Tweeters - How do you hook them up??

[YetiX]

My car did NOT come with the Premium stereo.

I pulled off the plastic panels inside the mirrors and there are wires for the stock tweeters.  So I got a pair of tweeters off someone here and connected them to the wires.  Unfortunately, they are not working.

Do I need to connect the other end of the wires somehow?  I was thinking maybe I need to hook them up to the speakers in the kick panels via a cross over or something.  

Does anyone know how to do what I'm trying to do?

Thanks!!

[jscribble]

I got a set of speakers with separate tweeters, and wired them jumper style with cross overs direct from my amp in the trunk. You could do the same with a crossover in the dash. Mine were not bmw tweeters, I mounted the little pods to the factory blanks.

[YetiX]

I got a set of speakers with separate tweeters, and wired them jumper style with cross overs direct from my amp in the trunk. You could do the same with a crossover in the dash. Mine were not bmw tweeters, I mounted the little pods to the factory blanks.

I assume the other end of the tweeter wires comes out in the kick panel near the speakers there?  I hope so since I just ordered up some new speakers that have separate 1" tweeters.  The cross-over is built into the woofers so I just need to wire the tweeters directly to the new speakers (woofers).  

I really hope I don't have to pull any wires and the other end is already there . . .

[longtallsally]

Why didn't you just ask me, knucklehead?

You found the wires in the doors.  It sounds like you found the ones in the kick panels.  Well, they don't work b/c you don't have them hooked up to anything.

The way it is wired OEM is the premium drivers for the front work in conjunction to the tweeters.  The drivers have a capacitor on one side of them that you plug the wires from the tweeters into.  That capacitor crosses over the tweeters so they don't have to handle the full range of sound.

To be succinct, the premium speakers are components designed to work together.  My car didn't come with them either and I got a full set of premium speakers from a yard and I hooked them up accordingly.

I couldn't use the original lameness b/c there was no capacitor to cross over the tweeters.  Now you can make it work by buying an aftermarket cross over, but the lower grade drivers in the kick panels are so pathetic, it's not worth it.  For example, I paid $10 a piece for my speakers- that's with the tweeters as a matched pair.  In other words, I paid $40 for the full setup which is less probably than crossovers and certainly cheaper than another set of speakers.

[YetiX]

That's what I figured. I bought a pair of decent speakers and tweeters to replace the ones that are in there. The solders have a built-in cross-over. I'll just install those and replace the broken stock tweeters with the new ones. Should be a fun little project.

[longtallsally]

Check out bmwman91's audio thread and he'll give you some ideas.  Also, search here and on e30tech for "tweeter pods" and you should find some really good info.

My money is that the tweeters you have aren't bad.  Heck, the junkyard ones I have sound really great.  Unless you really want to put in some high roller tweeters, and install them in the tweeter pods you have now, I'd just use the drivers you just bought with a cross over in conjunction to the BMW tweeters.  That way you don't have to run wires, or do any pod surgery.

Oh, and finding the wires in the kick panel isn't the easiest task on the planet, so be prepared to search around a bit.  You'll pretty much know you have them based on there will just be wires hanging out there which aren't plugged into anything- silly I know, but harder than you think.  Use a meter to make sure as I don't think the wire colors match from before and after the door plug.

[YetiX]

Check out bmwman91's audio thread and he'll give you some ideas.  Also, search here and on e30tech for "tweeter pods" and you should find some really good info.

My money is that the tweeters you have aren't bad.  Heck, the junkyard ones I have sound really great.  Unless you really want to put in some high roller tweeters, and install them in the tweeter pods you have now, I'd just use the drivers you just bought with a cross over in conjunction to the BMW tweeters.  That way you don't have to run wires, or do any pod surgery.

Oh, and finding the wires in the kick panel isn't the easiest task on the planet, so be prepared to search around a bit.  You'll pretty much know you have them based on there will just be wires hanging out there which aren't plugged into anything- silly I know, but harder than you think.  Use a meter to make sure as I don't think the wire colors match from before and after the door plug.

Thanks for the pointer on the wires.  I was assuming they had speaker connectors on the end in the kick panel. No? Yes?

At least one of the tweeters I found is definitely broken, one of the tabs was missing.  The set of speakers I bought have 1" tweeters, same as the stock ones.  I've already pulled the stock tweeters out of the pods and cleaned them up, now I just need to glue the new tweeters in the pods and hook everybody up.