Search the Community

As part of an ongoing stereo upgrade project, I finished the speaker upgrade. I have a 2016 XLT with 6 factory speakers ( 4 door, 2 tweeters). I installed 6.5 inch 2 way speakers in the rear doors and 6.5 inch component speakers up front. I think most 6.5 inch speakers will fit the TC and there seems to be plenty of depth for the speaker magnets. I used the factory wiring. It is too much hassle to rewire the entire van even though the sound quality may be better with larger gauge wires. The stock speakers have an integral mounting ring and electrical connector. I used these plastic mounting rings to mount the new speakers. 1.First check the polarity of the speaker connections using a 9v battery (see youtube). Mark the connector because both wires are black . 2. Cut the speaker cone out of the stock speaker. You were going to save this cappy speaker only to throw it away years later. 3. Cut and grind the plastic speaker supports away from the mounting ring . Check for sizing on the new speaker. The plastic is easy to manipulate. 4. Mount the ring to the new speaker with small scews. 5. Solder two short wires from the integral connector to the new speakers. Now you have a upgraded speaker that mounts and connects like OEM. The tweeters were more work. You will have to see how your tweeters fit in the OEM bracket that has 3 locking tabs around the circumference of the tweeter. I notched my tweeter mounting ring to match the mounting tabs. I added a dab of glue to keep things from rattling. Disconnect and secure the stock connector and wire. Splice speaker wire at the back of the head unit (see other posts for wire colors). You are connecting in parallel to the wires going to each front door speaker. Install the crossovers in the void below the head unit and run wires over to each tweeter. The sound with the new speakers is significantly better than stock. The stock head unit has enough power to deliver good sound. But I need more power and will install a digital signal processor (dsp), amp and sub in the near future. I am waiting for the 2017 audio products. I will probably pre-wire the van while I am waiting. The amp will require 4 sets of speaker wires to and from the head unit. The amp and sub will need separate power wiring. So there is plenty to do while I wait.