Speaker Replacement Guide

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:01 am

I've ordered 5 midrange and 2 tweeters from Bimmer-tech to do a stage 1 upgrade of my 676A 11-speaker system.

I narrowed the choice down to Bimmer-tech and Bavsound mainly cause they have their own web-stores unlike their European counterparts.

Bimmer-tech worked out more expensive - especially if you take into account the 10% discount that Bavsound offer to anyone who lurks on their website for long enough - however in the end the ease of free international delivery was too tempting so I put my order through yesterday. Note that Bavsound do not offer international delivery but they work with a freight forwarder who can deliver to any country.

Today I received tracking details from Fedex Dubai which is where they dispatch their orders from. I was also given the attached pdf installation guide which some may find useful. It appears to cover all the speakers including the rear woofers, but does not cover the footwell woofers for some reason. I believe it has been copied from BMW's own workshop guide.

I will post some photos of the install process. I've not done much car DIY but I'm looking forward to the challenge of doing the door speakers. The others look straight forward.

Edit - looks like I cant upload a .pdf. Any idea how I can share it?

Edit 2 - Here is the link they gave me. Not sure how long it will be live for;

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... -dEKW0ed4W

Cheers

Chippie · Post by **Chippie** » Fri Jul 02, 2021 8:52 am

screenshot the pdf on your phone/tablet and then you can upload the photo

Pbondar · Post by **Pbondar** » Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:59 am

Finding all the door card screws is the key issue..on mine for some strange reason I had some cross head on one side and torx all the rest..maybe the card had been off before..

Looking at their install its all pinched of TIS..

There remains an issue unqiue to E89s with woofers and subwoofers which they don't seem to address but since you are not doing that bit it doesn't matter.

Usually best to get a few new door card snap fittings to help when you replace the cards..don't ask me how I know..

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:23 pm

Chippie wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 8:52 am screenshot the pdf on your phone/tablet and then you can upload the photo

It’s 25 pages so don’t think that will work. Seems to still be live.

There are video instructions on bavsound website which helps with the midrange including the door tweeters.

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:26 pm

Pbondar wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:59 am
Usually best to get a few new door card snap fittings to help when you replace the cards..don't ask me how I know..

Thanks for the tip. I’ll see if my local BMW parts department can sell me some before I start the job.

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Mon Jul 05, 2021 10:57 pm

Pbondar wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:59 am
Usually best to get a few new door card snap fittings to help when you replace the cards..don't ask me how I know..

Hey it looks like there are 3 types of clips; Blue, White and Yellow. I presume they are all slightly different? Is there a particular one that breaks easily that I should source? Or is it just pot luck?

Pbondar · Post by **Pbondar** » Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:38 am

Kiwi_Mike wrote: ↑Mon Jul 05, 2021 10:57 pm
Pbondar wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:59 am
Usually best to get a few new door card snap fittings to help when you replace the cards..don't ask me how I know..
Hey it looks like there are 3 types of clips; Blue, White and Yellow. I presume they are all slightly different? Is there a particular one that breaks easily that I should source? Or is it just pot luck?

I managed to snag some blue and yellow ones but generally given that they tend to be fit once type designs a few going forward of all types doesn’t hurt

I now have two large box fulls of assorted sizes so I can tackle most jobs to completion

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 8:35 am

The clips are cheap enough so best to just get a couple of each type. I found the replacing the door, rear mids and footwell speakers to be fairly simple but if you are doing the subs on the panel behind the seats that is a huge undertaking as you literally have to strip all trim around them to be able to access them.

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 9:02 am

Silverstar wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 8:35 am The clips are cheap enough so best to just get a couple of each type. I found the replacing the door, rear mids and footwell speakers to be fairly simple but if you are doing the subs on the panel behind the seats that is a huge undertaking as you literally have to strip all trim around them to be able to access them.

Yep, picking up a collection of them tomorrow from my local BMW dealer

The freight tracking on my speakers show that they have been sitting in a DHL depot in Singapore for the past 5 days so my plan to fit them this weekend has been scraped.

I didn’t order the footwell speakers. Did you need to remove much trim? I’m not sure if the Bimmer-Tech woofers are plug and play in the footwells. May need a DIY bracket.

Pbondar · Post by **Pbondar** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:33 pm

Footwell woofers need the plastic trim removing then you can see the OE ones screw directly to the steel body..being an off BMW specific shape most replacements will need some form of adaptor ring..made mine out of marine ply!

Those speakers are normally wired in parallel on one one channel on the 676/677 options..

They run to the rear amp position as two pairs so its relatively easy to split them to gain 2 channels!

Silverstar · Post by **Silverstar** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:15 pm

In my case for the footwell speakers I just cut out the original speakers which left the mounting ring on which I mounted the new speakers.

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:04 am

Speakers arrived…

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 2:50 am

Ok, just finished installing the 7 speakers. Was a fairly easy job with a few exceptions:

- had some trouble getting the wee black covers that hide the screws on the door, had to use a tiny screwdriver

- the bimmer-tech midrange speakers don’t actually fit in the doors without a small modification as the plug sticks out further than the original ones. I had to drill and dremel a hole in the plastic (with the window up!) so the plug can poke through. Not a big deal, just takes some time.

The others were a piece of cake to change. I actually reused one of the door tweeters and added it to the centre channel using the spare cables that came with the new speakers. I wonder if that means I have the only 12 speaker Z4 in existence

Only listened to a few song so far but the sound is loads better. I’m very happy

Thanks to everyone for the advice and for giving me the confidence to drill holes in my car!

Pbondar · Post by **Pbondar** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:25 am

Good result..since you are using the OE amp which already has its own DSP settings keeping close to the OE layout is a good idea IMHO

Nice idea to re-cycle the tweeter to the centre speaker…not sure from a DSP perspective it’s a ‘pure’ idea but why not.

Normally the Centre channel has its high frequency cut off as its normally reserved for speech..

Interesting to see that yet another factory fit speaker set that needs some cutting n shutting..

Enjoy

Kiwi_Mike · Post by **Kiwi_Mike** » Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:29 pm

Pbondar wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:25 am Good result..since you are using the OE amp which already has its own DSP settings keeping close to the OE layout is a good idea IMHO

Nice idea to re-cycle the tweeter to the centre speaker…not sure from a DSP perspective it’s a ‘pure’ idea but why not.

Normally the Centre channel has its high frequency cut off as its normally reserved for speech..

Interesting to see that yet another factory fit speaker set that needs some cutting n shutting..

Enjoy

Ah, so not much point adding the extra tweeter then.

Might look at changing the amp although you mentioned that it won’t necessarily be plug and play for an e89 right?

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