Audio/Visual & Electronics - 93 Civic Speaker Replacement

All of my speakers are dead in my 93 Civic EX 2 door...except the driver side tweeter. I am going to replace all of the speakers, and eventually the head unit, as well as adding an amplifier and subwoofer. I have a few questions...

1)Should I buy replacement speakers, or can I go ahead and buy any speaker and use it on my stock head unit?

2)As a 16 year old that has a pretty good hold on how electricity works and some experience with home stereo setup, how hard will it be for me and a few of my friends that modify cars to do all this stuff myself?

3)Are there any books with diagrams of the wiring/speaker setup/any additional info I can use to my benefit on this and/or any other info for a 93 Civic that I can go out and buy at an AutoZone or something?

Thanks for your help in advance. I'm new to all of this stuff, I just got my first car and I am looking to fix it up within my first year of having it. PM me anything that you think might be helpful to know as a new owner of a Honda Civic!:D

1) depends on your budget, but yes
2) Yes, just remember positive to positive and negative to negative and nothing should go wrong ;). The front speakers will probably be the easiest, the rear speakers will envolve some removal of seats (I think, my hatch was easy, but diff gen). Just make sure you have your trusty manuals (Haynes and/or Chilton) some basic hand tools (screw driver, spanner, and socket set for important things like seats), and patience.

3) Haynes(I have one and the wiring diagrams are in there, but to me they are as clear as mud) or Chilton will probly work, I know there is some online PDF database, was shown it once but don't have the URL anymore, so if someone has that...

Take photos of your work, take pride, and have fun.

Personally I would say if all your speakers are blown... not just loose/lacking connections replace em (I have JBL's in mine and they arn't bad), if you get a new head unit I have an Alpine and have no complaints(found i had a rather large spool of AI-Net cable tucked under my gear shifter [&:])... other components you'll find more opinions on the forum so search away!
I bought a lot of my gear @ www.sonicelectronix.com, and have no complaints with them (shipping to canada wasn't bad either... just wish i had choice of couriers)

hope this helps, good luck!

I can actually access my rear speakers from the trunk...but that may just be the back of it...I have a friend that has done some of this stuff before.

Which book would you recomend over the other? You said Haynes has wiring diagrams and stuff...that is really valuable to me.

Rear speakers on a coupe are not hard to do, you may need to remove the carpet on the panel that has the speakers but that is straightforward. I would suggest just doing the speakers first, you won't need a wiring diagram. Just connect the two wires that went to the old speaker to the new one being sure to keep plus and minus right. Any four ohm speaker (which is pretty much any speaker) will work with your stock radio head unit.

Then upgrade the head unit and finally you can add a subwoofer and/or amps for the main speakers. When you get to that stage you will need to run new wires around the car but for replacing the stock speakers and the head unit just use the factory wires with adapter plugs.

Nice. Thanks

I have a quick question. If there is NO sound AT ALL from any speakers, is it possible that it is just a loose wire? Or could it be something more serious? I'm gonna be buying some speakers soon, there are some good deals over at Circuit City. (%50 2nd pair of speakers)

If it is a loose wire where should I be looking to find the loose connection? Anyone have any PDF files for the 93 civic stock head unit or speakers?

ORIGINAL: lawlersauce

I have a quick question. If there is NO sound AT ALL from any speakers, is it possible that it is just a loose wire? Or could it be something more serious? I'm gonna be buying some speakers soon, there are some good deals over at Circuit City. (%50 2nd pair of speakers)

If it is a loose wire where should I be looking to find the loose connection? Anyone have any PDF files for the 93 civic stock head unit or speakers?

Some head units/amps are smart and detect when they aren't properly loaded. A broken/disconnected/missing wire effectively disconnects the speaker from the system, and smart amps will turn off their power output stages. Deafening silence ensues :-)

Before finding the bad wire, you need to determine if any of the wires are indeed bad. That means testing your speakers. One way is to take them out and test with a different amplifier (like your home stereo receiver). Or bring the amp to the speakers -- would be fun, but maybe not as easy or safe. Anybody else with other creative test rigs?

Say all your speakers work but still no sound -- that means bad wires. You'll need to check for continuity with a multimeter (available at most hardware stores). Put one lead on one of the wires that connects to the speaker and the other on the corresponding output connection on the head unit/amp. Do this for each of the wires to find how many you need to replace.

Hopefully you just have a speaker problem. Running wire is time consuming and frustrating :-)

well typicaly the speakers just need replaced....... ive NEVER had any vehicle that had wiring problems with the stock radios... main thing that fails is the speaker itself!

usualy its either the tensil wires on the speaker that fray or break.... or the surround on the speakers get old dry and just REALY delicate and just breaks to pieces...
easiest way to test is just get a cheap speaker just laying around and just take out the stock speakers and simply jump the wires from stock terminals to the new speaker.... if it works which it should.... just replace the speaker.

most the time just upgrading the speakers and the factory headunit makes the sound system sound SO MUCH beter and louder!

ORIGINAL: Civux

ORIGINAL: lawlersauce

I have a quick question. If there is NO sound AT ALL from any speakers, is it possible that it is just a loose wire? Or could it be something more serious? I'm gonna be buying some speakers soon, there are some good deals over at Circuit City. (%50 2nd pair of speakers)

If it is a loose wire where should I be looking to find the loose connection? Anyone have any PDF files for the 93 civic stock head unit or speakers?

Some head units/amps are smart and detect when they aren't properly loaded. A broken/disconnected/missing wire effectively disconnects the speaker from the system, and smart amps will turn off their power output stages. Deafening silence ensues :-)

Before finding the bad wire, you need to determine if any of the wires are indeed bad. That means testing your speakers. One way is to take them out and test with a different amplifier (like your home stereo receiver). Or bring the amp to the speakers -- would be fun, but maybe not as easy or safe. Anybody else with other creative test rigs?

Say all your speakers work but still no sound -- that means bad wires. You'll need to check for continuity with a multimeter (available at most hardware stores). Put one lead on one of the wires that connects to the speaker and the other on the corresponding output connection on the head unit/amp. Do this for each of the wires to find how many you need to replace.

Hopefully you just have a speaker problem. Running wire is time consuming and frustrating :-)


Couldn't I just use a voltmeter to detect power? Cause I don't feel like spending 20 bucks that could be a tank of gas and a long weekend of driving on a multimeter. My friend has a voltmeter that he can get from his brother to let me use.

I really wasn't thinking of bad wires as much as maybe it was a loose connection. If it was that it'd be SO much easier to find the problem.

I'll try taking the speakers out and test them somewhere else. Would my home stereo receiver be good to test on? Is it standard for the receiver to have the same impedence/voltage/watts?

just use a cheap speaker and alittle wire to test every corner.... very quick and easy.....

ORIGINAL: lawlersauce

Couldn't I just use a voltmeter to detect power? Cause I don't feel like spending 20 bucks that could be a tank of gas and a long weekend of driving on a multimeter. My friend has a voltmeter that he can get from his brother to let me use.

I really wasn't thinking of bad wires as much as maybe it was a loose connection. If it was that it'd be SO much easier to find the problem.

I'll try taking the speakers out and test them somewhere else. Would my home stereo receiver be good to test on? Is it standard for the receiver to have the same impedence/voltage/watts?

If the head unit/amp is turning off the output power stage (even a loose connection can make this happen), there won't be any power at all: none on the contacts on the back and none at the speakers. You can, however, use the voltmeter to see if the wires are good -- if there's power at the speaker end of the wires but no sound, then your wires are good and the speakers are bad (assuming the speakers have enough pass-through to not trigger the head unit to turn off the output stage). I agree with addiction2bass: wires are hardly ever the problem... 1 in 10,000 or more.

Most home receivers expect the same impedance as auto units. Your home speakers should have their impedance marked on them (usually on the back), so use that to be absolutely sure. Just put one of your car speakers in place of one of the stereo's and keep the volume low (if the receiver is rated for higher power than your car's head unit) so that you don't blow it out.

Wish I lived in a place where gas prices meant my Civic had a $20 tank :-P

haha, i don't get filled up all the way with 20 bucks, but I get like 200-250 miles out of it. I haven't calculated the mpg yet. ($2.75/g as of today, dropped from $2.79 yesterday)

k so the speakers are out...they look pretty wavy but aren't cracked or anything. i can't find any wire to test them around the house, so i'm thinking i'm just gonna go buy some speakers right now. would i clearly be able to tell if the speaker was busted? All the foam around the edges of the paper cone are gone too.

maybe if anyone is on they can see this and post real quick.

lmfao...i just punched a giant hole in the middle of one....i'm off to buy some speakers now

ya if the foam surround is toast.. the speakers are bad.... nice and dry roted..

Nice! What did you end up buying?

some pioneers...they were 10 bucks less than the sony's i was planning on buying with 10 less watts, but they sounded sooo much better on the same deck...so i went with the cheaper ones