E46 Rear Speakers HOT TIP!

[adamgritz]

Hi Everyone

Just thought i'd share a tip with anyone who wants to change the rear speakers on the parcel shelf (rear deck).

I've got a non HK e46 m3 and decided I couldn't stand the speakers any longer! I just wanted good quality sound but didn't want a sub, i've just replaced the rear speakers and my word, what a difference! First off I purchased some Alpine SPE-17C2 6.5" speakers, but quickly realised that a speaker plate adapter had to be made to fit the original fixings. This was easy but when I installed them it sounded horrible, the rear parcel shelf rattled like a b*tch and the bas was not good!

I looked at the whole rear deck set-up more closely and realised that the original speakers sit in a plastic cup for a good reason (the ones i fitted sat on top of the cup and rested against the parcel shelf) the original speakers when connected to the cup act like a mini sub and draw air from the boot underneath the shelf, they don't actually rest on the rear shelf, just the brackets from the cup bolt to the shelf, thus removing any vibration through the shelf.

So, the solution...

I trimmed the Alpine speakers down by 5/6mm all the way round (using a jigsaw), then removed the original BMW speaker from it's outer ring and then dropped the Alpine speaker into the outer ring, glued it and left to dry.
Now I had an Alpine 6.5" speaker in BMW speaker ring! this then dropped in perfectly to the existing plastic cup and hey presto, no rattles or vibration at all!...plus, the bass sounds wicked!

This process in the end was real easy, and much better than using a 13cm speaker with an adaptor plate (like evrone recommends), I'm gonna do the fronts next month...can't wait!

I'll keep you lot informed...

[david06M3]

Thanks for the tip. I'm getting another e46 M3 (will be my third) and I"m going to try this.

[0-60Motorsports]

Any pics to show us your work bro cos i wana do the same.....