Author Topic: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install  (Read 23922 times)

guest1272

  • Guest
UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« on: March 13, 2011, 04:13:50 PM »
OK, so seeing as most information around the web pertains to USDM fits (which have 6 speakers and other differences) I thought it would be useful to post some info on how I did my 4 speaker install this weekend.

Firstly, the headunit in UK Jazzes is made by Alpine and is 41W peak per channel (41x4) which equates to 29W RMS per channel.
Part number is TUNER ASSY. (41WX4) (ALPINE) in case you're wondering  ;).

Anyway, I decided to buy a set of 4 Alpine speakers to go with the headunit because the stock speakers are pretty rubbish.
They have no treble, and no midrange with woolly bass. I had to listen with Bass set at -2 and treble +2 and voices still sounded muffled and indistinct. Listening to Talk Sport was pretty unbearable tbh.

The other option is to replace the Headunit.....well, that's an option in the rest of the world but not in the UK >:(
NO ONE makes the fascia needed to convert to single or double din for RHD cars that includes the space for the seatbelt light as well. Until they do, a speaker upgrade is the best way to upgrade the sound as a first option.

So, on to the procedure (apologies for the piccies, some are from the net and some from my iPhone, so they aren't necessarily the best).


Stage 1



Remove the screw inside the door handle recess. You will need a philips no2. BE CAREFUL, this black screw is VERY secure and you need to be careful to apply enough force without stripping the head.



Now remove the bottom plastic cover of the "arm" of the door. It is secured in place via plastic tabs and should pull off. To do this safely, I inserted a thin plastic card into the upper right side where it meets the arm cloth. A slight twist will expose a gap which allows you to get a purchase and pull the plastic off.

Now unscrew the big silver screw shown in the middle of the picture above using the philips screwdriver

Now unscrew the big silver screw shown in the middle of the picture above using the philips screwdriver and don’t forget to unclip the wiring plug (note that UK 'ES' Jazzes have electric windows all round so you'll have to remove plugs for all the four doors, inc. the rear passenger ones).

Now try and get your finger behind the plastic where the speaker grill is and pull the corner towards you. This is the easiest to pull off, after this pops out, the rest of the "plastic pins" will pull away and the door will be "free" at the bottom/middle.



This picture shows where the 6 lug holes for these plastic pins are, so you'll know where they are. The pins are bright red so they're easy to spot.



With the door hanging "loose" there is NO NEED to proceed to remove the plastic panel completely because you can lift it away enough to get to the speaker screw at the  bottom (image above shows when I was putting it all back together with the new speakers, the stock speakers look a LOT cheaper and nastier  :D).



...plus, the rear doors have this plastic wedge which makes it harder to pull the door panel completely off anyway, so I just left them hanging there.

Now unscrew the speaker from the door:



...and pull up in order to lift the speaker from the two clips holding the bottom into the door. After this, remove the speaker and unplug it.

Do the same for all four doors and take the 4 speakers into the house/garage.

Total time so far about 30min


So now we need to install the drop in speakers into place and do some modding.


Stage 2



The stock speaker is in the top right of the piccie. Notice the cheap, small magnet. Also, these are simple cheap paper cones, not even dual cones and certainly not coaxials (which Honda charge an arm and a leg for upgrading to).

The cone is actually part of the spacer, so you need a dremel to cut it away from the basket (about 12 or so thin plastic "legs"). Then cut the top 2 and bottom 2 supports from the input plug.....you'll use these later.
Once done, rip the cone out of the spacer and peel it away fromt he outer edge where it's glued in as well.
You should have a spacer, a female connector plug and a ruined/ripped out cone. Throw the cone away.



At this point, if I had a 16.5cm speaker, it'd be a direct drop in.....however, I chose Alpine SXE-1725S 16.5cm speakers. Unfortunately, the speaker is 16.5cm but it has a wide flange around the edge that brings it up to 17cm total. In order to fit into the spacer, I had to dremel away that extra edge



This then slots right into the spacer snugly, after which you can screw them into the spacer via the screws supplied with the Alpines. I then had to sand the sharp points of the screws at the rear by a mm or so as they are ever so slightly longer than the spacer depth.



The end result is a speaker that is shallower than the stock speaker and thus won't obstruct the window when wound down nor hit the speaker grill in the door plastic in front.

In order to be careful to not damage the Alpine cones, I was very careful here and doing all four housings and speakers meant this was quite time consuming, total time here about 1-2 hours

If you don't need to trim the speaker edges, then preparing the spacers and screwing your speakers  in carefully (and sanding the points down) might take half that time.


Stage 3

So that's the speakers mounted, now it's time to address the electrical connections.
You could of course, simply cut the plugs off and directly solder the oem wire onto your new speakers, but I thought a better way (which would also preserve polarity with less of a chance of making a mistake) is to simply transplant the stock electrical plugs onto the new Alpines.



I araldited the plastic plug from the housing (from earlier) into position on the Alpines and then soldered the connections into place using thick gauge speaker wire. BE VERY CAREFUL HERE. Not enough heat and the solder won't tin the wire correctly.....too much heat and you could damage the speaker/voice coil.
Also, when putting the plug into position, I bent the Alpine pins back in order to allow enough room for the door plug to fit all the way down onto the connector.
Note, after soldering into position like above, take some time to tidy up any stray strands (which I did afterwards by tinning them into the wire).

Time for this stage was about 1-2 hours

Stage 4



So here is the new speaker in position.

There are a few things to note when putting the doors back together again.



Remember to reach behind and pull the electrical connector through before pushing the door panel back into place.



The door arm plastic has a very tiny plastic pin toward the front end that is easy to miss and easy to damage. It also has a spade-like part on the back end that you have to slide into the door panel in order to fit it. To avoid damage and have an easy fit I inserted the "spade" bit first, then moved to the other end and made sure that plastic pin aligned correctly. The rest of the pins then followed after a slight push and clipped back nicely.




Remember to push the handle against the door and slide to the right in order to "hook" the handle into position. It is held in this way by 4 L shaped hooks that you need to align correctly first. Doing this also means the screw hole lines up correctly (it's easier to understand when you do it yourself).


Total time to put it all back together again about 15-20min



Trim all fitted back perfectly, there are no knocks or rattles and you can even see the silver reflection from the new speakers  :).

The sound?

Well, it's a BIG improvement. I now have adequate treble, decent (tighter) bass and a midrange at last. It's not massively louder, just massively better balanced. Good enough in fact, that I have gone back to Bass set to 'C' and Treble set to 'C' (i.e. neutral for both) and everything sounds much clearer.
I can also now listen to medium wave and whilst it doesn't sound great (headunit at fault here) it's MUCH better than it was before, with more clarity to voices.
The extra treble does mean that it's easier to hear a small hiss if radio reception is poor, but that's a sympton of good speakers exposing poor headunit reception and isn't a problem imo (the overall improvement in sound far outstrips this minor niggle)

Yes, given the option a headunit upgrade would be a good move but unfortunately, being in the UK, means that this is out of the question for most of us (it's possible by getting the satnav option's plastic surround but Honda insist they can't supply that part to me).

For £60, this is a great little upgrade that takes a bit of time to do right but is well worth it when you do  ;D.





EDIT: Full install guide up here as well: http://gafferlicious.com/jazz.html





.

DV

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 426
  • Country: gb
  • Fuel economy: [/URL]
  • My Honda: 2013 Honda Jazz EX CVT
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2011, 08:38:38 PM »
Nice job, well done!

I did the same upgrade on my GD Jazz 2 weeks ago, I put 2 Kenwoods and later I put 2 Alpines at the back (Kenwood wasn`t on offer that time).
Now I`m thinking to change the headunit, more info here: http://clubjazz.org/forum/gd-i-c-e/aftermarket-stereo-headunit-replacement-of-factory-fitted-stereo/.


Gaffer: What year is your car?
« Last Edit: March 10, 2012, 07:59:40 PM by DV »

guest1272

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2011, 08:53:42 PM »
Good speaker choices.
You're lucky you have a GD Jazz - plenty of aftermarket fascia options for you (unlike GE owners :().
If you want to keep steering controls, take a look at the CTSHO003 harness lead. You'll also need a patch lead to allow it to communicate with your new headunit (for instance, if you want a Kenwood HU, get the CTKENWOODLEAD from connects2).
Finally, you'll need the adapter to convert the OEM Honda aerial into DIN aerial (CT27AA50 I think).

DV

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 426
  • Country: gb
  • Fuel economy: [/URL]
  • My Honda: 2013 Honda Jazz EX CVT
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2011, 11:47:35 PM »
I don`t have steering control but that is not a big problem.
Currently I stopped upgrading but maybe 2-3 months later I`ll carry on.
I put 2 Kenwoods on the front because it was on a deal but after when I fitted them and went back a few days later for another set, wasn`t on deal so I went for the Alpine`s one.
Anyway thanks for the info!

eljuero

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 196
  • Country: si
  • My Honda: 2009 1.4 Comfort
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2011, 10:43:31 PM »
@Gaffer thx for that. Perhaps some day it will be usefull :)

But I must say that for my ear the stock audio sistem is more than enough.
100+1 HP

guest1272

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2011, 09:03:27 PM »
Thank you guys...glad it was helpful  :D

guest1272

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2012, 08:08:30 PM »
Bumped (sorry) with a very small update (only took about 15min to do).
Just added a pair of Alpine tweeters to the front stereo pair in the Jazz to complement the existing alpine spkrs & sub setup. They have a built in 6dB per octave crossover and sound great - not to loud but just loud enough to lift the soundstage and add a bit more sparkle to the sound by balancing out the sub a bit more:


Plus it looks discrete enough to (hopefully) not warrant "unwanted attention":

guest2765

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2012, 07:27:06 PM »
Yes, given the option a headunit upgrade would be a good move but unfortunately, being in the UK, means that this is out of the question for most of us (it's possible by getting the satnav option's plastic surround but Honda insist they can't supply that part to me).

have you tried ebay? ive seen a few of the cd head units on there, havent really looked for the sat nav ones but try there or a scrapyard (as well as any jazz's being taken apart by breakers) im sure somewhere amongst that lot you could find a sat nav plastic surround

guest1272

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2012, 09:42:15 PM »
Yes, given the option a headunit upgrade would be a good move but unfortunately, being in the UK, means that this is out of the question for most of us (it's possible by getting the satnav option's plastic surround but Honda insist they can't supply that part to me).

have you tried ebay? ive seen a few of the cd head units on there, havent really looked for the sat nav ones but try there or a scrapyard (as well as any jazz's being taken apart by breakers) im sure somewhere amongst that lot you could find a sat nav plastic surround

Ebay was one of my first ports of call - no luck. The only fascias they do are from the Jap versions which do not have the space for the seatbelt light that UK Jazzes have.
I've also tried scrap yards/breakers but unfortunately, the search requirement is so narrow that I haven't found any (2009-2010 model {newer Jazzes have a slightly different fascia that is darker to match the new cabin} and one that came with the satnav option {most folk simply use their tomtom's so finding one is rare}).
It would be much simpler if Honda simply supplied the part. What's worse is that my local dealership (Gatwick) are totally atrocious - starting out by saying that they couldn't find it, then that they could but couldn't supply it, then that their computers wouldn't supply a number, and finally  flat out denying that such an option even existed and that Honda never made a satnav option in the first place for 2010 models, despite me SHOWING them the 2010 brochure which shows it as an option  :o >:(....
....I've finally given up. Honda apparently WANTS the "old people" image for their Jazzes by making it as difficult as possible for young buyers to upgrade the audio  ;).

DV

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 426
  • Country: gb
  • Fuel economy: [/URL]
  • My Honda: 2013 Honda Jazz EX CVT
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2012, 08:27:12 AM »
Gaffer

Don`t you think if you would ring the Swindon Honda dealer they might have the right part from the Honda factory? (just a guess)
http://www.fish-bros.co.uk/honda/dealer-locator/view/3
« Last Edit: March 18, 2012, 11:18:56 AM by DV »

guest2765

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2012, 02:45:41 PM »
Ebay was one of my first ports of call - no luck. The only fascias they do are from the Jap versions which do not have the space for the seatbelt light that UK Jazzes have.
I've also tried scrap yards/breakers but unfortunately, the search requirement is so narrow that I haven't found any (2009-2010 model {newer Jazzes have a slightly different fascia that is darker to match the new cabin} and one that came with the satnav option {most folk simply use their tomtom's so finding one is rare}).
It would be much simpler if Honda simply supplied the part. What's worse is that my local dealership (Gatwick) are totally atrocious - starting out by saying that they couldn't find it, then that they could but couldn't supply it, then that their computers wouldn't supply a number, and finally  flat out denying that such an option even existed and that Honda never made a satnav option in the first place for 2010 models, despite me SHOWING them the 2010 brochure which shows it as an option  :o >:(....
....I've finally given up. Honda apparently WANTS the "old people" image for their Jazzes by making it as difficult as possible for young buyers to upgrade the audio  ;).

can of black or dark grey spray paint will do the trick ;) (should see the inside of my mates Ka haha looks pretty awesome, he has resprayed parts blue, others silver or black..looks pretty good) haha that might help with getting an older one? dont know if the fascia is the same shape on the older ones as the newer ones..

guest1272

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2012, 10:04:19 PM »
@DV - tried many Honda's, most never "get back to me". Final thing I'm thinking of is trying an "independant" Honda dealer who apparently imports parts but also can do the junkyard trawling for me (let 'em know what I want and sit back till they get it).
Been 2 years now with me tearing my hair out so I'm not holding my breath :).

@Lunacide - no offence, but that doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I can tell when plastic is plastic coloured or painted with spray paint (which looks cheap to me and easily peelable whenever you knock/scrape the panel by accident). The problem isn't just the colour, it's also the shape - which may or may not be slightly different on the current 2011-2012 Jazzes. If I can get hold of a 2010 UK Jazz RHD fascia for the satnav (the fascia alone) I'll take that because I know steering wheel adapters work (Connects 2) and have already "chosen" a headunit (Kenwood DPX-503U double din that I can colour match to the orange dials on the dash). I just need to sit tight and see if the dealer I mentioned above comes through but as mentioned, I'm not holding my breath (never owned a car that's so ridiculously difficult to change the HU on before - even autoleads don't make fascia adapter alternatives).

guest2765

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
Re: UK Honda Jazz ES Speaker install
« Reply #12 on: March 19, 2012, 08:40:53 PM »


@Lunacide - no offence, but that doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I can tell when plastic is plastic coloured or painted with spray paint (which looks cheap to me and easily peelable whenever you knock/scrape the panel by accident). The problem isn't just the colour, it's also the shape - which may or may not be slightly different on the current 2011-2012 Jazzes. If I can get hold of a 2010 UK Jazz RHD fascia for the satnav (the fascia alone) I'll take that because I know steering wheel adapters work (Connects 2) and have already "chosen" a headunit (Kenwood DPX-503U double din that I can colour match to the orange dials on the dash). I just need to sit tight and see if the dealer I mentioned above comes through but as mentioned, I'm not holding my breath (never owned a car that's so ridiculously difficult to change the HU on before - even autoleads don't make fascia adapter alternatives).
[/quote]

Haha its actually a pretty good idea if its done correctly (assuming it is done well and not cheaply) as my mates ka looks like it was bought as an optional extra the way all the work was done. (he did the work himself but him and his father are pretty good with cars and have worked on them all their lives it would seem). The shape difference would possibly cause an issue though if there is a difference, but yeah seems like you are probably best sitting tight and hoping a fascia becomes available.. (it does seem like a lot of hassle...the main reason ive not bothered changing mines, but instead went for a tape to mp3 converter :P since i dont really use the radio anyway)

Tags:
 

Back to top