Door Card/Tweeter/Mirror Dilemma

Phil W · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:03

Hi all,

My Mondeo came with some aftermarket Compoment Speakers fitted. The rather cheap looking Tweeters are located in the Mirror Covers, on the drivers side this is where the Mirror Adjuster would normally go.

Obviously, i would like to locate the Mirror Adjuster somewhere else, i have had the Doorcard off today to see if i could locate it just infront of the EW Switches, but theres not enough room.

I've looked at other places on the doorcard for it to go, and theres not really anywhere suitable. The chap who owned it before me simply took the Mirror cover off (clipped in, not screwed) when he wanted to adjust it. I would happily do this, but my partner will struggle with getting the cover off.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where i could put it, or alternatives for how i could have it set up?

I was wondering how it would sound if i disconnected the tweeter, the answer is... rubbish. Other option is to remove the component "box" and tweeter, and run just the co-ax speaker on its own.. would this sound rubbish too?

Here's a pic of the crossover for reference...

And a picture of the doorcard...

Help appreciated

Thanks.

whitecrook · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:12

what about fitting the miiror adjuster where it shoul be, getting rid of them hideous tweeters, and replacing them with the bullt style tweeters mounted mid way up the A piller

can't find pictures of what I mean, but it appears a popular method is to use a modified A pillar cover and fit something like in this thread here

Phil W · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:15

whitecrook said:
what about fitting the miiror adjuster where it shoul be, getting rid of them hideous tweeters, and replacing them with the bullt style tweeters mounted mid way up the A piller

Would like to loose the tweeters to be honest, they look terrible!

Bullet Tweeters? What are they then?

iaind · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:18

The circular vents either side of the dash are a much more sensible place for the tweeters

Phil W · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:19

iaind said:
The circular vents either side of the dash are a much more sensible place for the tweeters

Don't want to place them there, i find the vents quite useful when its frosty

Irish_Tom · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:23

Get a set of non-component speakers and sell the current ones?

Seems to tick all the boxes unless I've missed something.

Phil W · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:27

Panzerbjorn said:
Get a set of non-component speakers and sell the current ones?

Seems to tick all the boxes unless I've missed something.

Will they sound as good? Not really clued up on the whole ICE thing. If its a case of that, can't i just loose the crossovers and plug the existing speakers straight in?

iaind · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:33

Phil W said:
Will they sound as good? Not really clued up on the whole ICE thing. If its a case of that, can't i just loose the crossovers and plug the existing speakers straight in?

They look pretty cheap so a decent set of coaxes will sound better than cheap components - theyre pretty high up in the door cards anyway. No crossovers to worry about either

Phil W · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:35

They don't sound too bad to be honest, they don't distort when turned up either.

Are rear door speakers the same size?

Irish_Tom · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:38

Phil W said:
Will they sound as good? Not really clued up on the whole ICE thing. If its a case of that, can't i just loose the crossovers and plug the existing speakers straight in?

Depends what you want out of your ICE. Technically coax speakers won't sound as good as components because you have one cone and driver doing all of the work but like iaind says, good coax>poor component.

If you're not really in to ICE then it's probably not going to make a lot of difference.

You can remove the crossovers and use the original wires but I wouldn't use your current mids as they are designed to work with the crossover and tweeter.

Is there an aftermarket head unit in there as well?

There's a lot of 'ifs and buts' I'm afraid but ICE is like that.

Phil W · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:39

Its the standard Head Unit

Irish_Tom · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:41

Should be easy just to rip out all of the aftermarket junk that was in there and slap in a pair of decent coaxes connected with the original wires then.

Phil W · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:48

How much should i be looking at for a decent set? Any reccomendations?

Irish_Tom · 15 Mar 2010 at 19:01

It's been a long time since I played with ICE but the way I'd approach it is this:

Find out the size of the speaker mount in the door, usually somewhere between 5 and 6.5 inches. (check your current mid-ranges to see what fits)
Find out the power output of the head unit.
Decide on a budget.
Chose a speaker that's the right size for your doors and best matched to the output of the head unit.

That's pretty much it. You can pay anything from £30 to £130, it depends what you want to spend really. If you don't want to spend anything you could go to a scrap yard and rip out some stock speakers from a scrapped car.

As far as brands go, there's all of the usual ones: Sony, JBL, Infinity, JL, Vibe etc.

I can't really comment on which one is best I'm afraid but someone else might be able to assist.

Phil W · 27 Mar 2010 at 20:56

Just googled the components i have to put a price to them for re-sale and they are between £150-£170 new.. thought they sounded pretty good!

Half tempted just to relocate the tweeters now, i've got a replacement set of mirror covers ready to go on!