Firstly, a big thank you to 'Stainless' for his excellent thread on upgrading speakers. I'm not going to repeat any of that, just add some extra info for anyone wanting to add tweeters in the A-pillar.
My car didn't come with a sound pack, so I've had to modify the A-pillar to take a tweeter and run new wiring. This was actually quite simple.
The speakers I've installed are Hertz ECX 165 with speaker pods in the main door, plus Hertz HT20R super tweeters in the A-pillar.
I started by removing the door panel, as shown by 'Stainless'.
The A-pillar just unclips; this is probably the easiest part to remove!
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On the right-hand-side A-pillar there is also a wire to the alarm LED that has to be unplugged to take the A-pillar off, seen on the right of this picture. There is also cut-out sponge circle, nicely prepared by VW for tweeter space!
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I marked the centre of this circle, drilled a pilot hole, then drilled a 32mm hole to take the tweeter. (I also put masking tape over the outer side of the panel to protect it).
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The tweeter was a tight push-fit and didn't need any of the supplied securing parts:
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Having already drilled out the rivets and removed the standard speakers, I put sound-deadening matting on the inside of the door behind the speaker:
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Now the wiring needs to be run from the tweeter into the main door. I found this could be done easily by removing the door mirror (two large bolts holding it in place) and pushing the wire through the gap where the door mirror cable runs. In the following picture the A-pillar and tweeter are on the other side of the door so you can see the wiring coming through the door and going downwards:
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The A-pillar can now be clipped back into place, but note that the wiring must be fully pulled down into the lower door and the mirror bolts tightened:
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Wiring was then attached to the crossover, which was attached using Velcro tape to the sound-deadening panel:
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The speaker pod was attached to the door using standard speaker clips and screws, the wiring attached to the speaker and the speaker attached to the pod:
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Checked that sound worked... it didn't. The speaker attachments must have been shorting on the metal of the door, so I pushed them down, put electrical tape over them and refitted. All fine. So put door panel back on.
Now the only clue there's something a little different is the tweeter in the A-pillar:
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And the sound! Now balanced and lively rather than dull, and the tweeters bring the soundstage up to the panel level.
Still need to fit speakers to the back doors, but not really necessary now, so that job can wait until I have more time.
My car didn't come with a sound pack, so I've had to modify the A-pillar to take a tweeter and run new wiring. This was actually quite simple.
The speakers I've installed are Hertz ECX 165 with speaker pods in the main door, plus Hertz HT20R super tweeters in the A-pillar.
I started by removing the door panel, as shown by 'Stainless'.
The A-pillar just unclips; this is probably the easiest part to remove!
On the right-hand-side A-pillar there is also a wire to the alarm LED that has to be unplugged to take the A-pillar off, seen on the right of this picture. There is also cut-out sponge circle, nicely prepared by VW for tweeter space!
I marked the centre of this circle, drilled a pilot hole, then drilled a 32mm hole to take the tweeter. (I also put masking tape over the outer side of the panel to protect it).
The tweeter was a tight push-fit and didn't need any of the supplied securing parts:
Having already drilled out the rivets and removed the standard speakers, I put sound-deadening matting on the inside of the door behind the speaker:
Now the wiring needs to be run from the tweeter into the main door. I found this could be done easily by removing the door mirror (two large bolts holding it in place) and pushing the wire through the gap where the door mirror cable runs. In the following picture the A-pillar and tweeter are on the other side of the door so you can see the wiring coming through the door and going downwards:
The A-pillar can now be clipped back into place, but note that the wiring must be fully pulled down into the lower door and the mirror bolts tightened:
Wiring was then attached to the crossover, which was attached using Velcro tape to the sound-deadening panel:
The speaker pod was attached to the door using standard speaker clips and screws, the wiring attached to the speaker and the speaker attached to the pod:
Checked that sound worked... it didn't. The speaker attachments must have been shorting on the metal of the door, so I pushed them down, put electrical tape over them and refitted. All fine. So put door panel back on.
Now the only clue there's something a little different is the tweeter in the A-pillar:
And the sound! Now balanced and lively rather than dull, and the tweeters bring the soundstage up to the panel level.
Still need to fit speakers to the back doors, but not really necessary now, so that job can wait until I have more time.
