Rear door speakers replacement - 2017 Ford Edge

[Lifeisabeach]

Alrighty, I've started on the rear door speakers, but ran into a roadblock in getting the door panel off. Hopefully someone has some ideas. I'll post photos detailing what I've managed too far. Basically it's down to disconnecting the door handle.

 

I started with the guide posted in this thread to get me in the right direction. Start by removing the two smaller bolts located at the bottom of the door. I used a 9/32 socket, but a 7mm socket should work also.

 

 

Next, you'll need to pop off that shiny black piece on the armrest. Work it out from the side facing the front of the car, then slide it out. Unclip the single wiring harness. Once out, you'll see a bolt that needs to come out, using a 10 mm socket. You can most easily remove that bolt by using a socket wrench with a long extension and fit it through the gap in the armrest from the side.

 

 

Next, pop out the matte black insert around the door handle. Pry it out from the side facing the front of the car (try working on it from the bottom and top corners), then slide it out. Remove the bolt with a 10 mm socket.

 

 

From here, the panel pops off from the bottom and sides, then lift it up and off the door frame. There are a couple more wiring harnesses that will need to come out, and the door handle needs to be disconnected from the cable. This is where I am hung up. I can't figure out how to disconnect the cable. See photo below of the back side of the assembly. Any tips/thoughts?

 

EDIT: The post linked to previously.... HappyHourSport says to remove 3 star-shaped screws and the handle assembly stays in-place attached to the door frame. I just can't figure out where these screws are exactly. I assume I pop out the surrounding panel that encompasses the tweeter, but I'm not sure.

 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Lifeisabeach

[Lifeisabeach]

Ok, I believe I have discovered the trick here. I found a guide for removing the door panel on a late model Ford Fusion. It appears to have the same mechanism for the door handle as the 2017 Edge. I'll post his pics here to demo it. I'll post back when I'm able to get back to working on the speaker replacement again. Now that I know how to remove the panel completely, that part of the job shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. I may not be able to finish up here until next Sunday due to our work schedules here, but I'll update with photos and impressions of the replacement speakers.

 

2013-2016-Ford-Fusion-Interior-Door-Panel-Removal-Guide-022

 

 

 

EDIT: Got it off. As you push on that clip as shown in the photo, you'll also need to pull on the interior door handle to release it completely. It was a little tricky, but I was able to handle it solo.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Lifeisabeach

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

Paul to the rescue once again!

[Chipster]

What brand replacement speakers will you be using?

[Lifeisabeach]

What brand replacement speakers will you be using?

JL Audio TR650-CXi. These are 2-way speakers rather than components. To do components right, I'd have to find a place to mount the passive crossover and do some re-wiring, something I don't care to do. So I'm mounting this in the lower door and leaving the tweeter in the upper door disconnected. I picked these because they were in the price range I was looking at; get GREAT reviews; and their power requirements seem to be a good match for what the factory amp should be putting out.

 

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_136TR650CX/JL-Audio-TR650-CXi.html?tp=105&avf=Y

[Lifeisabeach]

Alrighty, I have the left rear speaker in. As can be seen in the photos, the factory wiring is all on the outside of the door frame, not inside. I had to modify the speaker adapter to route the speaker cables, but all in all this went well. In the first set of pictures, you can see the factory speaker and the connector. There are 4 wires, 2 of which lead to the tweeter, which I am bypassing and not using. Going by the diagram previously posted here, the leads for the lower speaker are white/green for positive, brown/yellow for negative. The wires remaining go to the tweeter: green/brown and gray/brown. The tweeter wire colors were confirmed via its own harness, seen in the photos below.

 

 

The inner tabs on the mounting adapter kept the speaker from sitting flush on it, so I used vice grips to simply snap them off. I then had to drill holes in the side of the adapter to run the speaker wires through. I re-assembled it all and used electrical tape to seal up the edges. I may go back and re-do this with DynaTape when I do the other door to ensure I have a good seal. Getting it all back together was mostly easy. The door handle was a bit of a pain and I wound up having to get the piece that the handle is supposed to grab onto pulled forward and off-track a little so it'd stay in place while I snapped it back into the panel.

 

 

Below is a photo of the original speaker from the backside.

 

 

I did a sound test using the fader/balance controls to isolate the speakers. It's hard to get a good idea of the difference like this since the left and right tracks aren't "identical". That said, it seems a little cleaner with the vocals and maybe slightly better bass. It's not dramatic, though I do still have to replace the other speaker. I doubt that will lead to a dramatic difference to be honest and for the effort involved, maybe not worth it for most people.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Lifeisabeach

[Chipster]

After I changed my dash speaker I noticed that I needed to reset the fade control to bias the volume higher to the rear to get a better sound image. (front to back) It occurred to me that rather than replace the front speakers that replacing the rear speakers might be a better idea. I forgot to look to see if you had already changed out your front door speakers, but if not, I would be interested in your impressions of the total sound image of the addition of the back door speakers once you have that job completed.

[Lifeisabeach]

After I changed my dash speaker I noticed that I needed to reset the fade control to bias the volume higher to the rear to get a better sound image. (front to back) It occurred to me that rather than replace the front speakers that replacing the rear speakers might be a better idea. I forgot to look to see if you had already changed out your front door speakers, but if not, I would be interested in your impressions of the total sound image of the addition of the back door speakers once you have that job completed.

I did not replace the fronts and am disinclined to right now. We had the same need to adjust the fade control when replacing the dash speaker. I wonder if a different speaker choice in the dash would have made that less necessary. I'm not seeing any volume changes yet in the one rear, but I'll have a better idea once the other is replaced.

[Lifeisabeach]

Alrighty, I just completed the job. First, some pics of the connectors demonstrating the cable colors for the right rear door.

 

 

According to the diagram referenced in my original post, the positive lead is brown/white and the negative is brown/blue. I wasn't satisfied with the way I mounted the speaker in the left rear door. I relied on electrical tape to seal up the edges, but was concerned that it would come off in time. I had also wanted to use a gasket of some sort to insulate the speaker assembly from the door frame, but couldn't find what I wanted when I did the left rear door. I wound up ordering this from Amazon:

JVCC SCF-01 Single Coated PVC Foam Tape: 1/8 in. thick x 1/4 in. x 75 ft. (Black)

 

I used this to make a seal between the speaker and the adapter, then between the adapter and the door frame. This worked out great. The width was just right and not too thick. Anything thicker would have risked causing a problem with the speaker sticking out too much. I used DynaTape to secure all the wires in place, as well as seal up a couple holes that were exposed (the factory speaker had a pair of plugs that sat in those holes). Final job here:

 

 

I opened up the left rear door to redo the mounting using the PVC foam tape, and my concerns about the electrical tape not holding were well founded. It was mostly coming off already. *whoops*. I re-did it all as I did with the right rear door and everything is looking much better and secure now.

 

My final impressions aren't much different than from when I did just the left rear side. I think the bass is a bit cleaner, "tighter", and maybe slightly cleaner vocals. Overall an improvement, though not as drastic a change as I saw with the dash speaker.