Re: Honda e [Advance] Sound System
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 5:47 pm
Ok so I picked up my new set of 6,5 inch speakers for the front doors (JBL Club 622) and set out on a mission to install them and oh lord was that not easy...
The «universal» bracket that was included with the speakers were apparently not universal enough for the Honda e. The bracket did not fit out of the box and required self tapping screws to be used to fix the bracket to the door by drilling new holes. After fitting the bracket to the weirdly shaped hole I realized that the speaker would not fit as it would touch the metal due to the hole not being perfectly circular.
After a lot of swearing and arguing with myself I decided I was going to install the speakers no matter what, and did what no man should do to a brand new car; I cut off the annyoing metal part that was in the way...
After this cut I was able to fit the speaker without touching anything and I was quite happy with my stunt (although this would come back to bite me later...)
I was unable to get hold of original Honda speaker cables for a plug-and-play installation and as such opted to cut the wires, make my own plugs and solder new cables to the speaker itself.
After using a multimeter to find the positive/negative leads I connected the speaker and behold it worked! I installed the speaker onto the bracket and moved on to the next door.
I repeated the same steps by cutting off some of the metal on the other door and then I realized that I had made a huge mistake.
I noticed that the window would hit the back of the speaker when opening it and I cursed and yelled some more out of frustration... After a lot of thinking, trying and failing I eventually came up with a workaround. I used the included ring for the speaker grill used if mounting the speaker externally to move the speaker a bit out from the door. I sandwiched the ring between the speaker and the bracket with a self adhesive rubber seal to avoid vibrations and managed to fit the speaker without touching the glass. However, I now realized that the speaker would fit without cutting the door and I had now molested my brand new car for no reason...
After sorting the window glass issue on both doors, I tried to fit the door panel only to realize it was touching the speaker. I had to cut off a plastic ring on the back of the door panel speaker grill to get it to fit, but I finally managed to fit the door panels back on and test the speakers, and they sound amazing! I have removed the center speaker from the dash as I have ordered the JBL Club 322F 3,5 inch speaker that I hopefully get in a couple of days.
I apologize for such a long post but I hope this will give some insight for those of you wanting to do the same thing. However, I only recommend going through all this work if you really, REALLY care about the sound quality as I spent 6 hours on the install and took a lot of risk doing so.
Also, in hindsight I should have been more patient and ordered a 6,5 inch Honda speaker bracket/adapter to fit the original holes, as well as a Honda speaker cable with the plug. These things are very hard to find in my country and would require weeks to order from abroad. I have damaged my car to make this work, and I hope I don’t regret it in the future.
The «universal» bracket that was included with the speakers were apparently not universal enough for the Honda e. The bracket did not fit out of the box and required self tapping screws to be used to fix the bracket to the door by drilling new holes. After fitting the bracket to the weirdly shaped hole I realized that the speaker would not fit as it would touch the metal due to the hole not being perfectly circular.
After a lot of swearing and arguing with myself I decided I was going to install the speakers no matter what, and did what no man should do to a brand new car; I cut off the annyoing metal part that was in the way...
After this cut I was able to fit the speaker without touching anything and I was quite happy with my stunt (although this would come back to bite me later...)
I was unable to get hold of original Honda speaker cables for a plug-and-play installation and as such opted to cut the wires, make my own plugs and solder new cables to the speaker itself.
After using a multimeter to find the positive/negative leads I connected the speaker and behold it worked! I installed the speaker onto the bracket and moved on to the next door.
I repeated the same steps by cutting off some of the metal on the other door and then I realized that I had made a huge mistake.
I noticed that the window would hit the back of the speaker when opening it and I cursed and yelled some more out of frustration... After a lot of thinking, trying and failing I eventually came up with a workaround. I used the included ring for the speaker grill used if mounting the speaker externally to move the speaker a bit out from the door. I sandwiched the ring between the speaker and the bracket with a self adhesive rubber seal to avoid vibrations and managed to fit the speaker without touching the glass. However, I now realized that the speaker would fit without cutting the door and I had now molested my brand new car for no reason...
After sorting the window glass issue on both doors, I tried to fit the door panel only to realize it was touching the speaker. I had to cut off a plastic ring on the back of the door panel speaker grill to get it to fit, but I finally managed to fit the door panels back on and test the speakers, and they sound amazing! I have removed the center speaker from the dash as I have ordered the JBL Club 322F 3,5 inch speaker that I hopefully get in a couple of days.
I apologize for such a long post but I hope this will give some insight for those of you wanting to do the same thing. However, I only recommend going through all this work if you really, REALLY care about the sound quality as I spent 6 hours on the install and took a lot of risk doing so.
Also, in hindsight I should have been more patient and ordered a 6,5 inch Honda speaker bracket/adapter to fit the original holes, as well as a Honda speaker cable with the plug. These things are very hard to find in my country and would require weeks to order from abroad. I have damaged my car to make this work, and I hope I don’t regret it in the future.