Removal of dash & Looking to buy 1/2 of 6.5 comp set

Green01LX

Member
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2001 Protege LX 5 Spd
This is for a sedan 3rd gen LX

First off I am looking to buy half of a 6.5 component set. It needs to be of fairly decent quality, brand doesnt really matter. If anyone has a comp. set that they blew one woofer or a tweeter and its sitting around in the closet or something like that, let me know.

Next off, does anyone know how to remove the dash? I am saying the whole thing basically. I know how to remove radio/HVAC trim piece, gauge cluster, and glove box. What else do I need to remove in order to get the rest of the dash off? How far back do the middle dash vents go? Any hidden bolts, etc that I would need to know about for the dash? Would I need to remove the passenger airbag cover, and even the airbag to get the dash off? I am sure I have more questions just cant think of any right now.

OK, now for the explanation. I am going to put the half comp set into the center of the dash making a "center channel" out of it. I recently saw something simialar done in a camaro and liked the way it brought the imaging up high, and definitely further to the front. I do not have a 5 channel deck, nor am I going to purchase one. I am just doing this so my midbass and treble is more forward, and not firing directly into my knee. I plan on running the "center channel" off of deck power, since the component set I have in the doors is ran off an amp, as are the 6x9's. I also plan on getting/hooking up my rear door speakers also off the deck. This way I am getting the absolute most sound out of my car using stock locations and the only alteration being done is the "center channel". I have always wanted to do this mod and finally have the time, patience, experience, and money to do it. Any questions/comments are appreciated. Pics would be nice too, but I know most people havent really taken the dash off their car.

Thanks in advance,
Ian
 
The service manual from Mazda would probably be your best bet. My dealer lent me the 2002 Protege workshop manual when I was doing the MP5T( Like a Phone Book For New York City ) for the weekend. It has exploded views of all parts and screw position plus the order in which pieces have to be removed to get to the other one. Like a puzzle you know...
 
I hung out and helped the shop that was taking my dash apart. It was a b**** and a half to say the least. I don't even remember all the details to it but the steering column was the worst, especially reinstalling it.

Best person to answer would be gotwake. He's an audio guru and had his dash off, twice I think.
 
what are you trying to acheive, an accurate image? if so this isn't the way to go. and if your wanting your midbass to be more forward the deck power isn't going to have enough oomph to push it. i assume your wanting a good soundstage since your talking about raising the stage height and pushing it more forward. but the downfall is your going to destroy your left and right image by using a single midbass in the center of the car. midbass is in stereo meaning it will be on the left or right side of the soundstage depending on the music u are playing, to run the midbass in the center u will have to feed it either a right or a left image. this is going to destroy your soundstage. the only way to do a center channel properly is by using a center channel processor such as from audio control. this is the only way to do it properly. ive seen allot of cars destroy a decent soundstage by trying to half ass a center channel. 9x out of 10 the image is worse.
 
send a PM to dexter, he has removed the dash. its a long and messy process from what he told me.
 
sndsgood said:
what are you trying to acheive, an accurate image? if so this isn't the way to go. and if your wanting your midbass to be more forward the deck power isn't going to have enough oomph to push it. i assume your wanting a good soundstage since your talking about raising the stage height and pushing it more forward. but the downfall is your going to destroy your left and right image by using a single midbass in the center of the car. midbass is in stereo meaning it will be on the left or right side of the soundstage depending on the music u are playing, to run the midbass in the center u will have to feed it either a right or a left image. this is going to destroy your soundstage. the only way to do a center channel properly is by using a center channel processor such as from audio control. this is the only way to do it properly. ive seen allot of cars destroy a decent soundstage by trying to half ass a center channel. 9x out of 10 the image is worse.


What is the audiocontrol center channel processor called? I have looked on their site and cannot find it. Anyone else make something like that?
 
yeah, i took the dash off and its kinda a pain if youre doing it the first time. i 95% followed the factory service manual, until i got to the steering column. Pretty much this is how it goes:

Remove center console
Remove passenger airbag
Remove driverside airbag
Remove Steering wheel
Remove clock ring thing behind steering wheel
Remove turnsignal . headlight control swtiches
Remove gauge cluster
Remove Radio and trim
Remove A/C controls
(dont forget about all the wiring attacthed to the back side of the dash...)

When i got to the steering column i didnt get what the hell the manual was talking about, so i disconnected it from the joint near the floor/firewall. Remove the cardboard thing (i think its 3 clips), take off the rubber cover and you will see how it connects. The shaft goes into the other thing and its helld in place with a a metal clip and bolt. I disconnected it there..

What i recommend it just follow the service manual and also TAKE OUT YOUR SEATS. i dont know why i didnt do this...lol, it was so tight to work in there....

anyways yeah...PM me or post here if you get stuck somewhere.
 
Witchdoktor said:
I hung out and helped the shop that was taking my dash apart. It was a b**** and a half to say the least. I don't even remember all the details to it but the steering column was the worst, especially reinstalling it.

Best person to answer would be gotwake. He's an audio guru and had his dash off, twice I think.

yeah, i've had mine out 3 times now, and it's about to come out for a 3rd time. everything is pretty basic, except for the steering column, as dexter said. i got pissed and frustrated, so i took 2 huge screwdrivers and pried the pieces apart to get the steering column pivot point out. definitely not the right method to remove it. proto2k removed just the dash cover and not the metal frame by unscrewing it, but that's too much work for me.


as far as why you would want a center channel setup, refer to sndsgood's post. i'm just going to verify that he knows his s***, and there is no need for me to reiterate what he said. if you have a properly setup front sound stage, you will have a very distinguished center. if you want to raise up your sound stage, put tweeters in the lower part of the A-pillars, a mid-range driver in some kick panels, and a mid-bass driver in the doors. for the mid-range it wouldn't be a bad idea to look into a dome set, like from DLS, and set the x-over between it and the tweeter around 5khz. the dome mid-range helps when mounting the tweeter away from the mid-range driver. i judged a car with this set at spring break nationals and throroughly enjoyed them:
http://www.audiophiles.com/english/speakers/Iridium63.htm
http://www.audiophiles.com/english/index.htm

i tried to find where their supplied x-over points are, but there is no information on it.
 
My friend has a component set he said he would pretty much give me. Its a boston rally set. One woofer is blown. I was kinda thinking that if I mount the tweeters in the a-pillars like got wake was saying and then the single woofer in the dash, would this work ok? I thinking of hooking up the woofer "tri-mode". off of the 2 crossovers. Do you think this would work ok? I was thinking that the center woofer would be a mono signal, therefor not sounding bad when sound moves back and forth. But the tweeters would still be in stereo, so it should still be kinda ok right? I am honestly trying to get something that will help, without having to drop 300 or so bucks on an eq and then mess with it for a month until it sounds right.

I am not sure if I want to run the rallys for sure or not. Anyone else have a component set (full or partial) that they would like to get rid of?
 
putting the mid-range/mid-bass in the middle of your dash will kill your sound stage and imaging. the ONLY way i would EVER put a speaker in the middle of my dash would be if it was a subwoofer that plays 60-70 hz and below. when you get to lower freq's like that you cannot distiguish where the sound is coming from.
 
OK so I guess i will give up on this plan. Thank you for the input, I am glad that everyone told me it wouldnt work before I experienced it myself. I mught just buy the clarion or kenwood center channel. That would probably be easiest I guess. Sub in the dash though. Hmmmm..... What if I bought an orion XTR 8MB? I think an 8 would fit into the dash. Maybe the 6.5MB...
 
Green01LX said:
OK so I guess i will give up on this plan. Thank you for the input, I am glad that everyone told me it wouldnt work before I experienced it myself. I mught just buy the clarion or kenwood center channel. That would probably be easiest I guess. Sub in the dash though. Hmmmm..... What if I bought an orion XTR 8MB? I think an 8 would fit into the dash. Maybe the 6.5MB...

why not just get a nice set of components and mount them in kick panels? if they are aimed properly you'll have a defined center. if you feel the need to, you can even get 3-way components, so you can have a dedicated mid-bass in the doors. why do you keep wanting to put a speaker in the dash? an 8 would be good for bass and lower mid-bass region. in the lower mid-bass region you can still tell where the sound is coming from, so you don't want it in the middle of the dash.
 
my suggestion is to go with a kickpanel installation and work really good at angling them during construction, u may find you don't even need a center channel. an eq will only make the sound more accurate (if tuned properly) ie it will make a trumpet sound like a trumpet, it won't make your soundstage better. u may have to look on ebay for the audio control unit, not sure if they even make them anymore. i'd work on the kickpanels first, i'd suggest mounting the tweeters down in the kicks and just work on the angling of them, then afterwards if the image ist still low. get u another set of tweeters (same brand and model) and mount them up on the a-pillars, generally low on the pillars but work with the height and angle as well. and run them off of radio power and cross them over at around the 5000-7000 hz range. as for a sub up front, if u got the skill and room, go for it. nothing more accurate then true bass up front feeling.
 
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