass
frequencies with the excellence you’d
expect from Eclipse. A butyl rubber
surround ensures linear cone excursion
and helps dampen cone resonance for
undistorted dynamic peaks and clarity at
all levels. Neodymium-powered Mylar
tweeters bring the details to life,
while a super tweeter adds the
definition and unparalleled frequency
response to create one of the smoothest
sounding co-axials available.
Features
- Hybrid mica PP cone
- Butyl rubber woofer surround
- Tweeter protection circuit
- Super tweeter for frequency
response exceeding 40,000 Hz
- Neodymium tweeter magnet
3-Way Speaker Specifications
Shipping: 6 lbs
Warranty: 1 year
That
pretty much put me in good shape to go install the parts. I was
ready to drill out new holes to screw in the speaker fasteners but it
turned out that I was able to use holes on the speaker that more or less
matched up with the holes on the door. I tested each speaker
before installing it and confirmed that the buzzing was not the amp or
something else in the signal path. The speaker sounded fine, so I
buttoned up the door panel and repeated the install on the other side.
Pretty
soon I had eliminated the buzzing speakers and had two great sounding
speakers in their place. This took care of a long-standing job
that really made a difference in the sound system in the Cherokee.
And hey, if you're about to
install a satellite radio, doesn't it make
sense to have good speakers to listen with?
