Hey Everyone,

Anyone tried replacing the factory speakers or head unit in the 07's? I'm going to give it a try this weekend any pictures or directions on how to get the door panel off / old radio out would be great.

Thanks!

 

I am looking for the same thing.

 

Looks like I'll be the guinea pig... I'll take pictures for you. I may just do the speakers this weekend I'm still waiting for the wire harness for the radio to come in. They charged me $80 for that darn thing said they changed it for 07 so this thing better be one heck of a harness LOL. I'll keep ya posted.

 

What are you installing and where did you get the harness?

 

I'm installing my old Kenwood 7015 that I had in my F150. I ordered the harness from Myer Emco. Circuit City/ Best Buy said they didn't have it and that it wasn't the same as the 06's. Myer Emco were the only ones that had a clue so I went with them. I just picked up my EL on Tuesday so I didn't have anything to go on when i ordered the harness last week. I'm going to try and pull out the radio today just to see what I'm getting for $80.

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I just installed a 6-channel JBL amp and my old Alpine 10" sub in my EL this week. I'm pretty happy with the results and was actually surprised at how loud the factory speakers will go without distorting. However, the sound is fairly muddy for my taste and I'm pretty sure I'm going to upgrade all the door speakers in the next couple weeks.

The installer did a great job of mounting the fairly large 6-channel amp behind the panel where the old factory sub was located. That sub is a monstrosity of plastic by the way!!!

Please do post step-by-step pics if possible of the door panel removal and the speaker installation.

What kind of speakers are you installing? I was thinking about keeping it all JBL and installing some JBL components in the front and coaxials in the back. However, I can get a good deal on some Infiniti Kappa components and Reference Coaxials at a store nearby, so I may do that instead.

As for the head unit, I personally didn't want to go that route this time. I had installed a Pioneer 7800 in my '06 Expedition and while it sounded great, I really missed the 6-disc mp3 functionality and the stock look. I'll sacrifice a little bit of sound quality for a better looking and more functional system this time around.

 

I would steer away from the JBL speakers. Go listen to the Kappa's and Reference. IMO the reference has a better, less harsh tweeter, but everyone has different tastes.

 

So'd you get anything installed yet Psycho? Any pics? I think I'm going to try doing my speakers today as well... Buzzzz has scared me away from the JBL's so I'll probably either get some Infinity Kappas (front)/References (back) or some Polk Momo's at a local store.

Pics would really help man....

 

Yea I did get the speakers in. it was pretty simple to get the door panel off. I forgotto bring my camera with me when I did them but I think I can give pretty good directions.

For the front panel there are 2 screws in the handle under a little flap 7mm I think. there is another behind a small square cover behind the door latch. Then you have a philips screw at the top outer rim of hte door panel and two more screws on the bottom of the panel I think those are 6.5mm. to get the panel off you need to snap the little gray trim piece around door latch out (use a small screw driver it comes right out). Finally, right up by the tweeter there at about 2 clips there is a little notch at the top take a screw driver and pry it out. then lift the door panel right up and off. the rear panel comes off the same way except you don't have to pry apart any clips.

 

Does it look like the stock tweeter can be taken out easily?

 

Yea the stock tweeter is held in by two philips screws in a small plastic bracket. I wanted to keep the fatory look so I used a rotory tool to cut away everything except for the factory grill from the bracket. Then I mounted the new tweeter to the factory bracket so you can't even tell its changed. one thing though the tweeter didn't work when I disconnected the factory 6x8. There are 2 sets of wires going to it I guess one is amplified I dunno. It works fine without the second wire but you need to tap into that line for the tweeter to work.

 

Ok, I am a little confused. There are 4 wires going to the oem 6x8 and then from there, two wires going to the oem tweeter?

Is the grill for the oem tweeter apart of the tweeter assembly? Thanks.

 

Right, the front speakers have 2 different sets of wires going to them. Now that I think about it one is probably an input from the radio the other may be an output to power the tweeter. I didn't think of that until just now but you may want to try it out. I just bypassed the whole thing and ran the tweeters off the same wire that is powering the door speakers. Once you get it all apart you will see its not hard at all. Just make sure you test everything before you button it all back up.

Yes, the grill for the tweeter is all party of the asssembly. The actual tweeter is glued into the grill assembly. It can be pryed out though if you want to reuse the grill like I did.

I honestly don't notice much difference with these speakers installed (Rockford Components). I am still waiting on the harness so I can install my kenwood. I think once thats in there the extra power will make the speakers shine. I am also looking into changing out the 8 inch speaker in the factory sub. I want more bass without loosing space oh well....

 

Cool. Thanks for the info. Where did you stash the crossover?

 

Just curious, but what size were the RF components you installed? I was planning on using 6.5" components, but according to Crutchfield, I need to use 5.25"... ?