Update - Finally fitting my 3 way speaker system
- Thread starter Z4C_er
- Start date
Yes, the xover will feed all speakers - however that does give you a bit of a dilemma where to locate the xover. Some people put it in the footwell enclosure but this then means running your own separate wiring into the doors. The footwell speakers are a doddle to access - pull the clips and the cover just comes off.
Otherwise, the only mildly tricky bit is taking the door panels off but just search 'door trim removal' - plenty of guides on here. The OEM door speakers use a silly 3 point fixing so you could either bodge it or buy a converter such as these... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Z4-e85-e86-MDF-Front-Speaker-4-Speaker-Adaptors-Rings-Spacers/401148779467?hash=item5d66549bcb:g:0GsAAOSw-KFXe7FQ
The tweeters will no doubt need a bit of bodging with hot melt glue etc.
I think if I were doing this I might consider not using a crossover on the 6.5" bass speakers (they won't naturally respond much over 3KHz anyway) and putting the crossover in the door panel and just feeding the midrange and tweeter from the crossover (the input to the crossover can come from the existing tweeter wiring).
Otherwise, the only mildly tricky bit is taking the door panels off but just search 'door trim removal' - plenty of guides on here. The OEM door speakers use a silly 3 point fixing so you could either bodge it or buy a converter such as these... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Z4-e85-e86-MDF-Front-Speaker-4-Speaker-Adaptors-Rings-Spacers/401148779467?hash=item5d66549bcb:g:0GsAAOSw-KFXe7FQ
The tweeters will no doubt need a bit of bodging with hot melt glue etc.
I think if I were doing this I might consider not using a crossover on the 6.5" bass speakers (they won't naturally respond much over 3KHz anyway) and putting the crossover in the door panel and just feeding the midrange and tweeter from the crossover (the input to the crossover can come from the existing tweeter wiring).
Thanks PH. That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking. The existing woofer in the kick panel must be fed from a separate channel/feed anyway, and then I just need to replace the door speakers using the main input to the existing tweeter and then feeding out from that. My only concern is the weight of the Focal crossover. It's damn heavy! I'm going to have to securely mount it somewhere inside the door, or alternatively find the feed into the door and intercept it before it goes into the door wiring conduit and mount the crossover in the kick panel. Then I would feed two sets of cable back into the door.
Re the mounting of the mid-range, that's OK, as I will cut a hole in the existing blanking plate and mount the 8cm mid to it.
Re the mounting of the mid-range, that's OK, as I will cut a hole in the existing blanking plate and mount the 8cm mid to it.
Z4C_er said:
I'm not convinced it is so there is probably no OEM crossover on those 6.5" woofers anyway. The low frequency is just filtered out from the door tweeters locally by a small capacitor glued on the tweeter. Looking at the head unit pinouts, it's all fed by a single channel....
Interested in this as a future project. Please keep us updated with progress.
Did you have the very basic stereo with no speakers in the door?
Did you have the very basic stereo with no speakers in the door?
FWIW I fitted focal 165 as3 to my Z4 last year. I will try to remember as much as I can.
Oh and sound deaden the door panels if it is a gen 1.
I hope that helps, as I say I am doing it all from memory, I did take some photos, but may struggle to find them, if I do I will post.
They focals sound very good, for an inexpensive outlay, only criticism is the tweeters are a little harsh for my liking but I am not a fan of metal dome tweeters generally I prefer soft domes.
Just found some pictures of door adapter I made:
- The crossovers I can remember, I mounted these on the gearbox tunnel in the area behind the heated heat switches etc. I just used velcro to the carpet, you are right they are heavy, but there is nowhere for them to move to under there they are a tight fit. I rana dual channel thermocouple on them for a month in case of any heat dissipation, but to be honest never got more then 5 deg C over ambient even with heater/aircon on full, so I concluded I would be fine.
- I ran two new wires 2mm csa to the new bass drivers which I located in the same locations as the stock. I disconnected the stock wiring to the footwell speakers but left it to go to the tweeters (footwell and tweeters are just wired in parallel as standard with a small cap on the tweeter for high pass filter)
- The stock tweeters were hacked out with a stanley knife by carefully cutting away the glue and I carefully araldited the Focal tweeters in the sail to replace them
- I ran two new wires (1mm csa from memory) for the new focal mids, the door connectors were not fully populated and I found a couple of spare cavities I could use
- To fit the mid speakers I made an adapter plate out of 3mm aluminium as BMW use weird 3 hole fixings. From memory to get it to work I have to reverse mount the speakers, ie the speaker went behind the plate so I made the plate and araldited the 3mm aluminium plate to the front of the speakers (be very careful don't get any on the speaker cone suspension) then screwed the new plate with attached speakers into place. Note you need to be careful with depth, the magnet is quite big on the focals and mine only just cleared the window glass as it went down.
- The front speakers need an adapter plate on one side only because the depth on one side is very shallow (drivers from memory) I used 18mm ply. Nothing needed on the passengers side so don't make the same mistake I made and make a pair of them.
Oh and sound deaden the door panels if it is a gen 1.
I hope that helps, as I say I am doing it all from memory, I did take some photos, but may struggle to find them, if I do I will post.
They focals sound very good, for an inexpensive outlay, only criticism is the tweeters are a little harsh for my liking but I am not a fan of metal dome tweeters generally I prefer soft domes.
Just found some pictures of door adapter I made:
I can't remember if I set it to 0 or -3dB, but definitely not +3dB. The bass, midrange and soundstage are a massive improvement (it would be difficult mind!)
Magic, you mention "I ran two new wires (1mm csa from memory) for the new focal mids, the door connectors were not fully populated and I found a couple of spare cavities I could use"
I'm guessing you wired up some pins to sit in a connector block? What pins did you use? Are they easy to obtain?
I'm guessing you wired up some pins to sit in a connector block? What pins did you use? Are they easy to obtain?
Well, now that the lockdown is well and truly with us, I thought it was time to attack the fitting of my Focal speakers. There are many videos and forum pages that detail the removal of the door trims, but I thought I would share my own experience.
Firstly the removal of the door cards was an absolute pain. The BMW TIS says to use Butyl or the like to pull out the plug behind the door release handle; Bavsound use a picking tool. I used a picking tool and it was OK, but one slip and you will have a nasty scratch across the surface. I have ordered new butyl for when the foam comes off, so I may try this method on the passenger's side.
The top clips were dreadful. two at the front came away easily but the third did not want to budge. I ended up spraying WD-40 into and on the clip to release it. It worked. But I had bent the clip in the process so I took it off the door and re-bent it to the correct shape. If anyone doesn't understand this I will take a picture.
On models post 2006, they have hot glued the switchpack in place and added a EPP foam pusher (side impact crash block), also hot glued in place. May I add, not very well, as one edge has let go which when I twist the door card, emits a nasty creak. I will re glue this before I reassemble to the car. During some DIY around the house I used a polymer building adhesive, which was fantastic.
https://www.toolstation.com/everbuild-solvent-free-multi-stick-grab-adhesive/p38941
I may try this.
So, a word of warning. Some videos show removal of the switchpack by levering out from the inside of the car. I dare say post-2006 models, this won't be possible.
I had the pov spec car, so it had a blanking plate. Easy to remove I thought? Not so. 2 of the 3 bolts came away from their mounting and spun in the door card. The nuts that are used are the 'squashed' self locking ones. Total overkill. So, the only way I could remove the nuts was to cut away each side of them. What an absolute pain. Anyway, it worked. I will araldite the studs back into place before the next step.
The next phase was to make an adapter plate for the 3inch mid-range speakers. I used MDF, and as the project evolved, I realised that I would have to recess the speaker in the MDF so that it sat flush with the back surface of the door card. I understand that there isn't much space behind the card for the window, so this will be fine.
Adapter plate in place (back and front).
There are some scuffs on the leather just ahead of the door pull so I have bought a furniture clinic leather repair kit and balm to fix this before it all goes back together.
Here's the speaker in the holder with the obligatory anti-squeak felt.
I'm also going to sound deaden the panel and the door inner.
I will create a 3D model of the adapter plate and may try to print one in PETG. I will of course share the model with my forum buddies!
Question: can I unbolt the airbag and let it hang without disconnecting the battery?
Firstly the removal of the door cards was an absolute pain. The BMW TIS says to use Butyl or the like to pull out the plug behind the door release handle; Bavsound use a picking tool. I used a picking tool and it was OK, but one slip and you will have a nasty scratch across the surface. I have ordered new butyl for when the foam comes off, so I may try this method on the passenger's side.
The top clips were dreadful. two at the front came away easily but the third did not want to budge. I ended up spraying WD-40 into and on the clip to release it. It worked. But I had bent the clip in the process so I took it off the door and re-bent it to the correct shape. If anyone doesn't understand this I will take a picture.
On models post 2006, they have hot glued the switchpack in place and added a EPP foam pusher (side impact crash block), also hot glued in place. May I add, not very well, as one edge has let go which when I twist the door card, emits a nasty creak. I will re glue this before I reassemble to the car. During some DIY around the house I used a polymer building adhesive, which was fantastic.
https://www.toolstation.com/everbuild-solvent-free-multi-stick-grab-adhesive/p38941
I may try this.
So, a word of warning. Some videos show removal of the switchpack by levering out from the inside of the car. I dare say post-2006 models, this won't be possible.
I had the pov spec car, so it had a blanking plate. Easy to remove I thought? Not so. 2 of the 3 bolts came away from their mounting and spun in the door card. The nuts that are used are the 'squashed' self locking ones. Total overkill. So, the only way I could remove the nuts was to cut away each side of them. What an absolute pain. Anyway, it worked. I will araldite the studs back into place before the next step.
The next phase was to make an adapter plate for the 3inch mid-range speakers. I used MDF, and as the project evolved, I realised that I would have to recess the speaker in the MDF so that it sat flush with the back surface of the door card. I understand that there isn't much space behind the card for the window, so this will be fine.
Adapter plate in place (back and front).
There are some scuffs on the leather just ahead of the door pull so I have bought a furniture clinic leather repair kit and balm to fix this before it all goes back together.
Here's the speaker in the holder with the obligatory anti-squeak felt.
I'm also going to sound deaden the panel and the door inner.
I will create a 3D model of the adapter plate and may try to print one in PETG. I will of course share the model with my forum buddies!
Question: can I unbolt the airbag and let it hang without disconnecting the battery?
CrazyBaptie
Member
Got to love some 3D printing - its looking good so far cant wait to see it finished.. off I go to look at speakers now :driving:
Z4C_er said:
Hi Z4C_er
Are these the pins you’re waiting for? Did you identify them in the end? I have a 3 way set of Hertz that are waiting to install with the crossover too so the pinned setup seems ideal - just don’t know what pins the connector block uses!
Darkangelv2 said:Z4C_er said:
Hi Z4C_er
Are these the pins you’re waiting for? Did you identify them in the end? I have a 3 way set of Hertz that are waiting to install with the crossover too so the pinned setup seems ideal - just don’t know what pins the connector block uses!
I had a look at this post ( https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=12153 ) and this OP mentioned there were blank spaces to be populated if you wanted. But I don't have the BMW pin connectors, so have bought a small roll of cable and will feed it through this space shown below. I bought some 76 strand OFC underfloor speaker cable which is super flexible and the connectors I'm waiting for are a more generic kind, called XT30, normally used for small battery packs:
Door loom gap:
