EliteEmerz

I recently replaced my rear speakers and figured I'd do a little write up because I had to figure it out as I went. The rear OEM amplifier makes every pair of speakers(both OEM and aftermarket) crackle with an aftermarket deck, so a few installs later I figured it out, and it's not real hard either. I was going to run 2 new sets of wires, but I figured out an easy way to use all the OEM wires to avoid running extras.

:::::::WARNING::::If you follow this write up you will not be able to just plug in OEM rear speakers anymore, you will be cutting up your OEM harness's for both the speakers and the deck.

Also I realized a little late in the game I was going to do a write up, so sorry for the scarce pictures.

The BOSE system follows the same steps to replace your rear 6.5" Woofers, but please realize once you get to the OEM amplifier bypass this guide no longer applies.

My OEM system was an Audi Concert system (non-premium)

What you'll need:

Phillips head screwdriver

Wire tool

Butt Splices

Speaker wire

Replacement 6.5" Speakers

BOSE 6.5" A4 subwoofer brackets

Before you do anything, disconnect your battery or your deck.

Basically in order to get to the rear speakers you have to semi-remove the rear deck:

1: Flip down both of your back seats (make sure they are clear of anything so you don't crush something/damage your seat)

2: Unhook 3rd Brake light (located in the trunk)

3: Slide off 3rd Brake light cover (should come off with a little force, pull straight back)

4: Pull up along where the rear deck cover meets the metal, there are 3 plastic clips that hold down the front part of the rear deck, they will pull out. Sometimes you'll break one but for the most part as long as you've got at least 1 it'll hold down. I've got 2 out of 3 and you can get them right on ebay for cheap.

5: I haven't been able to figure out how to completely disconnect the rear deck from the seat belts, so I usually just slide them forward. Just be careful not to break the plastic pieces around the seat belt.

Next you'll need to remove your rear speakers:

1: Unscrew 2 screws on the speaker itself, and disconnect the 2 pin harness (This is where the BOSE system and the OEM Concert system differ)

2: Unclip the blue connector underneath the driver side rear speaker. The metal bracket attached to this speaker contains what is considered an amplifier.

Once you've got those out, you'll notice your OEM speakers are built completely into the brackets (Unless you've got the BOSE system, then you'll notice that you can remove the woofer from the bracket)

Now here is where it gets tricky. The easiest way to mount new speakers is to acquire BOSE rear woofer brackets.

Now my replacement speakers were component Alphasonik Z-Series 6.5" Speakers with 1" Tweeters (PCZ65E)

I mounted my 6.5" Woofer into the BOSE bracket.

Mounting my 1" Dome Tweeters was not difficult but it took a few steps:

1: Pull the rear pillar covers (pull hard, make sure you find the points where the clips are and pull around there to avoid breaking any plastic) ----It's not necessary to completely remove the cover, just pull enough so you can get behind it to run wires---

2: Drill a small hole where you want to mount your tweeter to run the wires

3: Mount your tweeter housing (My speakers came with 2 different housings, one for internal mounting and one for external. I used the external housing so I could point the tweeters forward)

4: Run your wire down the pillar, and pop your pillar back into place but be careful not to pinch any wires. Easiest way is to zip tie the wire to the stock wires already running through your pillars.

Now since these were component speakers, I had to mount the 2 small crossovers on the roof of my trunk. Make sure you double check the screws will not go to far up so they wont pierce the rear deck/poke through. I guess you can use any size screw just make sure you cut them down after your done mounting.

Now figuring out your OEM Amplifier harness (the blue harness you unclipped earlier)

1: Now there are 7 Wires total on your amplifier harness (for the speakers which side depends on how you want to wire your deck, here's what I used):

Blue/Green = Left Rear Positive
Brown/Red = Left Rear Ground

Blue/Red = Right Rear Positive
Brown/Red = Left Rear Ground

White = Amp wire (useful to not run an aftermarket amplifier wire even with your aftermarket amp setup)

(remaining 2 wires are power/ground)

2: Remove some of the tape wrapped around the harness to reveal which brown/red wire is twisted to either the blue/green or blue/red wire.

3: Snip and strip each pair of these wires.

4: I used butt splices to connect some aftermarket wire to these OEM wires to extend the reach to each of my crossovers, I would normally use a soldering gun and heatshrink, but I didn't want to risk burning my interior in the tight space.

5: Connect all your wires to your crossover.

Now that everything is mounted and wired, I'd suggest using zip ties to secure any loose wires and prevent snags as you put everything back together.

1: On the bottom of your rear deck cover there are 3 L brackets that slide into 3 slots on the rear deck.

2: Make sure all 3 L brackets line up, or the rear deck will not be flat.

3: If you've only got 2 out of 3 clips, put them on the 2 outer mounts. If you only have 1 clip put it in the middle.

Now that you've got everything back together, you can move to the head unit.

If you have an aftermarket headunit installed, for the most part they're easy to remove, just remove your main cover, and slide out your deck.

Now the two wires for rear speakers off the aftermarket head unit:
Green: Rear left positive
Green/Black: Rear left negative

Purple: Rear right postiive
Purple/Black: Rear right negative
(at least I think, or the other way around)

Now my rear speakers are wired:
Blue/Green - Left Rear Positive

Blue/Red - Right Rear Positive

Brown/Red - Rear Speaker negative

The harness you will find these 3 wires on is the 20 pin connector, they are pins 1, 2, and 3

Now wire your speakers accordingly, snip and strip the wires off the OEM harness.

Pull back some of the tape wrapped around the harness to expose which wires are twisted together (so you have the right ground to each side because pin 2 is both grounds on 1 pin)

Now when you turn on your deck, your rear speakers should work fine, wired like a car with no OEM amplifier.

arU4ic

Excellent write-up, this will come in handy. Thanks!

A4 stu

So do the rear speakers use the same negative then?

Both the left speaker negative and the right speaker negative are connected to the same wire from the multi-pin?

Stu

wgang

So I have been hunting around for a solution to a blown subwoofer in my 1998 2.8 QM. I found this post and I think I can tackle the project.

I looked at getting the rear deck out a couple weeks back and that looks to be the hardest part. The way things are describe here is giving me the guts to give it a go. I do see a number of plastic connection points holding that deck in place. Any recommendations on getting it out with ease? These suckers are getting rather old so I don't want to break them in the process.

Also, any recommendations on places to purchase replacement subs. I just want to fix the problem, so putting in "new" Bose subs would be fine, or anything else will do as well. I did find a sticker on the current subs with mention of 2ohm on it, so I will source a match for that when Identifying a replacement.