MY12 PB (KH) Mitsubishi Challenger Audio Upgrade

[killa]

One of the things lacking in the new Mitsubishi Challenger was decent audio so today I set about getting some decent sound with a speaker upgrade.
My speakers of choice this time around were the Polk DB6501 6½” Splits for the front and DB651 6½” Coaxials for the rear.
At this stage they are currently driven off an old Pioneer head unit that has 50W RMS per channel however I do have a Pioneer 4ch amp already wired up. Just need another weekend to run the speaker cables from the amp, under the carpet and into the doors .
(Today is a stinker in Townsville so I gave in to the lure of the airconditioning and decided to do this little write up instead).

So, before you start ripping doors off your Triton or Challenger, get out and pick up a couple of packets of these:

You’ll be needing them ‘coz this is what happens when removing the door trims, even when taking care.

Front door trim removed, ready to rip out the poxy factory speaker.


A little twist anti clockwise and she’s out.


Some new 6” Speaker Spacers pre-drilled and ready to be mounted into the door.


For those purchasing spacers, the Aerpro AP3161 spacers do not fit the front doors due to the ridge below the speaker mount as you can see in the background of the above pic.
The Polks I chose have a mounting dimension of 127mm (5”) which I thought would get me around this problem by using the smaller AP3151 rings but the speakers sit proud meaning they wouldn’t work either.

In the end DNA Audio came to the rescue with their 6” Spacers. Unfortunately, Townsville being Townsville, I couldn’t get these un-carpeted. This may not be an issue for others but I’m planning on some Dynamat sound deadening later and this won’t stick particularly well to dodgy speaker carpet.

Once the speaker spacer was installed the trusty old Vax was brought out to remove the tiny bits of steel swarth that have potential to cause rust in the bottom of the doors later down the track.


The next step was to install the tweeter into the angled trim panel next to the wing mirror.




Be careful when putting this trim piece back on as the little white retaining clip has a tendency to push through it’s mounting and drop into the wing mirror. The only way to get it back is to remove the wing mirror from it’s mounts. Not a hard job, just annoying.

Anyway, so the crossover was wired up and then I’ve chosen to Velcro it to the inner panel of the door just under where the woofer mounts. The Velcro I have used is super sticky and shouldn’t cause an issue, if it does I’ll deal with it *meh*.



Everything installed in the front doors, ready for the trims to go back on.



Same method was repeated for the rear doors, however I chose Coaxial speakers here with the Tweeter integrated into the one unit for a much faster install.




Here are the old speakers out of the Challenger. I ripped one apart initially as I was going to re-use the plastics as a spacer/mount but they don’t have much meat to screw into so I decided to go with the MDF spacers above.


And the final results, stealth install but MUCH clearer sound

[Diablo]

Nice install mate. I would have thought that the challenger might have got the mitsubishi power sound system some of the tritons got?

[fraz91]

Nice install mate. I would have thought that the challenger might have got the mitsubishi power sound system some of the tritons got?

I think it did get it, as those speakers don't look like the paper ones I pulled out of my triton

[Longranger1]

Neat install killa. Reminds me of yet another mod to put on the to do list... More money spent - groan.

Dead right about the weather - it was putrid today. Darn near expired pushing the mower around my yard today .

[killa]

Nice install mate. I would have thought that the challenger might have got the mitsubishi power sound system some of the tritons got?

Nah definitely the cheap paper speakers in mine. The LS gets a set of tweeters in the front but only the XLS has the 'power sound' system.

[jd88]

I've put new (db651) speakers in front and rear lately. Now I'm looking for a new head unit (which wasn't originally in my plans) because the stock one doesn't have enough grunt to drive the speakers. I'm hoping to avoid putting an amp in.

Were you hoping to put the tweeters behind the panels killa? I was kicking myself because even though I could vaguely recall seeing the spot where the tweeters go in the doors, I couldn't find said spot when I went about buying speakers for it, so I didn't get splits for the front. Then i rediscovered the tweeter spots while I was waiting for the speakers to arrive.

[killa]

I've put new (db651) speakers in front and rear lately. Now I'm looking for a new head unit (which wasn't originally in my plans) because the stock one doesn't have enough grunt to drive the speakers. I'm hoping to avoid putting an amp in.

Were you hoping to put the tweeters behind the panels killa? I was kicking myself because even though I could vaguely recall seeing the spot where the tweeters go in the doors, I couldn't find said spot when I went about buying speakers for it, so I didn't get splits for the front. Then i rediscovered the tweeter spots while I was waiting for the speakers to arrive.

Yeah I had hoped to use the stock location but the mounting kits are not really compatible. The curve on the face of the plastic trim is only just flat enough for these mounts, there is actually a small 1.5mm gap on the back (towards driver) and about a 2mm gap at the front (windscreen).
I will be running the cables to the amp soon, they sound good now but will sound great with a little power behind them. Even better when the Dynamat arrives

[jd88]

I don’t want to hijack killa’s thread, but I thought I’d put this here – maybe others might be able to learn from my mistakes.

I put a new head unit in, with 4 new Polk coaxial speakers (as mentioned above), and now the stereo sounds like I'm listening to a fairly good stereo from a room next door through a relatively thin wall. Muddy! If I lift my right foot out of the way it sounds quite a bit better. The oem stereo sounded better than this. My advice is, definitely go for splits up front. (But more than that, if you don’t use your stereo for anything very demanding, if you’re relatively happy with it as is, don’t mess with it – they sound pretty damn good for 15watt paper speakers, all things considered!)

I’ve been driving around with the rear seats folded up in front of the rear speakers (mine's a Challenger too), so that doesn’t help. My next step is to dynamat the doors, because they’re sounding like vibration chambers as things are.

[killa]

I put a new head unit in, with 4 new Polk coaxial speakers (as mentioned above), and now the stereo sounds like I'm listening to a fairly good stereo from a room next door through a relatively thin wall. Muddy! If I lift my right foot out of the way it sounds quite a bit better.

When I auditioned the speakers at first I thought the DB651's needed the high range stuff boosted a bit even on the sound wall.
TBH I only put them in the car as they are for rear fill more than clarity and I wanted to save a little coin by not putting the more expensive DB6501 splits in the back.
Overall I am still very happy with the result though and still haven't found a weekend to wire up the speakers from the amp yet .

[jd88]

I could find somewhere else to use a pair of 651s, but forking out for the 6501s would be painful!

After I wrote the phrase "vibration chamber" in my last post, I started thinking about how there was almost enough clearance for the 651s in the front door, but not quite enough, so that there was the metal of the speaker back screwed down against the metal of the triangular hole in the door. (The guy who installed them thought to himself "f%*k it, that'll do" at the time. He also thought, "why a triangular hole? speakers are round!") I'm thinking before I send away for some dynamat I should go over this aspect of the work and see what improvement can be made, if any.

[killa]

I could find somewhere else to use a pair of 651s, but forking out for the 6501s would be painful!

After I wrote the phrase "vibration chamber" in my last post, I started thinking about how there was almost enough clearance for the 651s in the front door, but not quite enough, so that there was the metal of the speaker back screwed down against the metal of the triangular hole in the door. (The guy who installed them thought to himself "f%*k it, that'll do" at the time. He also thought, "why a triangular hole? speakers are round!") I'm thinking before I send away for some dynamat I should go over this aspect of the work and see what improvement can be made, if any.

This is where I got mine from, posted straight away and I had them 3 days later. Best price I could find in Townsville was nearly $400 a pair.
http://www.elite-electronics.com.au/ind ... cts_id=677

Get some MDF spacers Like I did, no clearance issues at all and it will stiffen up the mount.

[jd88]

This is where I got mine from, posted straight away and I had them 3 days later. Best price I could find in Townsville was nearly $400 a pair.
http://www.elite-electronics.com.au/ind ... cts_id=677

Get some MDF spacers Like I did, no clearance issues at all and it will stiffen up the mount.

That's more like it - the best price I'd seen for them was $300. I did use 16mm (uncarpeted) mdf spacers with the speakers, but I'm pretty sure there was some extra contact happening with the magnet bracing when they were screwed down tight. I'll rip the door apart today and have another look.

[killa]

Update: I've now run the splits through the 4ch amp and added Stinger Roadkill (thanks to the WOW receivers sale ) to the doors.





Very nice, no stupid vibrations or booming through the doors any more

[samos69]

Nice work, I've done similar to my triton and had great results. I find if you seal the access holes (not permanently) it also improves the sound even more.

I was a little more generous with the dynamat to..

These are the rears, the fronts are the same but I'm running infinity reference components

[killa]

Lookin' good Samos

[srb]

Hay killa, great write up mate! Came in handy this weekend while doing mine. The dynamatt works a treat hay, I couldn't belive the difference it made.
Something you may not have thought of though... You have mounted your crossovers inside the door cavities. When I first looked inside mine I noticed how wet it was in there Luckily for me it had rained during the night, otherwise I wouldn't have known. So I ended up mounting my crossovers on the outside door trim in the door pockets.

[killa]

Good idea on the pockets. Haven't had much rain since I installed these, only rains here a couple of weeks a year ...but when it does!!
Yeah I have Roadkill on nearly everything. Front and rear doors, back door (5th) and before the rear drawers go in I'll do the rear quarter panels and maybe even the floor.

[srb]

For dingoCC
Pic of cross over mounted in door pocket.

[furious]

thanks for this, came in handy this weekend.

[DingoCC]

This thread has been great so here is my little picture show to help the next sucker that comes along. With just the one front door left to do I estimate a good three days of effort so far including the running around to get stuff. Probably another five hours of internet research. You know how it goes hey! You could be doing nothing but you don't mind having a crack yourself.

I've already installed a DigOptions head unit along with some cheap amp I got on sale years ago. The standard speakers sound pretty good. If your a little lazy then just stick an amp in and don't better with this speaker muck around. These pics though are just for the speaker upgrade.

Shopping list:
1. christmas tree plastic trim things from Autobarn. Pop the trim off, take one out and take it to the shop. 5 per door
2. can of spray from bunnings that removes gunk such as 'Septone wax and grease remover' to clean the door
3. couple of smallish MDF sheets for covering access holes
4. spray paint of any color
5. duct tape, must be duct as it handles exposure to moisture
6. speakers, got the same polk audio units as above as they are known to fit
7. dnaaudio.com.au MDF speaker spacers model WAS106 from Autobarn
8. megasorber.com sound deadening sheets model 'Megasorber D14'. Same stuff that Holden uses apparently. You can go nuts with this stuff but I did four sheets per back door and five per front door. About $14 a sheet **BARGAIN**

To prep the door follow this:
http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/art ... r_vehicle/

There are pics of front and back doors here:








Take it slow with the first door. Get all the black sticky stuff off that holds the moisture guard on. The following pics show the tweeter installation with the cross over and the wiring including plugs. I did the plugs so basically I could do the tweeter and cross over install away from the vehicle although it certainly added a good hour to the job. I considered using the grills that come with the speakers but didn't in the end as they look a little too boy racer for me.







The sound now is good; very good and the doors make that 'thunk' sound like an expensive euro when you close them.

[killa]

Nice work Colin

[Kegsy]

Nice job on the doors mate!

If you're keen on some more, deadening the entire floor pan will dramatically lower your noise floor and bring out those front drivers even more.

I've done all the doors and the floor in my triton. Massive improvement.