MCroadster
Member
Hey was your sub-woofer enclosed in a black plastic sealed unit? Do you have any more picture of the sub-woofer replacement?
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glight2000
Member
My apologies for the delay. It didn’t have any special enclosure. I think it was just an unremarkable speaker, maybe 5”. They first removed the old one, and if memory serves, there was a ring around the speaker lip with teeth so that the speaker could look into the opening. I think they removed the ring and attached it to the new speaker. If I had to do it over again, I’d get a better sub.
Hey Heychubs,
Did the adapter rings that you got from the Lotus site have a taper to them? I would think that they would have to, so that they could screw into the existing 4" bolt holes, and then accomodate the 5-1/4" speaker. Do you have pictures of them? The two links you sent on ebay are just spacers and not adapters... not sure how that would work.
Thanks,
Henry
I looked at those spacers/rings and thought the same thing. So I printed my own rings with the correct tapered shape including screw pockets that fit the 4" speaker mounting holes. If anybody wants to print them I'd be happy to post the .stl or .obj file.
Thanks, yes, please post or email to me at [email protected]
Also, it appears that there are speaker spacers on the rear already. Does anyone know how to remove them? There was one fastener down in the hole, but still attached somewhere after I removed that one. I'm thinking it might be better (and easier) to install 5-1/4" speakers in the rear, as it would also sound better having the better bass coming from the rear.
Just to add another data point to the conversation, I replaced all four speakers today with 4 inch coaxial Infinity REF-4032 CFX s. On initial listening they sound much nicer than stock, and I am sure will sound better when I replace the head unit next week. A couple things I learned that may be useful:
A 90° pick or something similar is really useful in popping the mesh covers out of the speaker base. Just stick the tip into a hole and pull upward.
All 16 of my stock screws were loose enough that I could just use the tip of my 90° screwdriver without the handle and hand remove them.
There is a snap connection about 8 inches from where the wires are soldered to the speaker. This is covered with foam tape to prevent rattling. You can partially unwind the foam tape and pushing a tab and separate this to remove the speaker easily from the car. Having this tail also makes it much easier to strip wire and push connections onto your new speakers.
With these speakers, the mounting tabs needed to be trimmed to fit into the speaker bases. I used a set of diagonal pliers with long handles and they worked beautifully. Definitely very easy to trim. I took a picture of this so it would be evident how much I had to trim. It is also really useful to know that the four mounting holes are not evenly spaced at 90° around the speakers, so before you drop the speakers in check to make sure all four flange holes match the mounting base holes. I used my 90° angle pick to double check once they were in place.
My OEMMrear speakers sit on top of the speaker base and this is where the new speakers went. The front speakers sat underneath that mounting ring, but after removing them I needed to place my new speakers on top of that ring so That it would not interfere with the driver movement.
The two screws closest to the windshield on the front speakers would not allow me to use the handle of my 90deg screwdriver (too tall), so when mounting the new speaker, I used a small crescent wrench tightened around the hexagonal shaft of my bit and that worked well.
Finally, there are very difficult to see standoff tabs at various places on the rings into which the mesh grills fit. I had a difficult time resetting those grills until I realized that I had to find a place on the ring where there was not such a cab and leave that as the last portion of the grill to pop into place, otherwise it was a real struggle.
All in all, the first speaker probably took me 30 minutes to figure out sequence of events, after that it was about 10 minutes per speaker while taking my time.
A 90° pick or something similar is really useful in popping the mesh covers out of the speaker base. Just stick the tip into a hole and pull upward.
All 16 of my stock screws were loose enough that I could just use the tip of my 90° screwdriver without the handle and hand remove them.
There is a snap connection about 8 inches from where the wires are soldered to the speaker. This is covered with foam tape to prevent rattling. You can partially unwind the foam tape and pushing a tab and separate this to remove the speaker easily from the car. Having this tail also makes it much easier to strip wire and push connections onto your new speakers.
With these speakers, the mounting tabs needed to be trimmed to fit into the speaker bases. I used a set of diagonal pliers with long handles and they worked beautifully. Definitely very easy to trim. I took a picture of this so it would be evident how much I had to trim. It is also really useful to know that the four mounting holes are not evenly spaced at 90° around the speakers, so before you drop the speakers in check to make sure all four flange holes match the mounting base holes. I used my 90° angle pick to double check once they were in place.
My OEMMrear speakers sit on top of the speaker base and this is where the new speakers went. The front speakers sat underneath that mounting ring, but after removing them I needed to place my new speakers on top of that ring so That it would not interfere with the driver movement.
The two screws closest to the windshield on the front speakers would not allow me to use the handle of my 90deg screwdriver (too tall), so when mounting the new speaker, I used a small crescent wrench tightened around the hexagonal shaft of my bit and that worked well.
Finally, there are very difficult to see standoff tabs at various places on the rings into which the mesh grills fit. I had a difficult time resetting those grills until I realized that I had to find a place on the ring where there was not such a cab and leave that as the last portion of the grill to pop into place, otherwise it was a real struggle.
All in all, the first speaker probably took me 30 minutes to figure out sequence of events, after that it was about 10 minutes per speaker while taking my time.
Gabner
Member
Thanks for the post and all the help!
I upgraded my 4 speakers with 4" drop in replacements.
I used JL Audio C2-400x speakers and they sound great!
I also found an underseat sub I bought for my lotus Elise about 7 years ago in my garage. Never installed it.
I used a Bluetooth receiver and split the output feed between the aux input of the radio and the subwoofer. I powered the sub from the cigarette lighter. 10 minute install.
The subwoofer made the biggest difference. It's sitting in the passenger footwell.
Very happy!
Thanks again!
I upgraded my 4 speakers with 4" drop in replacements.
I used JL Audio C2-400x speakers and they sound great!
I also found an underseat sub I bought for my lotus Elise about 7 years ago in my garage. Never installed it.
I used a Bluetooth receiver and split the output feed between the aux input of the radio and the subwoofer. I powered the sub from the cigarette lighter. 10 minute install.
The subwoofer made the biggest difference. It's sitting in the passenger footwell.
Very happy!
Thanks again!