Tweeter Install

I am trying to replace my stock front speakers and tweeters with the Polk MM6501. I am also putting in the Pioneeer AVH-P4400BH , but I going to try and install the component speakers first. The part I am unsure of is related to the tweeter install. There is a 4 wire harness that narrows to 2 wires that go into the tweeter. There is also a harness for the 6x9 fron speaker. The polk components I bought came with a cross over. Do I need to use this cross over or is that already handled with stock setup? If I do need to use the crossover, which wires do I run into as the input on the crossover? Do I take the current speaker harness, cut out the wires, and run them to the input ignoring the current tweeter inputs or do I use the current tweeter inputs and ignore speaker inputs? From the cross over I assume I just run the wires from the cross over to the speaker and tweeters. Any input is much appreciated.

Specs:

2010 Tacoma Double Cab
Deck: Pioneeer AVH-P4400BH (eventually)
Components to install: Polk MM6501

 

I went ahead and just pulled all new heavier gauge wires. I mounted the crossover behind the kickpanels and ran new wires into the door (and from the amp, the amp to the head unit, etc). Secure these so they don't flop around. The crossover should be labeled as to which wires go where.

 

I only have the deck, no amp. Will I be in trouble if I don't run bigger guage wires? I've only done some minor replacements before, so I am not very confident that I can get it done without screwing everything up. In general though, you need 2 wires from the deck or amp to the crosssover and then the 4 wires from crossover to tweeter and speaker right?that being the case, I should be able to use the wires on the current speaker harness? Are the tweeter and speaker harnesses run back to the stock deck?

 

From what I've read you can use the factory wires but I'm old school so I pulled new wires. Yes, one set of wires into the crossover and two coming out- the crossover should be labeled IIRC. You need to use the crossover that came with the speakers- once you pull the door panels you'll see just how cheap the factory speakers are (absolute junk).

Personally I'd go ahead and add an amp while you're in there but that's just me. An external amp is going to sound better than the amp in the head unit. Check Amazon as they periodically run sales on the Pioneer amps. I also added a Pioneer reverse camera when I installed mine.

 

Pulling wires and running speakers of head units essentially cancel each other's benefits out unless you're using an amplifier...

To answer the question of the 4 wire harness narrowing down to 2 - I believe (without having pics to go off of) that is essentially the wires splitting off from the head unit down to the woofer/tweeter.

And welcome to TW

 

I'm confused. So using the stock wiring and running the speakers off the deck are going to give me a stock sound? I'd prefer to install an amp, but I don't think I have what it takes to hide the amp and run all the wires. I was hoping the 4x50W amp in the deck would help some.

Here is a really basic question: The harness that goes to the 6x9 and the harness that goes to the tweeter have 4 wires each. If I use the existing wiring, do I just need one positive and one negative from the harness? The others I would just close off? And how are the stock tweeters handled? Is there something coming from the stock deck that eliminates the bass or is it just sending the same signal to both the tweeter and the 6x9?
Thanks for the welcome. And thanks for helping out a newbie

 

Depends on what you want.
I've never run an amp and have had wonderful results from aftermarket 40x4 and 50x4 head units into good speakers. Jeez... My guitar amps are 15 and 100 watts and either of them will make your ears bleed. Not everyone wants a system that'll rattle the body panels... some of us are just looking for an improvement over OEM (and are on an "improvement" budget).

Any idea where this split is? Is there any kind of low-pass crossover on the main speaker line, or just a high-pass going to the stock tweeter?

 

Email just sent to *********:

 

The 4x50 and new speakers will help a lot.

As far as the wire size... do the math:

50 watts (and that's peak) into 4ohms is

P=I*E
E=I*R
P=I^2*R
50=i^2*4
12.5=i^2
3.5=I

Peak power, you are putting only 3.5 amps on the speaker wire.
That's peak.
RMS is going to be closer to 2 amps... and that's still max volume.

There's a reason that speaker ship with 18ga or even 20ga wire.
It's adequate. It's not optimal, and there will be some voltage drop over longer distances, but the main reason to avoid 20-22ga wire is it is simply not durable. In the factory harness, it's protected and will work just fine for standard HU power levels.

Start adding amps and yes, you will need to move up to larger wire to handle the load.

 

Thank you for all the great feedback everyone. And thank you for the fast replies Rich!

I made a mistake There is a 4 wire harness that connects to the tweer harness from there, the 4 wires are wrapped in tape and out come 2 wires (a positive and negative wire) that connect to the tweeter.

On the 6x9 there is a harness that has only 2 wires coming into it. Sorry about the mix up there. I am guessing I can take the two wires on the 6x9, run those to the crossover and then run wires from the crossover to the new tweeters and speakers. Does that sound right?

 

Are the tweeter wires tied to the main wires... IE: Only 2 wires coming through the door bellows? If there's only 2 wires leaving the door, then ya... just connect the main speaker wires to the x-over and split the main and tweeter from there.

Otherwise, I'll let you know what ********* says.

 

When I follow the wires back to wrapped up bundle, it appears the wires for the tweeter are spereate from the wires for the speaker. There is the 4 wire harness for the tweeter (blue and green wires) and a 2 wire harness run to the speaker. The tweeter has a little black capacitor at the tweeter. Is that doing the filtering for the twetter instead of a corssover? If I cut into one of the harnesses to run to the crossover, I will need to splice into the wire from the harness to run down to the crossover. I won't be able to reach the cross over with the current length of the wire harness. It's not the same set, but I am looking to setup something similar to this setup: http://www.monarchrifle.com/dougs_speakers.html

 

Ya, looks like Doug connected the main speaker's feed to the x-over and just insulated the tweeter wires.

Thanks for that link... I was curious how I was going to mount my x-over and I like that. I think my DB6501 x-over is a little narrower than your MM6501.

 

i made a thread a while back about mounting the tweeters I'm too lazy to search it(i should be studying for a test tomorrow) but i think i covered the harness. i tried just wiring the tweeters in to the factory harness and it was a bad idea it pushed too much power to them and they sound like shit. i connected the wires coming out of the harness to complete the loop and then put in alpine s-type component speakers that had a built in cross over. and i couldn't be happier.

 

You're right mine is a little wider. And the mount locations arent as nice. I have to create something else to mount the x over, but I am going to do it in the same location. So do you think I should use the two wires from the harness going into the 6x9? Run that to the x over and then out to the components? The main speaker wire isnt long enough to run to the x over, so I guess I will splice on a piece... hopefully that is ok.

 

Ya... extend the 6x9 wire to the x-over and you're all set it looks like.

If ********* indicates something else, I'll let you know.

 

Here it is Kyle... http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/67177-how-install-tweeters-factory-wires.html

Ahh... They ran them in series. That doesn't really explain the 4 wires going to the tweeter (should still be two unless the 2nd pair works off of the x-over capacitor), but that explains why on the above link Doug also left the tweeter connector in place and you can see heat-shrink tubing under his bracket.

Makes perfect sense now.

Cut the tweeter off.
Solder red to red and black to black, heat-shrink insulate both connections.