Removing dash speaker grilles

Bcdad182 · Feb 26, 2013

Can anyone give me some pointers on removing the left hand speaker grille in the dash.

I have a rattle down there somewhere, mostly present when I hit a bump or a manhole cover. I want to take the grille off to see if it goes away. I already removed the A pillar and the noise was still there. If I bump the dash with the flat of my hand just right, I can replicate the sound. It sounds almost as if something is loose, like the grille or the speaker itself is shifting.

I tried pulling, but not sure to which direction and I don't want to pry too much and break anything.

Any tips would be appreciated. I tried a search and got a million hits, but no answer.

I'm trying to narrow this down so that I can say to the dealer, its coming from this area, now FIX it!

Thanks!

nizzy1115 · Feb 26, 2013

Pry up from the center of the car and lift upwards there are just 2 small clips that will disconnect with a little force. Use a flat head screwdriver.

Bcdad182 · Feb 26, 2013

awesome! Thanks

mazdachris · Mar 1, 2013

I have that same rattle with my lh dash speaker. When I place my hand on it with pressure, the rattle stops. Not enough of an anoyace to take it to the dealer 3 times till it gets fixed. I am thinking of popping it off and checking it out.

CCR76 · Mar 31, 2013

Get a set of these, $4.99 at Harbor Freight. I've bunged up more surfaces than I care to admit using screwdrivers.

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-nylon-pry-bar-installer-kit-69668.html

wippet · Dec 19, 2015

Is anyone able to post of a photo of exactly what they do? I gave it a bit of a shot with a flathead screw driver but like CCR76 said the surface always ends up screwed when using them (and I can see it happening already with the couple of goes I've had at it). I also got some of the plastic tools which do a good job but for the life of me I can't get this cover off.
I just want to know what size the speakers are before I put an order in.

I'm planning on doing either 2 way splits (6.5" in the door then tweeter in the dash) or 3 way, with 6.5" in the door, 3" in the dash, and 2 x tweeters in the center speaker location in our 2015 CX-5.

yrwei52 · Dec 20, 2015

wippet said:
Is anyone able to post of a photo of exactly what they do?

Basically you pry the outside edge of dash speaker grill which is close to the A pillar with your plastic prying tool upward and work toward center direction and the grill will pop lose. Here are some pictures from an old post:

cmceleste said:
The top three grills are all easily removed with a little flat head screw driver. The dash is soft and I did not worry about denting or scratching anything. It appears to be a 3.5 speaker that would fit all of them. The screws that mount to the dash are approximately 4.5 inches apart.
Here are some pics...

Prying left grill

Removed grill clip location. I started at the left and popped the 5-6 clips off and it came out forward. To replace I pushed forward and pushed the front part down until it snapped.

Looking down through the windshield.

A stubby screw driver didn't fit. This would be much easier with no windshield.

The easiest and most popular speaker upgrade for CX-5 Bose system is to replace two side 3" mid-range Twiddler dash speakers with Polk Audio DB351 3" coaxial speakers so that you add two tweeters for better high notes. You can leave the front-center 3" mid-range Twiddler dash speaker alone or replace it with the same Polk Audio DB351 speaker and have an extra for spare. For non-Bose you can at least add or replace two side dash speakers. The speaker connectors will be different and you may have to splice the wires. Door speakers can be fitted with different sizes from 6" coaxial speakers to 9" woofers as you need an adapter anyway. This 2016 CX5 Audio upgrade thread should be very helpful.

ryan4130 said:
Personally Polk speakers have always been good to me so I was happy to use them. The specs are good and build quality is good. Infinity speakers are also pretty good, but I'm more of a Polk person.
Here are some comparison pictures of the stock bose left/right dash speaker (shown left), the stock bose center dash speaker (shown middle) and the polk db351 (shown right). The polk weighs the most obviously, the center channel bose speaker weighs slightly less, and the left/right speaker weighs 1/3 of the Polk. The bose speakers have a much smaller woofer cone too, so I wouldnt say they are truly 3.5" speakers.

yrwei52 said:
These pictures of Bose speakers on 3rd gen Mazda6 are from Mazda6Club as we can see we have the same Bose speakers other than tweeters, and may be rear D-pillar speakers, on 2016 CX-5:

Corner dash speaker location w/o 3" Twiddler:

1" tweeter hidden beneath corner dash speaker grill:

9" Nd woofer in front door:

Front door speaker location w/o 9" Nd woofer:

5" full-range speaker in rear door:

RG_Flyer · Dec 20, 2015

Great photos and notes yrwei52!

I will add that I recommend protecting the A-pillar covers when popping up the grilles. I had to remove some light scuffs with naptha after trying with lesser cleaners. Wiped right off completely, but better to avoid. I was using a nylon pry tool and using extreme care to not mar the dash.

wippet · Dec 20, 2015

Yeah that's some great info thanks very much. And that link you shared it seems like they have 9" door speakers as well. Almost goes in to the DIY too hard basket!

Removing dash speaker grilles

Bcdad182

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mazdachris

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CCR76

wippet

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yrwei52

2016 Mazda CX-5 GT AWD w/Tech Pkg

RG_Flyer

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wippet

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