I posted a while back about replacing the stereo in my Daughters 1996 Stratus. I got a used head unit from a 2001 Town + Country and it's great. AM / FM / Cass / AND CD ! For $50 it was a home run. It sounded good, used the stock amp, and all was good.

Fast forward a little bit, after using the speakers (which who knows how long hadn't been used since the stereo wasn't working) they started to disintegrate. So, I started another thread about what size the front speakers were. I had a set of 6.5" Sony Xplode speakers in the back of my Jetta (which came with a Sony head unit (free)) and they didn't sound that great. I've been wanting to replace them with a set of Infinity Kappa's to match what was in the front of the Jetta (and sounded much better). So, I found a set of mount adapters (four hole to three hole) for $10 and installed the Sony's in the front door panels. They sound GREAT in there!

Ok, so I ordered a set of Infinity Kappa's for my rear deck (in the Jetta) and a set of 6x9's Sony Xplodes for the rear deck of the Stratus. I'm installing them now and found that the stock rear speakers have four wires (two for the woofer, and two for the tweeter). The replacement speakers are 3-ways, but only use two wires. So, I connected them to the outer wiring from the factory harness (wiring for the Woofers) and just wanted to ask what to do with the center wires. I don't know if they are from the amplifier. I don't know if anything will happen if they are from the amplifier and not connected to anything. I don't know if they are from the amplifier and should be 'bridged' with the other wiring to feed the new speakers.

Now, I believe that they are from the amplifier because while researching what was wrong with the stereo, I read that if the amplifier is bad, only the front dash speakers will work.

So, I am asking if anyone knows what to do when installing new speakers in the rear deck and only have two terminals on the speakers instead of four.

Thanks in advance for any helpful information.

-Ken

 

I found one set of opinions from a google search:

http://community.crutchfield.com/Car...-on-stock-ones

Of course, the Crutchfield tech suggested replacing the head unit and replacing wiring (negating the amp). Otherwise, you *could* fry the amp. I'm wondering if you are suggesting to change everything because it *might* blow the amp if you don't, then why not try it and if it fails, *then* replace everything.

Anyway, here is another page with some more information:
http://www.dodgeintrepid.net/showthread.php?t=222772

It's from a Dodge Intrepid, so I'm guessing it's more likely to be wired the same as compared to the Pontiac Grand Am that was talked about in the first link.

Right now, the 3-ways do a decent job with the upper range. I don't know if the 'filter' doesn't cut all of it off (which, I'd think it was meant to do), or if the 3-ways mid and tweeter are just enough to fill in what would normally be lacking. Either way, I'll be reading up on what others suggest, but I figured I'd post a bit more information that I had found.

-Thanks, Ken

 

The way the speakers in the 1g stratus were, you'll find a stock amp under the passenger seat. The amp will power the lows, the head unit is a passthrough to the highs (the upper speakers on the dash are head unit powered, front door speakers are by the amp).

The rears have 4 wires, since there was a tweeter mounted on top, but instead of using a crossover in the speaker, it's setup as two seperate speakers, much the same as the front, for a total of 8 speakers in the car. The grounds should be interchangeable, but you'll want to make sure that you've got the amp powered wires attached if you want more "punch" to your music, or the non-amped wires if you're looking for more clarity in the highs.

If you've got a 2 way speaker, you can snip the wires going to the tweeters, and attach those to the non-amped wires, making it a true low/high configuration again. Neither wire carries the full range.

 

I`m recovering the soundsystem in a -99 right now and to me it`s no doubt; 6x9`s in the rear feed by a capable amp placed in the rear as close as possible to the speakers. Heavy(!) powercable+groundcable needed for a tight bassreproduction. If I`m not pleased I might even help out the amp by adding a 1.0H condenser

 

I know this is an old thread, but I am trying to replace the disintegrated rear speakers in my 97 Dodge stratus. My rear speakers are also biwired unfortunately and I do not want to do anything more intrusive than just replacing the rear speakers. So my plan is to buy a cheap pair of 6x9 speakers that I see are specifically designed whereby speaker wire runs from the speaker wire binding to the back of the speaker for the woofer (of the 2 way speaker) and a separate line runs from the binding through the cone to the tweeter. I figure I can then just cut the wires to the back (woofer of the speaker) and wire up that line to the amped (low) wires and connect the non-amped wires to the speaker binding to run to the tweeters. I'm not a perfectionist and I am OK with nuances on crossover frequencies. I have 2 questions:

1. Will this plan work, albeit perhaps its not perfect, but that's OK with me.

2. Whats the best way to figure out the amped and non-amped wires from the speaker connections in my trunk? Each connection has 4 wires (a set for amped and a set for non-amped). Should I just be able to figure it out by looking at the wire color from the amp under the passenger seat? Should I remove the fuse for the amp and then test to see which wires in the trunk are still getting power (those would be the non-amped I assume)? Does anyone simply know the answer to this question?