2003 LW200 Speaker / Stereo Questions

[LW200-RPA]

Hi All,

After stumbling on this site dozens of times while Googling and being frustrated by not ever finding answers pertaining to my specific vehicle - despite a lot of good information, generally - it finally occurred to me that I could just sign up and post my own question, so here goes! (Thanks to whoever created this site!)

I have a 2003 LW200, and after my state passed a law banning cell phone use while driving if you don't have hands free, I started working on replacing all components of my stereo, but have run into a few issues/questions I hope you all can offer some insight on.

1. Rear speakers seem like they should be relatively easy to replace, after finding online instructions for taking off door panel for L-series. (Instructions didn't work 100%, but good enough to access what I need. BUT, the factory speakers only had 3 holes, while the Alpine SPS-510 (5.25") I bought have 4. Is it a safe assumption that I just have to drill holes into the metal of the door, or am I overlooking something simpler?

2. Beyond that, the 2 speaker wires that were fed into a clip for the factory speakers are light blue and dark blue for both the left and right rear. Is the dark blue positive and light blue negative in both cases? I haven't taken the deck back out to match up the wire harness diagram, etc. but I don't recall any light/dark blue pairs, so I think they change to those colors somewhere between the head unit and the doors.

3. I haven't touched the front doors yet, but our local Best Buy's lone installer has a huge page of notes about what a hassle they are. But I'm reading online that simply using some spacers to give the window room, is the only thing that makes it a little unusual. Anything else I should be prepared for?

Secondary concerns...

4. I've already Replaced factory deck with Pioneer X4700BT CD player with Bluetooth, USB, Aux. Install went smoothly, although it took a little time to find the place place to wire up the microphone. The only other weird thing was that the factory deck had a tab where a ground wire slid right on, separate from the rest of the wires. The Pioneer deck had no such tab, but the harness indicated one of the other wires was a ground, so I connected the deck to the harness, following instructions, and then snapped the harness into the plug/harness in the vehicle. Seems to work great, but I'm somewhat concerned about that grounded wire just sitting in there. Obviously it exists for a reason...

Apologies for the loquacious nature of my first post - just trying to be as thorough as possible up front, given that this particular car seems to have so many unique little idiosyncrasies.

Thanks in advance for any help the Saturn Fans out there can provide!

-RPA

[ruley73]

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

1. Rear speakers seem like they should be relatively easy to replace, after finding online instructions for taking off door panel for L-series. (Instructions didn't work 100%, but good enough to access what I need. BUT, the factory speakers only had 3 holes, while the Alpine SPS-510 (5.25") I bought have 4. Is it a safe assumption that I just have to drill holes into the metal of the door, or am I overlooking something simpler?

Someone else will need to chime in here. I thought these brackets were required for all four speakers, but after looking on Crutchfield again they only appear to work for the front doors.

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

2. Beyond that, the 2 speaker wires that were fed into a clip for the factory speakers are light blue and dark blue for both the left and right rear. Is the dark blue positive and light blue negative in both cases? I haven't taken the deck back out to match up the wire harness diagram, etc. but I don't recall any light/dark blue pairs, so I think they change to those colors somewhere between the head unit and the doors.

The diagram I looked at didn't indicate this, but I've seen GM do this before without it being shown on a third party's diagram. Dark blue is positive and light blue is negative for both sides.

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

4. I've already Replaced factory deck with Pioneer X4700BT CD player with Bluetooth, USB, Aux. Install went smoothly, although it took a little time to find the place place to wire up the microphone. The only other weird thing was that the factory deck had a tab where a ground wire slid right on, separate from the rest of the wires. The Pioneer deck had no such tab, but the harness indicated one of the other wires was a ground, so I connected the deck to the harness, following instructions, and then snapped the harness into the plug/harness in the vehicle. Seems to work great, but I'm somewhat concerned about that grounded wire just sitting in there. Obviously it exists for a reason...

The primary ground source is provided in the harness plug. The ground strap that connects to the factory radio chassis is a secondary ground connection intended to reduce interference with the tuner. I'd recommend attaching it to the new radio if possible, but as long as the tuner works fine then you don't need to worry about it.

[pierrot]

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

1. Rear speakers seem like they should be relatively easy to replace, after finding online instructions for taking off door panel for L-series. (Instructions didn't work 100%, but good enough to access what I need. BUT, the factory speakers only had 3 holes, while the Alpine SPS-510 (5.25") I bought have 4. Is it a safe assumption that I just have to drill holes into the metal of the door, or am I overlooking something simpler?

You can drill new holes into the door so that you can mount the new woofers - that's okay. Rear door woofers on the L Series cars use no adapters. OE front and rear door woofers are 6" dia. The space present in the rear doors will actually accommodate a 6.5" replacement woofers (I know this as I'm them in my car's rear doors now), but the cone must be shallow so that the lower edge of the window regulator bracket won't strike it. Speakers/woofers with a "universal" mounting ring around them can generally use the mounting pattern already present in the rear doors.

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

2. Beyond that, the 2 speaker wires that were fed into a clip for the factory speakers are light blue and dark blue for both the left and right rear. Is the dark blue positive and light blue negative in both cases? I haven't taken the deck back out to match up the wire harness diagram, etc. but I don't recall any light/dark blue pairs, so I think they change to those colors somewhere between the head unit and the doors.

I'm sure that ruley73 is correct about the wires you mention. Check the contacts on the speakers themselves to see if they're marked as positive or negative. If there are no markings then, no matter which contact they go to, as long as both wires are hooked up you'll have power to the speaker.

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

3. I haven't touched the front doors yet, but our local Best Buy's lone installer has a huge page of notes about what a hassle they are. But I'm reading online that simply using some spacers to give the window room, is the only thing that makes it a little unusual.

You have that correct. This is the only unusual item regarding the front door woofers.

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

Anything else I should be prepared for?

I don't thinks so. Some members have simply removed the "baskets"/spacers from the OE speakers and re-used them with aftermarket replacements. I don't know exactly how they worked it. You'd have to do a search to find other threads relating to our front door speakers. As for me, I've just used OE replacement speakers so there was no special work to be done to install them.

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

Apologies for the loquacious nature of my first post - just trying to be as thorough as possible up front, given that this particular car seems to have so many unique little idiosyncrasies.

Be loquacious and have fun, too!! It's always better to provide more information than less. It helps the rest of us out here to be of more help to anyone seeking it. Welcome to the SaturnFans L Series Forums!!

[flyingj]

For the front doors, I used a recommendation I saw here on the forums. When you take the old speakers out you'll notice they have the spacer built in. You can buy new spacers, but I just ended up cutting the spacer component off the old speakers (they were trash any how) and then using an apoxy to attach the new speakers to the spacers. Then reinstall the speakers and you are god to go. I ended up not using the tweeter wires, but just capped them off, as the pioneer speakers I purchased had a bypass that I could attach to the speaker to the woofer and then on to the woofer and tweeter.

I too have installed a Pioneer deck, it's older but has the same functionality, and love it.

[LW200-RPA]

Thanks for all the tips guys, great info! Very quick too!. Still a few questions though...

@ruley73, you mentioned some particular brackets.. I'm seeing several places saying that the Scosche SAU56 are good for both fronts and backs... Thoughts?

@pierrot, I appreciate the confirmation on several items, especially the idea that I can just drill holes, although if the adapters mentioned above work, I think I'd probably prefer to go that route. I'm also kind of surprised to hear that you can put 6" speakers there - I've ready 5.25" every else. The Alpines I got will fit nicely, in terms of depth (I think), although I'm a bit concerned about the protrusion of the tweeters.

Anyway, getting back to drilling holes... I've never done something like this. How do you ensure they'll stay in place. Obviously I can't spin a washer on the end of the screw once it's through, because the speaker will prevent my arm from getting in there... So is there just a type of screw that really grabs on to the thin metal I'd be drilling through, or something? I feel pretty comfortable and open to drilling, but I'm just not sure how to be confident the screws won't rattle loose. Do I drill holes first or do I just drive the screws right in?

@flyingj I've also read that tip about using factory spacers on the front - sounds like a good way to go - I'll check 'em out when I get there. Thanks again.

I really appreciate the help and any further guidance you guys can provide!

[pierrot]

Originally Posted by LW200-RPA

@pierrot, I appreciate the confirmation on several items, especially the idea that I can just drill holes, although if the adapters mentioned above work, I think I'd probably prefer to go that route. I'm also kind of surprised to hear that you can put 6" speakers there - I've ready 5.25" every else. The Alpines I got will fit nicely, in terms of depth (I think), although I'm a bit concerned about the protrusion of the tweeters.

Anyway, getting back to drilling holes... I've never done something like this. How do you ensure they'll stay in place. Obviously I can't spin a washer on the end of the screw once it's through, because the speaker will prevent my arm from getting in there... So is there just a type of screw that really grabs on to the thin metal I'd be drilling through, or something? I feel pretty comfortable and open to drilling, but I'm just not sure how to be confident the screws won't rattle loose. Do I drill holes first or do I just drive the screws right in?

The factory used self-tapping sheet metal screws. Take a sample to a good hardware store and match it up (be sure not to swerve into self-tapping wood screws). When drilling the new mounting holes be sure to drill a hole smaller than the diameter of the self-tapping screw threads. If the hole is too large then the threads cannot "bite" into the door and will merely spin like a stripped screw.

There are body clips with nuts on them which you could attempt to use. There are also similar clips, but which are use with self-tapping screws. The clips just need to stay in place after you've put them in a particular location.