Front Door Speaker Replacement - OEM Infinity system

[Mudderoy]

Reminder: Jeep Cherokee "XJ" 1998

The XJ came with the premium "Infinity" sound system. 100 watt amp, and 6 speaker set up. After the passenger side door speaker BLEW I started looking up on the Internet to see if I could find a replacement. NO! Dealership only and it was ahhh $130 a speaker!?!?!?

I went around to several stereo shops and they all said the Infinity system I had was crap, and any speaker I put back in the door would not have the BASS response that the original speakers had.

My best bet was to let the TRASH the whole system and put in EVERYTHING new. Yeah right.

So YEARS went by and I finally decided replacing the door speakers was better than not having any. I poked around on the Internet and found some good marks on some 2 ohm Infinity speakers. I can only hope they are better than the originals.

I settled on Infinity Reference 5022i 5-1/4" 2-way car speakers. I was going to drive to Best Buy and pick up a pair, put them in and be done with it, but a quick check of prices on the Internet showed everyone with the same price as Best Buy, about $100, except one company that Amazon.com: Infinity Reference 5022i 5.25-Inch Two-Way Loudspeaker (Silver/Black): Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61jGEPYev3L.@@AMEPARAM@@61jGEPYev3L hosts, wanted $53.95, with $12.42 shipping. Yes that is $66.37 shipped! A few days after ordering I nervously went back to verify I was buying a PAIR of speakers and not just one.

Happily I found it was for the pair.

It took a good long while to get the speakers, about a week. I was saving $40+ so I reminded myself that it was worth the wait.

The speakers were delivered about 10 am by UPS. The speakers were in their own factory box, and that box was put in a brown shipping box that was about 3 times the size of the factory box.

The only packing in the brown box? A single sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper. You are correct, there was no packing.

Anyway I took the factory box out and looked it over, it all looked fine, and the speakers were packed very well in this box.

I took the speakers out and I was surprised how small they were. 5 1/4" speakers just like I had ordered and was told would fit my Jeep.

So I went outside, fresh in the knowledge on how to remove the interior door panel.

I removed the 4 screws that held the panel in place, popped out all the nylon fasteners, and lifted up on the panel. It came right off.

I removed the wiring harnesses from the controls for the power window and lock, then disconnected the rods linking to the door latch and lock.

I eagerly removed the two screws that help the blown speaker in place. The screws are at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions. Ok this is the first problem as the new speakers have screw holes at 10, 2, 4 and 8 o'clock.

I removed the old speaker...

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker1.jpg
You may notice the second problem from the above picture. You see that funky little jack on the original OEM speaker where you would normally expect to see the + and - speaker wire metal tabs?

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker2.jpg
Here is the other funky little connector that was plugged into the speaker!
Factory RAT bastards! Obviously they were making this Jeep easy to put together and not trying to make it easy for me to replace the crappy "premium" factory speakers. But HEY I'm saving what $115 dollars on this one speaker over the factory replacement? I guess this isn't so bad.

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker3.jpg
So SNIP and the problem is half way solved!

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker4.jpg
Ok the speaker is out, now lets see what I have to mount the new speaker with. This is the assortment of screws and those metal tabs. I quickly drilled four new holes in the door, started slipping the metal tab in place and found that the metal tab does not fit over the pressed lip that runs around the door panel. Ok so no metal tabs, just screws.

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker5.jpg
I cut back the cloth like tape that was wrapped around the wires. I stripped the insulation from each wire. I didn't have any connectors that would fit the tabs on the new speakers, my fault since I hadn't done anything like this in 20 years! So I made the command decision to solder the wires to the speakers. Being a normal man an only possessing 2 hands (and never one to ask for help) I let the speaker dangle a good 2 feet off the ground while I soldered the wires to the metal tabs.

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker6.jpg
That white thing you see behind the speaker is a piece of thick soft plastic. It is there to keep water from trickling down from the window into the speaker. I strongly recommend keeping it in place. You can see the two large original mounting holes from the picture above. This is the completed installation of the speaker.

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker7.jpg
Here's the money shot!

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker8.jpg
I didn't take any pictures of the speaker installation on the driver's side, I did replace that speaker as well. If I had taken any pictures they would have looked like this...

http://muckleroy.com/images/JeepSpeaker9.jpg
If I had traveled back in time, forgot to bring my digital camera, and had to use a camera from the current time period... say 1850 the picture might look something like this...

After returning to the present, I replaced both door panels, and cranked up the stereo, 96.5 (Houston FM station). It sounded like crap!

I was disappointed in the BASS response, yes yes, I was warned.

I tried a CD, and to my amazement it sounded much better. DUH! A CD should have better audio than an FM station anyway. Ok so the BASS isn't as good as it was, but it really isn't bad.

Do I think I got my money's worth? Yes, so far. The system sounds good, just not as good as I remember. Of course a simple solution to more BASS is a big woofer. I'm not out to annoy the neighbors, or irritate people that sit next to me at the traffic light, but more BASS would be more better.

I am currently researching if I can connect a woofer to my OEM Infinity 100 watt amp. I have found, and like the design of the "XJ POD" as it is out of the way and doesn't take up any cargo space. This Jeep is a daily driver, and our escape vehicle the next big hurricane, so I'm interested in functionality rather than "tasty toons".

All in all it was pretty easy and pretty cheap to get the stereo back to 100% speaker utilization.

[pLEXX]

Hrm, I always loved infinity speakers.

[Audio222]

Okay here we go, first off the Infinity System is crap and it's not made by Infinity. It is 100 watts MAX (25watts x4) this a peak rating in reality it about 12watts x4. The Infinity speakers you bought were made by a different company than the factory ones. Remember Infinity and JBL are the same company and the same speaker but the JBL is half the price for the same thing. If you want better sound the first thing to do is toss the amplifier even the cheapo radios from Walmart sound better without it. Usually we just throw the entire system in the can.
No you can't connect a woofer to the factory amplifier and you don't want to. We have satisfied customers without woofers but you have to use high end equipment only. Remember it's not the brand name or the price you paid for it but how it's made.
Did you check the polarity on the front speakers? If you get even one speaker out of phase then they will cancel each other out.

[Mudderoy]

Okay here we go, first off the Infinity System is crap and it's not made by Infinity. It is 100 watts MAX (25watts x4) this a peak rating in reality it about 12watts x4. The Infinity speakers you bought were made by a different company than the factory ones. Remember Infinity and JBL are the same company and the same speaker but the JBL is half the price for the same thing. If you want better sound the first thing to do is toss the amplifier even the cheapo radios from Walmart sound better without it. Usually we just throw the entire system in the can.
No you can't connect a woofer to the factory amplifier and you don't want to. We have satisfied customers without woofers but you have to use high end equipment only. Remember it's not the brand name or the price you paid for it but how it's made.
Did you check the polarity on the front speakers? If you get even one speaker out of phase then they will cancel each other out.

My audio equipment experience is limited. Oh I've installed several stereos and I've been a ham radio operator since I was 16 so I can get around and make things work. When I was replacing the speakers I was irritated by the color coding on the speaker wires. I just did my best guess and listened to it for a verification. So to answer your question, no I did not check the polarity directly.

[Audio222]

When you remove the factory speaker cut the connector off the wiring leaving enough so you can skin the wire back some. Take the connector and snap it on back on to the speaker then take a 9volt battery and "pop" the speaker by touching the wires from the connector to the battery terminals. When the speaker cone pops out of the speaker basket it is in phase then look at the battery, the wire color that is touching the positive (+) terminal is you positive color (wire). If you pop the speaker and the cone moves away from you switch the wires on the terminal of the 9volt. All speakers "pop" out never in. Never trust factory wiring colors, never, never.

[Mudderoy]

When you remove the factory speaker cut the connector off the wiring leaving enough so you can skin the wire back some. Take the connector and snap it on back on to the speaker then take a 9volt battery and "pop" the speaker by touching the wires from the connector to the battery terminals. When the speaker cone pops out of the speaker basket it is in phase then look at the battery, the wire color that is touching the positive (+) terminal is you positive color (wire). If you pop the speaker and the cone moves away from you switch the wires on the terminal of the 9volt. All speakers "pop" out never in. Never trust factory wiring colors, never, never.

Neat trick! Thanks.

[JG-Man]

My '99 Dodge Ram had the premium Infinity sound system and the front door speaker blew (in the big Ram the door speaker is a 6x9). I found out the dealer was the only place to get a replacement because you can't use regular 6x9 speakers because the Infinity system was designed with the amp in the back of EACH SPEAKER SEPARATELY!! regular speakers wouldn't work even though they would fit in the 6x9 hole. I would have to replace all the speakers with new aftermarket ones and replace the stereo unit too! The dealer told me the single replacement speaker would be soo expensive he would never order them from MOPAR and suggested the internet. After several months of hunting and being outbid on e-Bay I got a good replacement set and replaced the blown right side and it worked fine.

The point of the story is (besides factory Infinity systems are designed by crazy people), if you have this system in your Jeep I still have one of the set I bought if anyone needs it! I traded the Ram for my XJ.

[Audio222]

My '99 Dodge Ram had the premium Infinity sound system and the front door speaker blew (in the big Ram the door speaker is a 6x9). I found out the dealer was the only place to get a replacement because you can't use regular 6x9 speakers because the Infinity system was designed with the amp in the back of EACH SPEAKER SEPARATELY!! regular speakers wouldn't work even though they would fit in the 6x9 hole. I would have to replace all the speakers with new aftermarket ones and replace the stereo unit too! The dealer told me the single replacement speaker would be soo expensive he would never order them from MOPAR and suggested the internet. After several months of hunting and being outbid on e-Bay I got a good replacement set and replaced the blown right side and it worked fine.

The point of the story is (besides factory Infinity systems are designed by crazy people), if you have this system in your Jeep I still have one of the set I bought if anyone needs it! I traded the Ram for my XJ.



Go to your local car audio store because when we remove the factory ones we throw them in the trash. Maybe you can get them keep one for you.

[JG-Man]

I don't need another one. I was offering mine to anyone who needs one. I think they are rare enough now that it would be impossible to find one just when it's being thrown out, but you never know.

[JG-Man]

No-one here needed it so I sold it on e-Bay for $34!

If no-one here needs my working Midland CBs in the Classified section they are going on e-Bay too! The income from PayPal goes right back into the XJ in different areas.

[Mudderoy]

No-one here needed it so I sold it on e-Bay for $34!

If no-one here needs my working Midland CBs in the Classified section they are going on e-Bay too! The income from PayPal goes right back into the XJ in different areas.

Yeah that's a nice cheap CB I'm not sure why no one wanted it. You posted in the FOR SALE forums as well, right? I don't think many people were going to the classified, and I've removed the link from the navbar now.

[JG-Man]

Yes, I just noticed that yesterday that the Classified section was gone! I tried reposting the pics but got messages that they are too large. (There are two cheap Midland CBs for sale, not one) :)

[Mudderoy]

Yes, I just noticed that yesterday that the Classified section was gone! I tried reposting the pics but got messages that they are too large. (There are two cheap Midland CBs for sale, not one) :)

The link is gone but it is still there:

:link: (http://www.xjtalk.com/classifieds.php)

[JG-Man]

If you or anyone you know are throwing these old amplified speakers out you are tossing $68 a pair in the trash! I easily sold my one speaker I had left on e-Bay (which is where I bought the set) see below. You can buy some nice XJ parts with $68 a pop!