After blowing my drivers side door speaker I decided replace both doors with some polk audio 6.5' coaxial speakers. Because I still use the stock amp to drive my speakers, I got the same result as everyone else, very underpowered yet clear sound. Naturally I was unsatisfied, as I seemed to be missing mid range and clarity in my highs.

So, I dug up a pair of Polk Audio 4' coaxials from a past build and tapped into the wire going to the 6.5's. The result is surprisingly excellent sound! I'de even rank it as good if not better than stock. It's still not quite as powerful as the stock speakers, but after extensive tweaking of the equalizer and boosting the mid-range (very useful function on my head unit) I've come to love it. The only problem I've run into is I had to turn up the High Pass Filter a bit so the 4's don't distort, but I just ordered a pair of Bass Blockers which will hopefully dissolve that problem.

Threw in the picture so you can see what I've got, but as you can see, I'm still working on how I'm going to mount the 4's. I don't want to drill into the door panel, so I could use some suggestions on what to do here as currently they're just floating there and fall when I take a fast turn .

This isn't going to be anything permanent (at least not with the stock amp, I plan on replacing that eventually). Oh, and I do have a 500W RMS sub in the trunk as well, so this door setup is purely to maximize my mids/highs on a tight budget. I've read a lot about people wanting to replace their stock speakers before the amp, and this definitely seems like a good way to go about doing it if you've got some extra speakers laying around..

 

Just replaced my front speakers today and it seemed there was enough room to cut into the area next to the 6.5" and run wire behind there. I'd have to take off the panel and check forsure. I'm still trying to find the answer but does that factory amp in the trunk also go to the front speakers?

 

Yes, I'm fairly certain it does.

 

What size speakers fit in the doors? And do aftermarket speakers bolt up or do you have to mod it? I've got an 02 with tape deck I'm looking at replacing.

I did notice the door speaker box leaks water at the bottom when I was doing some leak checks. Though I'd say the leak would be small enough to just run down and out the car vs. building up and running inside the car at the carpet.

 

The stock door speakers are 6.5's, I've got a pair of Polk audio 6.5 coaxial speakers in my doors on top of the 4's sitting on the edge.

The 6.5's went in fairly easy, I had to make a new hole in one corner but it was no problem at all, screwed right in.

I've never noticed any leaks while I had my door panel off, though I wasn't really looking for any..