QuestionHi Brian,
I have a 2002 Jeep Liberty and my speakers seem harder than normal to replace.
What would you recommend to replace my 2 front door speakers (they are both blown) ?
Should I just go to the dealership at $185 for each. (not including labor) ?
I am also looking for a new head unit, what do you think of the Pioneer DEH-P3100UB ?
All that is on my wish list for a head unit is HD/XM/Sirius Radio, if I want to pay for that later down the road, Bluetooth, and iPod touch(2G) user friendly.
-Heather
AnswerHi Heather,
Sorry about the delay in answering this question.
The tricky thing about the front speakers in the Liberty is that the factory speaker has an amplifier attached. Each front door speaker has a 3-channel amplifier that drives the front speaker, front tweeter and rear door speaker on that side of the vehicle. I'm guessing the price of the replacement speaker at the dealer includes the amplifier (at least, I'd hope so--the actual speaker itself is nothing special).
Since you're replacing the stock radio anyway, I don't think I'd try to keep a stock speaker/amp system working. Instead, I'd install a good after-market 6-1/2" speaker, and bypass the factory amplifiers. This requires some extra wiring work in each door, but it's not all that difficult as a DIY project, provided you know which wire is which. I can help you with that, if you decide to try it yourself. "Bypassing" the amp means that the front and rear door speakers will be connected directly to the new head unit. If you do this, you'd need to give up the front tweeters; but you won't miss them if you use a good quality front door speaker--it's pretty common for the stock tweeters to fail eventually, in any case.
I think the DEH-P3100UB is a good head unit; it's just been replaced by a new model, so you might find it at a good price right now. It should work well with your iPod using the front USB connection. Keep in mind, it doesn't have Bluetooth, Satellite Radio, or HD Radio built in--adding any of these features would require a different adapter module, at a cost of around $100 or more for each. If you're certain that you'll want Bluetooth or HD Radio, then it would be less expensive in the long run to purchase a head unit with the feature built in. For example, Pioneer's DEH-P6100BT has built-in Bluetooth, while the new DEH-P5200HD has built-in HD radio. The price difference between one of these and the DEH-P3100UB would be less than the cost of the add-on adapter you'd need to add the feature to the DEH-P3100UB; and you wouldn't need to worry about the labor cost of installing the adapter.
Hope this helps!
Brian
