E36 Door Card Speaker Replacement - Part 2 - Wiring it up!

97 E36 4 door w/o door airbags

  In continuation of the speaker replacement install on Jeremy's 97 328i, we are now to the point where we can wire up everything and put the door card back on.

  I looked through several forum posts about water coming into the door if you do not use proper sealer on the moisture barrier behind the door card. 3M window weld seemed to be the go to of choice. 

Also the newer style push clips for the door cards kept the rattles to a minimum. Check and check.

Materials: 

- 3M window weld. We went with 3/8" thick stuff. I think you could use 1/4 no problem.

-20 new style clips, 10 on each door card.

Door card with new style push clips ready to go.

  We had to snip each one to make it easier to get them in. The newer style clips has a solid head instead of a slotted one.

  Getting the old sealant off the door frame was the hardest part for me. I was trying to use a plastic scraper. The stuff BMW put on here was like tar. We used the heat gun but them it was just became soft tar. 

  Jeremy found that using a bit of the old stuff to dab at the rest was the best technique. When he was done he had a large tar ball. Which I should have got a picture of but, I didn't. 

  I went back over a few sections with alcohol then, we were ready for the new stuff.

  Laying down the 3M sealant. The old stuff was 3/8 wide when it was smooshed. I think we would have been fine with 1/4" stuff. The 5 series seem to have bigger issues with door leaks.

  Installation is a breeze. Just push on and smooth it out.

  Now on the speaker wiring side of things I wanted to make sure I was getting my polarity correct. I saved all the door card speakers and short pigtails from each so I could verify this as I went. This method helped me stay on track since, I'm easily distracted.

  As you can see the stock speakers are clearly labeled. Just make sure the solder points on those contacts are going where you think is positive.

  For reference:
The tweeter seen here did not have its ohm rating listed on it. The stock mid-range speakers were 8 ohms. The stock kicker panel (bass) speaker was 4 ohms.

  There we go. Terminals properly crimps and labeled. Door card can be removed again if need be. All the pigtails remain about stock length as well. 

  And that's that. So in terms of sound, how does it do? Well the front speakers are much more clear but, they still sound muddy. The mids are very low in terms of volume in comparison to the tweeters. This is because the Viva's we choose have a lower sensitivity per watt than the pioneers. I'm hoping to be able to tune some of that out once I figure out the settings on the aftermarket Alpine head unit. The bass speakers seem to be robbing power from these when the bass is down low, which is where everyone likes it. 

  Again, getting the stock amp out of there and putting in the proper three way crossovers out back, I believe, will make a world of difference. That is our next step: 3-way crossover installation, stock amp bypass, and aftermarket amp installation.