E36 Speaker Upgrade

[MilesP 13]

This guide is to show people how I upgraded the rear speakers in my 1996 E36 323i. The idea for the guide came about because there is very little information showing people how the E36 rear shelf is setup and how it works. This guide will not work with the BMW systems that have the AMP.

You will need the following...

Speaker adapters:

The standard BMW has 4" speakers in the rear shelf. The problem with changing these speakers out for new 4" speakers is that they are not mounted into the chassis through a 4" cut out and 4 screw holes. This is good news for the person wanting to upgrade to larger speakers. The BMW system allowed them to plug and play different speakers in the factory depending on how the car had been specified. In order to maintain the standard appearance of your E36 and not cut into the car at all you will need to buy some adapters which will mimic the adapter design and at the same time allow larger speakers to be fitted. I bought mine from Ebay and they cost me 19 pounds shipped to New Zealand.

Speakers:

You will need 6" x 9" speakers in order to fit the mounts. These are one of the most common size of speakers you will find in New Zealand, they provide large amounts of bass and clarity due to their size and when compared to the standard speakers they are a massive upgrade. I used some Rockford Fosgate R1693 because they suited my head unit in therms of their quality and their rated performance. I would recommend talking to a car audio professional as to the speakers you will need.

Tools:

Large Flathead screw driver

10mm socket and small wrench

Small Philips screw driver

Wire strippers and wire joiners

Needle nose pliers

Zenith 14g x 22mm Hex Head Screw

Step 1:

You will first need to remove the rear speakers.

Take your flat head screw driver and pry up the rear speaker cover, remove this from the car as shown.

Step 2:

Unplug the wires that run from the car to the speaker. I did this with a pair of needle nose pliers. Make sure that you do not damage the plug as if you ever want to put the old speakers back in this is required. The plug pictured here has blue wires, however the left hand side will be yellow wires.

Step 3:

You will now need to remove the speaker from the car. First off remove the two Philips head screws that hold the speakers in place.

Now you will need to push the metal retaining clip inwards to the speaker which will release it and allow the speaker to fall into the boot. The clip can be seen in the red circle.

Step 4:

Take your adapters and your 14g screws and create a thread in the plastic holes where the adapter will be mounted. I had to do this as the adapters came with stupid little bolts instead of screws like the OEM system. This meant that you would need to install the adapter into the car and then install the speaker after which would be difficult.

To thread the plastic I left the adapters in the sun for about 30 mins to soften the plastic and then just screwed the 14g screws into the plastic which created the thread needed.

Step 5:

Install your speakers onto the adapters.

Step 6:

Insert the speakers and adapter into the original space where the older speakers were. You should do this in the reverse of how the old speakers came out. Once you have the speakers in they will be very loose. At this stage you want to line up the mounting holes and thread your Hex screws into the adapter which will secure the speaker in place.

It is important here to make sure that before you place the speaker in the car that you run its wire up through the hole in the rear deck first in order to wire it up.

Step 7:

Join the wires of the speakers and the cars wiring. The BMW wiring system uses a gray stripe as the positive.

Step 8:

Replace the covers of the speakers and enjoy your upgraded sound system.

Edited July 28, 2012 by MilesP

[m325i 704]

How mucH better is your sound ?

Also, out of interest what 6x9s did you use?

It looks like a pretty easy, cheap and nasty way to upgrade sound.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Nick G

[MilesP 13]

How mucH better is your sound ?

Also, out of interest what 6x9s did you use?

It looks like a pretty easy, cheap and nasty way to upgrade sound.

The stereo system sounds completely different. There is now more bass, clarity and ALOT more volume.

I used Rockford Fosgate R1693 speakers.

I would recommend it to anyone wanting to upgrade their E36 sound on a budget. I would say its cheap but I wouldn't call it nasty. The car looks stock and the mounts look tidy

[my_e36 43]

Just a note that the facelift e36 (at least mine did) have a larger 5.25" rear speakers.

[MilesP 13]

Just a note that the facelift e36 (at least mine did) have a larger 5.25" rear speakers.

If I am correct it was a factory option. Some (and I am talking about the late late models) even had 6" x 9" from factory.

I say I think it was a factory option as my car is the facelift E36.

[euroriffic 595]

My rears were 4"nokias and were in their own proper boxes that hang to just above the strut tops so just reused them with quality 4" speakers. I did have a business spec radio and cd changer though

[MilesP 13]

My rears were 4"nokias and were in their own proper boxes that hang to just above the strut tops so just reused them with quality 4" speakers. I did have a business spec radio and cd changer though

Yup mine were the 4" Nokia type as well.

[Neal 510]

In my view a good step in factory bass before going to sub (s) I've heard some nice sounding 2 way 6x9's in the past. Should also produce a higher spl for the same power of the 4 .5 inch nokia's. Cost effective upgrade.

[m325i 704]

OP gave his 6x9 choice - TY

Any other suggestions? I might do this and trying to buy 6x9's is a nightmare. How can you tell? I found a 'shoot out' that rated Jaycar 2 ways and Fusion, (but I can't find that particular model).

nice sounding 2 way 6x9's

The findings were like what you said - 2 way is better.

But any suggestions?

(This thread will have the audiophiles shaking their heads ).

[MilesP 13]

OP gave his 6x9 choice - TY

Any other suggestions? I might do this and trying to buy 6x9's is a nightmare. How can you tell? I found a 'shoot out' that rated Jaycar 2 ways and Fusion, (but I can't find that particular model).

The findings were like what you said - 2 way is better.

But any suggestions?

(This thread will have the audiophiles shaking their heads ).

I researched the hell out of the speakers that I bought and I honestly couldn't be happier with the choice I made. I bought my speakers from Team Auto Sound and Security. I managed to pick up my speakers for $119 brand new when they normally retail for $190

From the research that I did I can tell you a few things about 6" x 9"s

- Firstly do not every pay attention to anything rated in watts that does not say RMS after it. RMS is the power that the speaker can continuously deliver.

- Two-way is generally better than three way HOWEVER brands such as Sony, Pioneer and Fusion have prices on their two-way speakers which are around the same as the Alpine, Rockford Fosgate speakers that are three-way. In this case the three way speakers by Alpine and Rockford Fosgate will be better because the brands are better.

- An external cross-over is a box which takes the audio signal, splits it between high and low frequencies and then sends the appropriate frequency to the appropriate speaker resulting in a clearer sound. Also here you should note that the internal crossover system on the better brands will be ALOT better than the external system of the cheaper brands and quite often you will find that an expensive speaker with internal crossover will outperform the cheaper with the external crossover.

- Brand wise and from my personal experience I have found Pioneer and Sony to be near the bottom of the barrel, Fusion is around the middle and brands such as Alpine and Rockford Fosgate are near the top in terms of sound and build quality. DO NOT even touch the cheap imported brands from Trademe.

- Do not just buy the highest rated speakers. I tested around 4 other types of speakers that were rated from 90w RMS to 150w RMS and the end choice I made was my R1693 which are rated at 60w RMS

- They way speakers sound on the shelf in the demo setup is nothing like it will sound in your car at all.

- It is important to consider if, at any stage in the future you would be wanting to put an amp into the car to run a sub or the rear 6" x 9"s as different 6" x 9's will be needed. Generally ones that can handle more power.

In the end any new speakers will sound better than your current Nokia speakers

Nick G:

What sort of head unit do you have?

If I may recommend some speakers for you:

http://www.qualitycaraudio.co.nz/index.php...;product_id=483

http://www.qualitycaraudio.co.nz/index.php...;product_id=486

http://www.paulsaudio.co.nz/products?prodid=183

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/pr...x?itemid=112913

Edited July 31, 2012 by MilesP

[Neal 510]

JBL comes to mind. They have 30 years of making this size for cars. In someways 6x9's can be a good way of getting nice mid to high bass notes. If you like insainly loud rock music or slap style bass players , then go for it. However , they will over power your fronts and pull the image to the rear. (roughly 8 db up on most component speakers so sound almost twice as loud)

http://www.jbl.com/estore/jbl/us/products/...d=GTO928_JBL_US (note usd)

Personally for Stereo music I would rather run high quality fronts with a bit of rear fill and a sub running down from 80 hz with steep crossover rolloffs. It pulls the image forward with a reasonable soundstage for a car. (I'm not too fused with what rear passengers hear) It's hard to achieve with 6x9's in the rear.

Edited July 31, 2012 by Neal

[MilesP 13]

JBL comes to mind. They have 30 years of making this size for cars. In someways 6x9's can be a good way of getting nice mid to high bass notes. If you like insainly loud rock music or slap style bass players , then go for it. However , they will over power your fronts and pull the image to the rear. (roughly 8 db up on most component speakers so sound almost twice as loud)

http://www.jbl.com/estore/jbl/us/products/...d=GTO928_JBL_US (note usd)

Personally for Stereo music I would rather run high quality fronts with a bit of rear fill and a sub running down from 80 hz with steep crossover rolloffs. It pulls the image forward with a reasonable soundstage for a car. (I'm not too fused with what rear passengers hear) It's hard to achieve with 6x9's in the rear.

I don't find that the rears are twice as loud but they certainly balance the audio more then what was there. The standard speakers were probably the worst I have even had in my car.

Also yeah +1 on JBL I have heard good things.

[m325i 704]

I did this and I am highly disapointed - I think I should have got 'better' 6x9's and may try that, but it is a downgrade from my stock ('BMW HiFi') set up

[MilesP 13]

I did this and I am highly disapointed - I think I should have got 'better' 6x9's and may try that, but it is a downgrade from my stock ('BMW HiFi') set up

Oh ok. That's an interesting response.

What is your head-unit and your chosen rear speakers?

[isis 16]

dont waste your money on the rear speakers - they're just there for fillers. spent them on the fronts. front stage its where its all at!

[MilesP 13]

I had the upgraded BMW hifi with 5" rears (I think ?) (pm me if you wanna buy them)

A lot of the problem was the Parcel tray rattle. I have fixed that and it's better, but overall I regret removing my stock speakers.

I have some better responsive 6x9s I am going to try, hopefully they Improve things.

It would be an upgrade if you only had the stock e36 system though.

Yeah, you see I upgraded my speakers because my car had the bottom of the line stereo system. The upgrade for me made a huge difference. But for you, unless you have good 6"x9" speakers that you are installing you will downgrade.

Standard rear speakers in an E36 are actually 4.5 inch not 4 and I would agree with others - looks like a hack job

Ok. Could you suggest a more tidy and cost effective way to upgrade the rear speakers?

I would love to hear it

[hybrid 1039]

The old excuse for there just refill are for people who cant get it right.

A lot of people miss the whole 80-100hz range because they haven't sealed the rear speakers properly. This is where the kick of bass comes from. When you try and compensate for this with say bigger speaker such as a sub you get too much boom and it drowns out the rest of the music.

With a good set of 6 1/2 with a decent driver and power source and a sealed boot will give you great kick and satisfying bass response without the need to blow your ears off.

Also you install the on axis and in phase .... lots of people muck that up and wonder why it sounds all flat and wierd.

[Neal 510]

Ironically 9x6 offer great mid / high bass and offer a punch that most 5 & 6s speakers can't match. In the old days (before decent front components) we'd mount those on the rear parcel shelve via 12mm MDF parcel shelve overlay (or in my case alpine 2 way Ib 8 inch speakers years back)

On the e30/e36 the rear parcel shelve needs either reinforcing or dynamating to stop the ratles and resonance.

You could try making MDF adaptors to replace the plastic ones. It may make the shelve ridge enough stop the rattling as even the factory 10 watts via a 6x9 will do it.

Otherwise , sound upgrades can become quit expensive quite quickly and the gains get less and less as the dollars go up.

Personal perfs for BMW's, Clean sounding source unit, CD or lossless digital music, 4 x matching componets in factory locations , skipass/ ski hatch Sub setup , 4 channel amp and 1 channel class d sub amp . DSP for time alignment of speakers to listening position.