Ben Ruset Sysadmin, etc.

Installing New Dash Speakers in a WJ Series Grand Cherokee

The stereo system in my 2002 Grand Cherokee Overland is pretty good (6 speaker, Infinity amplifier) but the dash tweeters are not protected from receiving full range sound from the amp, and frequently blow. Mine were blown, and one of the tweeters had a loose wire which meant that it kept cutting in and out. Since I spend ~5h a day in the Jeep when I go to New York, I need to have somewhat good sounding music to entertain myself.

The problem is, the factory location for the speakers are very shallow. Most aftermarket speakers will not fit without substantial effort. Blaupunkt used to make a 3.5" speaker (their Overdrive) series that fit perfectly, but it's been discontinued for several years. Given that there is no good option that doesn't require cutting and trimming, I went to Best Buy and picked up a pair of Infinity Reference 3.5" speakers that were the closest to the depth of the factory speakers.

This project was a pain -- it's hard to get tools in the tight space between the speaker location and the windshield. There's a seller on ebay that sells replacement speakers that supposedly fit perfectly, and include a capacitor to block the bass frequencies that blow the factory speakers. That may be a better way to go, unless you're an audiophile.

If you are going to replace the speakers in your Grand Cherokee, and I feel that there will be a 100% failure rate with the factory speakers eventually, this will give you an idea of what you're up against. It took me about 3 hours to do, but I stopped for lunch, and ran in and out to get tools several times.

First off, you're going to want to have a right angle philips screwdriver, soldering iron, wire strippers, wire cutters, knife (I used a small Gerber pocket knife), and either some sort of snips or a Dremel.

Here's the new speaker, compared to the old one. You can already see that it's bigger. The mounting holes are not going to line up.

The new speaker. Note the rubber surround, and the higher quality cone. It's also got an integrated tweeter.

The old speaker.

Start by pulling the trim panel that covers both speakers and defroster out. It's clipped in the middle and the edges. Be careful pulling it out. Once it's removed, you can see the speakers mounted in their factory locations.

The drivers side speaker.

The passenger side with the speaker removed. The white molex connector carries the audio to the speaker. The speaker has a pigtail and a connector that plugs into that.

The drivers side speaker.

Here's the after effects of me cutting and trimming. There's a rubber and vinyl pad that runs the length of the dash that provides sound insulation from the firewall. It's about 1/4" thick, and will need to be trimmed. Get yourself a knife and cut it -- be prepared, you're going to cut out a lot. I also cut one of the old mounting holes and the plastic around it. I also trimmed the plastic near the dash for the speaker basket to fit. When the speaker is installed, the magnet will end up resting on the firewall and it will stick up a bit. There's no way to make it fit better without removing metal, which is not something I was prepared to do.The drivers side is nearly the same. I chose to cut the old mounting hole on the right side of the speaker.

You'll want to snip the wires from the old speakers and solder them to the new ones. This will let you plug into the factory wiring harness. If you buy your speakers from Crutchfield, they should come with a wiring adapter that will just slide on the new speakers and plug into the factory wiring harness.

Despite the new speakers sticking up a bit, it did not interfere with the trim panel when I reinstalled it. Without opening the panel up, nobody would know that the speakers have been replaced. Obviously Infinity Reference 3.5" speakers are not theft magnets, but for me it's important to keep the stock look. Underneath the panel it's a horror show of dremeled and cut plastic, but with the panel on it's all puppy dogs and rainbows.

The Infinity speakers came with a pair of capacitors to block the low frequency sounds that the stock amp will produce. I ended up not installing these, since I mistakenly saw the capacitor mounded on the speaker that protects the tweeter and thought it worked for the entire speaker. What I think I may do is install the caps closer to the amp under the rear seat, and figure out a nice way of mounting them securely. The caps are fairly large, and thinking about it, I don't think the dash is going to be the friendliest place for them. Another alternative for me would be to get an active crossover and mount it near the amp. Since I don't crank the stereo more than 1/3 of the way I don't think I have to worry too much for now, but it's something I'll want to look at in the future.

It seems that Chrysler/Infinity made some boneheaded mistakes when they designed this system. First, the front door speakers are one way 6x9's producing all of the bass, and 3.5" speakers in the dash producing the midbass and highs. They could have easily been two way 6x9's producing bass and mid-bass, and then mount a small (1-1.5") dedicated tweeter in the dash, like everybody else does. Secondly, the factory amp really should have some sort of built in crossover to protect the speakers.

The end result is that I now have un-blown speakers that work all of the time. The sound is a bit bright, but I think it will just be a matter of me getting used to it and adjusting the treble until I am happy.

Another thing that would probably have worked better, and would have resulted in less hacking would be to disconnect the dash speakers and get a nice set of component speakers for the front doors.