Acura RSX Speaker Installation

Step One

OK, so the back speakers are almost ridiculously easy to replace. As most of you know the mounting holes are not going to line up, but it doesn't matter. To get to the back speakers all you have to do is pop off the grill cover. As usual there is a special space provided to start the grill removal.

Step Two

Use whatever tool you find works for you to insert in that space and pry outward the grill will start to pop out, there are two clips at the top that come out, after they come out you pull upwards there are two tabs at the bottom.

Step Three

Then just unscrew the three phillips screws and you will probably have to put something to the top of the speaker to get it to come out. Then just unplug it and your almost done.

Step Four

Next is the wiring. What I recommend is cruise on down to circuit city or good guys or whatever and look for some of there speakers harness adapters they have they are about 5 bucks for a pack of 2. they will plug right into the stock harnesses and then into the aftermarket speaker. If you just want to go ahead and splice into the wires you can see in the pictures which is positive and negative but the harnesses will make it easier to keep the pos and neg correct in all the speakers (front/rear/right/left)

Step Five

With that all I did was just plug and play, then I took a drill and carefully screwed the new speaker in the old hole but had to drill 3 new mounting holes in the plastic This works out just fine.

Step Six

After that just reinstall the speaker cover and do the other side same way. The speaker size is a 6 1/2" and that is probably the maximum size you would be able to fit. Some speaker manufacturers do make an Oversized 6 1/2" speaker that will not fit this location so try and stay away from that.

Step One

There is a little plastic cover behind the inside door handle with a small tab in the bottom center that has to be removed to reveal 2 small screws.

Step Two

To get it out, use a small object to push up on the small tab while pulling gently outwards and there are 2 tabs at the top of the thing that will pretty much hold it at the top. After you get it out the first few inches it will probably just fall off by itself. The 2 screws behind it will be removed.

Once removed you will take out the handle, it will come out from front to back there is a tab to the back of the handle be careful not to break it off in the process. There is also one bronze colored screw you can see in the background behind the handle, this has to be removed as well.

Step Three

Carefully unplug the lock switch and then you will have to VERY carefully remove the little yellow lock over the cable that attaches to the door handle.

Step Four

Just turn it a quarter turn and pull the silver cable off, then the handle is off.

Step Five

Only two more screws to come out and then your ready to remove this sucker. The last two screws are located below the arm rest, one to the back of it and one to the front of it.

Step Six

Both are the same color and size as the bigger bronze one at the top of the door panel.

The next part was not easy to take pictures of, so you will be somewhat on your own but here goes...

There are a bunch of plastic "clips" or "snaps" that attach to the back side of the door panel that press into the door. If you have ever removed a door panel in any other car you probably know what I am talking about. In order to take off the door panel you have to *pry* the door panel away from the door where the snaps are as not to crack or split the plastic on the door. To do this you will probably want to obtain a panel removing tool or something similar. If not, just pull away it will probably come off!

Step Seven

They are located down the sides and across the bottom of the door, but not at the top.

If you have successfully popped the panel loose at this point, to remove it you have to pull upwards and backwards on the panel. Its hard to explain and I could not get a good picture while doing it myself one handed but its something like this.

Step Eight

Where you pull upwards on the rear part of the panel where the door lock pull is, and back at the same time. Then the panel comes out over the top of the door that its more or less *hanging* on. Remember at this point the power window switch is probably still plugged it and not to pull to hard yet. Once the panel is off there will be less tension on the door handle where the window switch is you should be able to just pull it straight out. From front to back the front it held down my force fit clips that have felt on them, just pull upwards and it should come right out, then forwards there are tabs holding it in to the back. Then just unplug it.

Step Nine

With the panel off you are looking at the speakers. One thing you will notice is NO SCREWS! that's right, the speaker is clipped in the door. There is one clip at the top that you will press down on and the top part of the speaker will come free, then pull upwards and the speaker will come out. Unplug it.

Step Ten

The speaker is a 6 1/2" speaker from the factory, but the way it mounts and the fact that it has literally no depth makes it hard to replace it with an aftermarket speaker of the same size. Just by coincidence the last car my g/f had had 5 1/4" separates in it, and the 5 1/4" speaker actually fit the hole pretty well. Aside from the fact that I had to drill into the door to mount the new speaker since the other one had no mounting points, it fit nicely and that was that. I forgot to get a picture of it in the car. Here is a pic of the wiring colors on the drivers side:

Step Eleven

Now, reverse the process you did to take the door panel off and your set. Both sides come off the same way, the only difference on the drivers side is there are 2 window switches instead of one.

Step Twelve

One thing that I am not going to go into but ill show you what I did is I actually replaced the door speaker as well as the dash tweeter with a component set. The speakers I used were Polk Audio 5 1/4" EX separates available from circuit city. The wiring is tricky and if your going do it there are a million ways it could be done, but here are pics on how to get the dash tweeter out and what mine looked like afterwards. To get the dash tweeter out, just like the rear speaker covers there is a notch taken out of it where you can use whatever tool works for you to pop it out.

Step Thirteen

It pops out from the front there is one clip.

Step Fourteen

This is what mine looked like after the new ones were installed.