DIY: Mk3 Cheap and Very Easy Sound System

[jono0309]

G'Day guys.

I thought I would write up a tutorial on a very simple sound system. I know that I would not be able to do many things without the help of people here and their great tutorials.

So here is a VERY simple tutorial for people looking for a sound system that is better than standard, wont fuzz on you and replaces the blown old factory speakers which for the most of you are now 12-16+ years old.

I understand some people will not like how I did this but it just made life very easy and you dont have to change anything with the cars hard wiring but rather just a few clips and use your head for the DIY part.

The products I used was a Sony headunit which I bought brand new off a friend who never used it, in stores for $200? Anyway its a bog standard Sony Xplod unit...Which puts out 52W (RMS) to 4 channels (four speakers) so your looking at a pretty standard speaker that is going to be put in.

What You Will Need

-Small flat head screw driver
-Philip head screw driver
-Dremel
-Soldering Iron/Solder
-Everything in your kit (wires, bracket, grills, etc)
-Wire Cutters/Wire stripper
-Double side sticky tape and Super glue (both optional)

Here is what I used for the speakers:

Front Speakers:
6

Rear Speakers:
6

These are basically fusions bottom of the line 6" components for the front and I used 6" 2-ways for the back.
In the Mk3 Golf, it runs component speakers front and rear, BUT the rear tweeters (tiny speakers) are much smaller than the tweeters in the front, I knew the aftermarket component tweeters would not fit, so I went with 2 ways, which basically eliminated the need for the tweeter as it is built in to the 2 way speaker.

Sorry for that confusion, so basically, you can run components in the rear, but the hole for the tweeter is so small, size of a 20cent piece, nothing aftermarket will fit that I thought hence my choice for 2-ways.

First off. Install the headunit, this is very simple, use the wiring diagram that you can find in this forum from the DIY files and connect the wires of the new headunit and solder them together, and your done! If you want to know how to actually get the headunit out then consult the DIY Heatercore tutorials as this shows the disassembly of the dash.

You can install these speakers without taking the door trims off but I took them off as it allows you to get back there and clean the whole thing up, as mine was VERY dusty and dirty.

Speakers I Used:

Fronts:



Backs:



Front Speaker Install



Pull off your plastic trim piece near surrounding your door handle, use a small flat head screwdriver to pry it out, be gentle not to scratch the plastic. Its just clipped in.





There are two connectors clipped in, just wiggle them out and feed them out of the plastic trim.



Take two philips heads out, they are located near the door handle and plastic trim piece.







Unscrew door pins...

[jono0309]

Once that is done, pry off the door trim carefully. I started at the this side, made it easier...
The speaker sits in the door trim, so when the trim comes off, unclip the speaker connector.





I ripped off all the insulation a while back behind the doors as I fixed the lock so this is what I had...



Use small flat head again for the speaker grill..



Standard speaker...



Philips head screw driver...take out the four screws keeping the standard speakers in.
Keep standard speaker as you will need it later.

Get the door trim and your dremel or whatever your using and trim off the lugs and knobs on the door card. There are 5 that keep the standard grill in place, but these get in the way, they are only slightly raised but you can just shave them back (this is so new speaker will fit later on)

[jono0309]

Now...this is what makes this sound system install very easy to do!

Get your dremel out again and do this...













Just make it nice and clean, cut is straight and not wonky like me!

[jono0309]

Double side sticky tape...









Ones bigger than the other on the connectors so very easy to fit up...



Soldering Iron in hand...







Once thats all done..Just get your bracket that comes in the fusion or aftermarket grill packet and line the holes up with the plastic bracket up with the new speaker and simply bolt the new bracket/speaker together straight onto the standard bolt holes, the fusion speakers fit perfectly with the standard bolt holes. New bolts provided with the speakers so new bolts, new brackets to mount the new speakers to standard door card. 100% flush fit.

Grill and bracket pop out of each other with ease...

[jono0309]

So thats your front door speakers done pretty much. Very easy.

Now for the front tweeters...There is a grill there, just pry out with small flat head...

Then inside is a little circular looking thingo, pry that out aswell...and just unclip the unit.

I simply ripped out the old tweeter, fitted the new tweeter and wired it in similiar to the door speaker...





Now I took the tweeters out of their standard casing in order to fit. Basically secure the tweeters to the standard plastic mount and connector as best as possible, I used super glue on a few metal clips and just bolts the clips down which holds the tweeter in, very easy. Super glue was just assistance but metal bracket/clips worked fine initially.

---------- Post added at 10:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 PM ----------

This is the other side of the front tweeters, bolts come out a fair bit, but they dont come into contact with the grill as the tweeter is set inside the dash a bit.







---------- Post added at 10:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 PM ----------

So that is the front doors done, should work fine now, using standard wiring throughout the car (as your new system is not using enough power to upgrade your wiring so standard connectors work a treat, saves all the hassles).

Rear Doors:

Take the plastic and door trim off the same way you have done the fronts.

Now do the same steps as the front, remove speaker, shave standard speaker mounts off, etc etc.

The only difference here is there is no tweeter separate to the speaker, you have both built into one.

Here is a shot of the 2 way speaker just in case



So just connect the new wires to the new speaker and just solder it up same as the fronts.

Look at the plastic trim, the standard tweeter grill is tiny and will not fit an aftermarket tweeter, it is also very dirty by the looks of mine..





Degreaser and paper towel fixed mine up like new...

Once the door card is modded to fit the new speaker/bracket/etc, bolt it all up as it should fit 100% flush like the fronts.

The only difference when you fit the rear speakers (2 ways) there will be two clips that go into the rear speaker connector, you only need to fit one as the other connector goes to the tweeter that you are no longer running. So look at your tweeter clip/wires, take note of the colours of these wires and leave that same coloured wires/clip disconnected to the new speaker. This is because the speaker and tweeter are no longer having to be connected and working together as the tweeter is now built in and the old tweeter is not there, so leave the standard wiring there, just not connected to anything on the tweeter side and the speaker side.

Hope that works for you guys and makes sense!
Again, just a very simple way of upgrading the sound system and is very cost effective.

I found that on the head unit, it starts to distort at about 45 out of 50 on the volume. When you get above 30-35 I find that is louder than you would normally have when cruising along and is fine for just daily use. Anything above 40 is not bad at all either and doesn't sound as crap as you think, these little speakers are getting 10w RMS more than they need which is fine as speakers can be slightly over powered. I got these speakers from my mate who works for Fusion so I got the set for next to nothing and they are very cheap regardless. Anything similar will work...pioneer/sony/etc. All the leading brands would work fine and you could do the same thing with. I just found Fusion good as its cheap, cheerful and comes with everything in the kit; including wires, brackets, bolts, grill, etc.

Cheers