Dr Evil Posted April 23, 2018 Report Share Posted April 23, 2018 Hi, I'm new to the forum and I'm afraid I'm kicking of with a question. I recently bought an E46 speaker upgrade kit for my 2004 330i touring. https://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/bmw-3-series-e46-1998-2005-16-5cm-front-door-component-2-way-speaker-upgrade-kit.html Has anyone else fitted this kit or one like it using the same adaptor plates? I might be missing something silly but to me eyes it just doesn't fit. The adaptors and the speakers are both too big, by about 5 mm in diameter, to actually fit in the space left by the factory item. I've emailed the retailers technical support but thought I would ask here as well as I'm sure I'm not the first person to want to get rid of the awful factory speakers. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momo Posted April 24, 2018 Report Share Posted April 24, 2018 16.5cm speakers fit in the front with adapters.. Lots of people have them fitted. The only issue is depth usually as there's not much of a recess behind the card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Evil Posted April 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2018 How do they fit though? I can't work it out. Does anyone have any pictures of them fitted? The adaptor plate won't go flush with the door trim as it fouls the reverse of the door pocket. This means the factory screws that hold the standatd speaker in aren't long enough unless I distort the adaptor. There is a raised plastic ring inside the three screw points on the door card. The standard speaker fits into this butthe adaptor doesn't. Should I be trying to remove it? Sorry for all the questions but this csme with no instructions and it isn't imediately obvious to me. I've replaced loads of speakers in my time and this is by far the biggest chew on I've had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momo Posted April 24, 2018 Report Share Posted April 24, 2018 For the 2dr, but pretty sure it's the same.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Evil Posted April 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2018 Thanks for the replies guys. I think I have got to the bottom of it now after a chat with a guy from the company that supplied the bits. I will jave another look once my new door card clips arrive 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Evil Posted May 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2018 Utter s**te. Cheap rubbish that simply doesn't fit my car without having to butcher the plastic on the door trim where the factory speaker goes. On my door card there is a plastic ring that sits about 5mm higher than the three fastening points. It has a larger diameter than the hole in the middle of the adaptor so there is no way the adaptor is going on with that ring in place. This wouldn't be an issue if the ring eas a separate piece of plastic but it aint. I used a mallet and a sharp chisel to remove it. Once the adaptor is fitted you need to screw the speaker too it. However because of the design of adaptor and speaker screws need to be put in from the back so the ends poke through the front face of the adaptor. There isn't sufficient space, at least without more cutting to mount the speaker to the front face of the adaptor. The screws supplied with the speakers are crap and despite my many crosshead screw drivers I couldn't get them into the adaptor withough starting to damage the screw head. Very poor quality screws. In the end some brass wood screws I had did the job. Tweaters...well they're on but none of the mountings supplied with the speakers worked well. It was a case of picking the best of a bad bunch. Improvement in sound is not worth it. I'm quite disappointed that I buchers the door cards now. This is supposed to be an upgrade kit designed for the E46. It so isn't. Why do BMW fit such rubbish speakers to the E46 as standard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momo Posted May 7, 2018 Report Share Posted May 7, 2018 Did you only upgrade the speakers or do you have an after market HU? You wont really see any benefit of a speaker upgrade until the HU is replaced tbh.. The HU is the limiting factor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Evil Posted May 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2018 HU done first. It only served to highlight how crap the standard speakers are. Had a fiddle around and after removing some more plastic got the whole lot to fit much better. Amazing what a good night sleep does. It is still a right chew on to fit them though and they badly need instructions. I wish I'd paid more and got a proper upgrade kit that didn't need adaptors. It would have save time and skin from my fingers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...