Car Stereos: 2002 Jeep Liberty w/ 6-speaker Infinity Premium sound system, infinity speakers, premium sound system

Question
Hi Brian-
I have a 2002 Jeep Liberty Limited with a 6-speaker OEM Infinity premium audio system.  two tweeters in the dash, two speakers in the front doors, and two speakers in the rear.  My left front door speaker is rattling (I think that means it's blown). What's my cheapest option for getting this fixed?  I've been to a couple car audio shops, Best Buy, etc., and their quotes seem to be getting pretty pricey.

There is no after market equipment installed in my car.  I just want my speaker fixed.  And then afterwards I want to add an after market radio so I can integrate my ipod.  What do you recommend?  

Answer
Hi Julie,

Here's the issue with the speaker replacement:  your Liberty includes a factory Infinity amplifier for driving the six speakers.  In fact, it has two amplifiers: one for each side.  And those two amplifiers are mounted right on the backs of the two front door speakers.  That means anyone replacing the front door speakers must figure out what to do with the stock amplifiers.

The simplest thing to do would probably be to obtain a factory replacement speaker through a dealer.  However, from what I can tell, it looks like a single replacement speaker might cost as much as $180.  That's a lot of money for a speaker that really doesn't have a good track record for durability.  It's extremely common to find blown Infinity speakers in Jeep and Chrysler vehicles.

It would be much less expensive to replace both front speakers with after-market 6-1/2" speakers.  However, then you run into the issue with the amplifier.  You'd need to decide whether to keep the amp or remove it.

To keep the amp, an installer would need to find a place to mount it inside the door, since it can't be mounted on the back of the after-market speaker.  Then the wires that originally powered the stock speaker would need to be extended to the new speaker.  The factory amplifier has a built-in crossover:  it sends only bass to the door speaker, no treble.  If you keep the amp, the new speaker would only play bass as well.

If you remove the amp, you'd need to find an installer who knows how to rewire the system so that the speakers can be driven directly from the head unit.  Your factory head unit has enough power to run speakers directly, without the amp; however, it can't run six speakers--only four.  If you remove the amp, you'll have to lose the dash tweeters.  On the other hand, the door speakers would be able to play the full audio range, so if you pick a decent door speaker, you won't really miss the dash tweeters.

Given that you're planning to upgrade your head unit in any case, my recommendation would be to remove the stock amps.  Either way, you'll  want to discuss the issue with the installer before you let him work on your car.  Because the front amplifiers drive the rear speakers as well, if the installer doesn't know what he's doing, you might end up with no sound to any of your speakers.  Either option--replacing the amp, or relocating it--is going to involve some extra work, so you'll have to expect some extra labor costs.  

Hope this helps!

Brian