Just a brief note on replacing rear Jaguar XK8 convertible speakers...

I purchased my year 2000 XK8 convertible used about 4 years ago. On setting my stock Alpine radio to purely rear sound, no sound came out of the rear speakers at all. I checked possible fuses, but they were all still good. The front speakers all still worked and sound fine, but even at max volume, the sound was mediocre intensity. I decided to follow earlier advice on this forum to replace the rear speakers in hopes it would restore the sound volume and quality.

Following earlier advice in this forum, I tried to find the recommended Kicker 10CV654 speaker set, but they are now obsolete (at the time of this writing: March 2014), and unavailable on the used market - such as eBay. When I called the Kicker company, they recommended a particular speaker set - but my local seller (Fry's Electronics Sunnyvale California) did not have them in stock. They did have in stock the speaker box set Kicker CS67, listed as coaxial 4 ohm of diameter 6.75 inch, but also stated to fit 6.5 inch. I purchased the CS67 kit- list price was ~$80 for the pair of speakers.

On removing the original rear speakers they measure 6.5 inch OD, and are stamped on the back as 2 ohm. The Kicker CS67 are a perfect fit -- the holes match exactly, and the existing spade lug connectors (one narrow, one wide) exactly match the original narrow and wide spade connectors. Now the original radio performance is restored and sounds very good.

Surprisingly, when I replaced just the driver side rear speaker first, and tested it, the original passenger side rear speaker also was found to work fine too. On replacing both rear speakers, of course, the completed system works just fine too. On testing the removed original speakers with an ohm-meter, they both measure identically ~2.5 ohms DC. I did not replace the spade lug connectors... so I am at a loss to understand why the original rear speakers did not work. Like many things in the XK8, they seem to like attention like any good pet does - perhaps in this case oxidation in the connectors made an open connection, and the radio circuit seeing one woofer speaker open passed no current to either speaker. (this is not the way to design reliable circuitry - but we Jaguar owners know about that already ).

Anyway, I just wanted to update the group in case someone is contemplating replacing poor sounding or silent rear speakers. The Kicker CS67 are an easy replacement set. Tools required: a #2 Philips screwdriver, a T50 Torx male drive socket, and 10mm and 9mm female sockets.

The disassembly, replacement of the speakers, and re-assembly took me a total of 2 hours, but could have been done in about 1 hour total.

Here are the steps in the process to replace the rear speakers in the convertible:
1. Retract the convertible roof - necessary because we must remove the leatherette covers of both rear side posts and remove the rear seat back and rear seat - easiest with the top retracted.
2. lift off the plastic caps on both driver and passenger seat belt retractor loop holders. Put these in a plastic bag for safekeeping.
3. use a #50 Torx male bit to remove the driver and passenger seat belt retractor loop holders. [We remove the adjacent 2 philips and 1 9mm tonneau cover clip in steps 5 and 6].
4. use a #2 Philips screwdriver to loosen the rear seat belt retractor clips at the top of the back seat. Just pull the plastic seat belt holders up and out of the way. Put the 4 philips head screws in a plastic bag for safekeeping.
5. use a #2 Philips screwdriver to remove the screws at the top and front-face of the top side post covers. Put the 4 philips head screws in a plastic bag for safekeeping.
6. Use a 9mm socket to unscrew the tonneau cover fasteners.Put the 2 9mm head screws in a plastic bag for safekeeping.
7. Remove the back seat bottom cushion by:
a. unsnap the center vinyl cloth covering surrounding the 2 center seat belt connectors (which are black with red plastic centers).
b. behind the driver's seat, looking up at the bottom of the rear seat from the floor carpet, note a rubber "sock" covering a long threaded rod. Remove the sock and see a 10mm nut and washer. Unscrew the 10mm nut which holds down the rear seat. On the passenger side, repeat this process. Put both 10mm nuts, and the rubber socks covers, in a plastic bag for safekeeping.
c. lift up the front of the rear seat bottom cushion. It will become stuck due to the center seat belt clips which become stuck in the vinyl cloth covering. You must push the seat belt clips through this cloth covering (make sure the snaps are open so you can get these through.
d. Now the rear seat should just lift up from the front and remove it from the car.
8. Remove the back seat back cushion by:
a. Once the rear bottom cushion is removed, you will see 2 gold colored Philips #2 screws at the bottom of the rear seat cushion. Unscrew these and save the #2 gold colored screws in a plastic bag.
b. (You have already removed the 4 philips screws at the top of the back seat, which hold down the seat belt retractors).
c. Lift up the rear seat cushion. It has a U-shape which holds the top of the rear seat cushion to the rear sheet metal. Lift the rear seat back out of the car.
9. Remove the driver's side and passenger side top covers (the T50 torx seat belt holders, and the 2 #2 Philips screws and the 9mm tonneau cover clips were already removed). Just lift these covers off and remove them from the car.
10. Now it gets a bit tricky: you pull the speaker cover sidewall inward and away from the outer wall, and in doing so, pull the "toe" of plastic from under the door sill plate (the nice polished metal plate that says "Jaguar" on each doorsill). You will see two clips that hold the side panel in place: one clip will just push back in, and the rear connector is just a plastic tab on a support piece that is glued to the sidewall. The sidewall seems to be made of vinyl leatherette covered fiber board. If the rear plastic support tab breaks off, you may glue it back on with silicone or other cement.
11. Now that the side panels have been pulled inward, you see the rear woofer speaker. Only 4 gold-colored screws (Philips #2) unscrew and the speaker can be pulled inward. You will see the two electrical connectors (spade lug type, one is narrow and the other is wide). Just pull each connector off the speaker - they will match the replacement (if Kicker CS67 model).
12. Replace with the new speakers. The narrow and wide spade lugs will match the existing ones, assuring correct electrical polarity (and thus sound phase).
13. Turn on the car and test the speakers. Repeatly pressing the "Mode" button allows you to find the setting for "Fade" which sets the balance between the front (door mounted woofers and top door and front dashboard tweeters) and rear (woofer only) speakers. If you set to mostly rear speakers you should hear the rear speakers working. These are set up to be "Woofers" so you will only hear low frequency bass sound from them. (I think there is a filter circuit in the plastic rear speaker enclosure to only pass low frequencies to the rear speakers. The Kicker CS67 are coaxial and could deliver high frequency too... so the coaxial performance is really wasted using them only as woofers. But.... since that was all the store had available, and the sound is fine with them... I accept the situation.) Kicker does also make purely woofer speakers that are 6.5 inch diameter - and so do many other vendors... they all should work just as well as these Kicker CS67.
14. Reverse the removal process to put the car back together.
Special considerations:
a. Be sure you reinstall the "toe" of each side panel back under the "sill" of the driver and passenger door sills.
b. Be sure that you keep the rear seat belts in front of the rear seat back...
Note: my re-assembly had to be done twice, because in haste I forgot to re-insert the "toe" of the plastic front of one side panel under the door sill. On realizing this (after all was completed), I had to remove the entire rear seat cushions and do the removal and reinstallation twice. So my 2 hour job should have only taken 1 hour... I think.

Others in this forum have noted that the original speakers say "2 ohm" and yet 4 ohm replacement speakers seem to work just fine as well. These Kicker CS67 coaxial speakers are also 4 ohm and work just fine too.

I hope this writeup and notes will help other XK8 owners, as much as the wonderful earlier posters helped me tackle this audio repair job.

MHH March 8 2014

 

Appreciate the writeup!

 

Great useful info guys. I really appreciate those that took time to post and help others. Im going to try replacing with the kicker cs67s myself. First project on restoring my 98 xk8c

Any suggestions on replacing the front.speakers? Are they same size such that I can just get 4 of the kickers? They arent blown but I figured if.im replacing rear why not front as well. Is it even neccesary?

Finally will a better amp make these babies thump?? Looking to vastly improve the stock sytem without breaking the bank. All suggestions welcome and appreciated.

 

hoya_loya:

Sorry that I can't answer your question... I have the same questions myself.

Here is what I can tell you... the power amp unit in my (convertible XK8) is small... there is not much room over the Nav DVD box and below the convertible roof hydraulic pump where it sits.

The connections to the stock power amp are ... complicated... they have an 18 pin connector (probably to front speakers) and a 12 pin connector, probably to the rear speakers. There is also a combination Power/digital signal connector which looks non-standard (to me). I do see that the large connectors could loosen up ... which another branch of this forum has indicated caused someone's audio to drop out. (Look on eBay for Jaguar XK8 audio cables and the photos of the connector ends will show the type of connectors they used).

If you do go to replace your rear speakers, please do this (and let us all know!!!): Is there a circuit that is filtering out all the high frequencies from the audio sent to the rear speakers?

I ask this because the coax speakers that I installed still only produce deep bass... the high frequencies are not getting to the coax speaker tweeters. I should have inspected inside the woofer plastic enclosures when I replaced mine... too much of a rush. My plastic stock enclosures had an external plug for the speaker harness... I did not change that. Inside the box was the pair of wires that attach to the speakers. I should have looked to see if inside the box there was another electronic package - the crossover filter that only passes bass frequencies. It may not be there at all... But if there is a filter circuit, and if you are putting in coax speakers, you might experiment with bypassing it ...otherwise you also will only get Bass out of the coax's. If there is no physical filter in the enclosure, then it is either built into the Power Amp or it is hidden elsewhere in the system. If the filtering was digitally done (easy to do... impossible to remove), then replacing the woofers with coax speakers is not going to power the tweeters inside the coax's.

(Read the notes on this thread for more info about the Jag audio system and its digital AI-net system:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...reo-xj8-19478/
)

Hope your audio improvements work well... please let us all know how you made out!

Regards,
MHH April 5, 2014

 

Thanks for the advice. Im truly a novice.when it comes to this stuff. Age has me developing a thrist for.some knowledge and DIY projects otherwise id just pay lol.

I'm likely going to forgoe any amp thoughts and just replace my blown rear speakers following the thread advice. If the sound is sufficient ill stop there. If not ill do front too. Tweeters r fine.

But if better front speakers will make the overall sound crisper than stock with a reasonable set of speakers then by all means id appreciate any recommendations for those speakers

Thanks fellas

 

MHH, I see you noticed that the rears only produce bass...in this case, the amplifier itself does the crossover work for those speakers, so its not just you...nor can you do anything about it unless you go with an aftermarket amplifier and use only the front signal inputs to feed it.

hoya, there are a lot of threads on the forum about replacing the head unit with something newer and more feature-rich. I myself have 3 dedicated ones...here, and in the audio subforum. And if you need front components to replace the doors and the dash (scrubbing the a-pillar supertweets), shoot me a PM after you have 10 posts, I have a set of Polk Audio Momo 6-3/4 that I de-installed from a previous vehicle, and I'll give you a great deal on them...oh, and these are the exact same speakers that I have in my xk8 now, so I can speak from personal experience on their sound quality. I highly recommend them...wish you could hear them.

 

Thanks man. Ive browsed the threads and you certainly seem to be the man to go to for audio.

Im not looking to replace the head unit at all. Too much work/cost and not enough benefit. Ive had this 98 xk8 since 06. Im just cleaning it up. Rears are blown so this is just more of a return to decent sound for minimal cost. Ordered the kicker 40cs674 for the.back.and definitely want to hear ya offer on the polks.

Let me.get my 10 posts lol

 

Just to add some more notes...

1. The 4 ohm replacements work just fine. The originals do say 2 ohm... but the 4 ohm work fine.

2. The sound on the rear speakers is only going to be Bass (low frequency).
Another expert posted elsewhere in this forum that the Amplifier has a frequency filter built into it that only passes the low frequency Bass to the rear speakers - there is nothing that we can do to get the complete audio frequency range to the rear speakers (except to replace the amplifier and send the front audio there... to me that is too much work!)

3. After removing and testing my rear speakers, there was NOTHING wrong with my original 2 ohm speakers. Other threads in this forum noted that this can be caused by a bad connection at the Amplifier. So before replacing anything, try moving the wiring harness connector plug in at the amplifier (that is above the CD changer and Map system DVD box, and just below the convertible hydraulic pump [if you have a convertible!]. All those boxes sit below the radio antenna in the rear of the trunk passenger side). Perhaps your rear speakers will come to life without doing any work at all!

Let us know if this kind of problem happened to you...!

Best regards,
MHH

 

MHH,

Good for you for jumping into this. Those old rear speakers were about to let go anyway, right?

A couple of notes on your notes ....

1) As you said, replacing 2-ohm speakers with 4-ohm almost always works fine. Matching power-handling rating is most important. But I think it's worth noting that replacing 4s with 2s can cause the amp to work harder than before. Best to avoid that.

2) I think you are wise not to change out the amplifier for what you wanted to accomplish. Even if you had a way to deliver the full frequency range through the rear speakers (is a coupe's audio set up for that?) any improvement would probably be noticed only by someone sitting in the back seat. The mid and high frequencies would be knocked down pretty severely passing through the backs of the front seats. As a rule, you want line-of-sight from the speaker to your ear for other than the low frequencies. (For H2OBoy: you agree, Matt?)

 

Glad someone addressed the ohms question. My kicker cs674 have already arrived and i was poised to send em back at the suggestion of h20 for some 2ohm but i think i will try them first as many are saying they are fine including the crutchfield tech rep.

Going to try the amp wire fix and see what happens but if not these are going in soon. Still deciding on replacing fronts that work fine.

 

The stock radio,stock sub, the stock amp, the stock speakers all suck in this car. Mine is getting ripped out and I'll replace it with Alpine.

I'm into sound systems, and no aftermarket brand out there, compares to a digital alpine unit , and some polk audio or pioneer speakers.

The important part, is to make sure you match you impedance of the speakers to the head unit or cd changer or amp.If not your unit will either fail you, or get hot and turn off and on.


The door tweeters are located in a bad spot, id recommend relocating them as well. Harmon Kardon makes nice home entertainment, but when it comes to DC voltage, they do not have the experience,as a full aftermarket DC voltage automotive counterpart, such as alpine. Trust me on this.

 

Maybe best to hear from H2OBoy before deciding. He's an audio guru. My comment on 2 vs. 4 ohm speakers was along the lines of .. will it sound the same to normal mortals? ... will it hurt anything?

But in a very high-end system ... he may have something beyond this in mind.

 

We have spoke. His advice was to send them back. I was comparing that with the advice of those in this thread...the mortals lol. He has been very helpful and i trust him.

 

I did recommend sending back the 4-ohm for the 2-ohm on the rear subs. The other components, however, can withstand a power drop by being 4-ohm.

 

so I finally got around to doing this replacement. I originally got the Kicker 6.5 inch 4ohms.

The advice in this thread was very on point excpet for one thing. U really do not need to take the seats out whatsoever. After removing the seat belt and leather cover with the tools neccesary (T50 male and 9 or 10mm socket) u can easily reach down into the box and simply push out the seat cover. U may have to bend the top one but for most part if u have an older xk8 it should come off pretty easily.

The kickers did not line up perfectly but did enough that I could get in a few screws to secure them. Unfortunately I was putting too much pressure on the screw and my driver came off and BOOM right into the woofer :-( I sliced the cone smooth.....

I put them both in anyway and for 2 days listened and ditn quite like what I heard. So I took them back to Best Buy and just said there was a tear in it when I purchased them.

I replaced them with some Alpine 6.5 inch 4 ohms instead. Reinstall took me about 40 mins tops..for both. The sound is much much better than the kickers. I do wonder if I'd get better bass with a 2ohm speaker but they are very hard to find in that size and Best Buy doesnt sell any.

Glad to have decent sound back in the car. I do wish the system overall was better but for a 1998 and my kick around car it will do just fine for the money.

Appreciate everyones advice here. Lookign forward to the next DIY project.

 

I went a slightly different route, but the low end of my sound system is awesome.

 

Thank you EK for the advise with your rear speakers, My Kickers arrived today, per your advise. Plan to install Wednesday. Glad to get rid of the crackle. Rich

 

Thanks Ed, great recommendation of the Comp Kicker woofs. Installed complete just as you described and they work great! Old speakers falling apart from the elements.

Took half a day to complete. While replacing the speakers I decided to remove the leaking top cylinders in prep for top repair.

Next step is to remove the header latch once I figure a way to do so.

One project complete onto the next. thanks again for your advise, good luck with your Jag, Rich

 

My passenger side rear sub have been squelching and booming since i bought it and as a bit of a detail oriented person, its been driving me mad...
got round to changing on Wednesday.

Used these
(realized they are co-ax which is a bit redundant but at least knew that they fitted from reading the excellent guide -http://jag.vis1.co.uk/Jag/default.htm)

Got everything from the top cover removed, then tried the t50 on the seat belt... no dice, completely stuck. (like every other bolt on the car). much WD40 later and still wouldn't shift. So decided to have a got at getting off the speaker cover... I've seen mention that it can be done... but nothing definitive.

I reached under the top cover and bent back the top tab... then between me and the misses slowly worked the others loose, by wedging card into the gap as we created it by pushing a pulling... you can't reach the others directly. (tabs are big squares of mesh, so not too worried about breaking them).

Once removed this gives more than enough clearance to change the sub using the guide. the only thing I did differently was rather than solder, I crimped on spade connectors that came with the speakers.. smaller red spade connectors would be better than the blue ones supplied.

I refitted by carefully pushing the tabs back in starting from the bottom, and guiding them with a credit card... I pushed the tabs so they bent away from the speaker box where possible, so they had room to bend fully.

Got it back on pretty well, if you really looked you could probably tell the bottom of the grill is slightly proud... but It did save me dismantling most of the interior!

I only changed one speaker as the other works fine, tonally I can tell they are very slightly different, but its much better than previously, so am going to live with it until the other one blows.

Slight "bodged" but overall fairly happy I didn't have to take the car to pieces and it saved me £250 had i got it done at the local audio shop.

 

mherman346 I can't thank you enough for your posts. I followed your step by step replacement for my rear speakers and it saved me time and answered many questions. My speaker leads were soldered on so replacing them took a little longer that a plug in would have. I found my old gun and that was solved. (They came with inline crimps, but I'd rather solder) I did notice the speaker box has a separate tweeter built in, so trying to make the Kicker do more that just bass would be a waste of time for me. I did notice the old speakers weighed twice as much as the new ones! I assume/hope the new ones have "super magnets" and they're just as good as the older ones just with lower weight. They sound great. Thanks again.