93 pathfinder sound system

A forum for the legendary Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti QX4.
cerveza_fiesta
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:49 am
Car: 1993 Pathfinder SE 4x4

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Hey all, New here

I've done the best search I can of this forum and haven't found much info concerning my specific problem.

I want to replace the sound system in my 93 pathfinder. I got a pioneer head unit with a built in amp and I want to run new wires and install new speakers.

I've already learned all about the stupid friggin bose system (the one I have installed) and I've removed most of the components for it, including the amp behind the original HU and an amp in the rear. I've figured out how to get the door panels off and all that to access the speakers. Disassembly is a strong point for me so I'm not worried about it :D

Now, on my model specifically, does anybody know if I'll run into problems when I hack out the old bose cones and install some new speakers? I've read hints that the newer speakers might interfere with the windows rolling down all the way, or that the rear roof speaker magnets might bang against the roof.

Has anybody tried an install on a 93 or earlier model pathy and knows the specific speaker sizes for the front doors and rear roof units? Futureshop in it's infinite wisdom has suggested to me that I need 6.5's for the front and 6x9's for the rear, but I've read about people needing to use smaller ones in the front and having to redrill mounting holes in the rear.

Anyways, any help you could provide is fine. I'm savvy enough to figure out the electronics and panel removal/reassembly. I'm just wondering about the mounting before i go and purchase new speakers. I'd rather not have to return them X number of times to get the right size.

Thanks a lot

-CF
Modified by cerveza_fiesta at 10:43 AM 8/29/2008


cerveza_fiesta
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:49 am
Car: 1993 Pathfinder SE 4x4

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ok, sorry to double post but I decided to make this a bit of a tutorial too

I'll include pics as I go through this procedure

Got the speakers out of the front and rear, found out that they are actually 5x7's all around, and NOT the round 6.25's (front) and 6x9's (rear roof speakers) that futureshop suggested. Dumbasses.

I hauled out the amp and the head unit, simple disassembly really and now my dash looks monstrous. Popped off the rear quarter panel and located the second amp. Removed it. To my knowledge there are no amps in the front doors, just the one behind the HU and the one over the rear passenger side wheel well.

Oh, and I've seen in another post somebody said there are 2 amps in the back, one GOLD and the other SILVER. Don't remove or destroy the gold one, it's not an amp. It's your electronic auto transmission controller and without it your truck (if automatic) won't shift gears anymore. I know later model pathys have the 2 amps in the rear, but the 93 to the best of my knowledge has only 1 in the rear and 1 in the front.

The rear roof speakers mount directly to some kind of metal plate which will have to be cut larger and redrilled to accomodate the new speaker cones. A spacer here won't work since I want to keep the stock screens overtop of the speakers if at all possible. The front door speakers are in a little plastic rainguard/mounting thingy. The new speaker cones are way too big to fit inside. My first try will be to cut the plastic and attempt a jury-rig fit. If not, MDF all the way.

Gonna try the front doors tonight since they seem like the most work. I'll let you know how she goes.

-CF

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fueler
Posts: 3889
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:24 pm
Car: 2 Nissans, 2 BMW's
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rear has roof speakers?? cool!

cerveza_fiesta
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:49 am
Car: 1993 Pathfinder SE 4x4

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ceiling...whatever

They are mounted in a little drop in the cargo area ceiling, just forward of the gate hinge. Tweeters too. I'm sure the system sounded good at one time but now it's all muffled and bass-ey even with the treble turned up and the bass turned down.

My mtx audio speakers are going to sound rad as f**k in there.

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fueler
Posts: 3889
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:24 pm
Car: 2 Nissans, 2 BMW's
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yeah i knew what u meant. thats tight though. Like in a jeep with the roof mount speakers. My rear speakers are down by the floor boards so they are kinda muffled. Many audiophiles swear against the use of rear speakers, but personally i love having 4 speakers instead of just 2 - its louder, plain and simple.

Post pics of the install!


def215
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:42 pm
Car: 1995 nissan pathfinder

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i have a 95 pathfinder with a sound system in it. i replaced the stock 5x7 speakers with some aftermarket 5x7 and the magnets were too big and wouldnt fit back into the door and the ceiling.

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Adnan
Posts: 384
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:15 am
Car: 2001 Pathfinder LE 4WD

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fueler wrote:yeah i knew what u meant. thats tight though. Like in a jeep with the roof mount speakers. My rear speakers are down by the floor boards so they are kinda muffled. Many audiophiles swear against the use of rear speakers, but personally i love having 4 speakers instead of just 2 - its louder, plain and simple.

Post pics of the install!
agreed thats why i would get some 4" mids somewhere on the door panelsbmw/range rover style

cerveza_fiesta
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:49 am
Car: 1993 Pathfinder SE 4x4

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OK, so friday night was an epic journey of pathfinder modification. I didn't get the rear speakers in, since the front ones were so much work. First off, I wanted to use the biggest speakers possible, and the mtx audio XT573 5x7s were the biggest I could find that would fit into the same space as the old ones. The magnet is about 1/4" deeper than the original ones and the eliptical cutout is maybe an extra 1/4" all around. I decided to just get some mdf and make some custom spacers.

I discovered a few crucial things in the wiring too. I decided to use original wiring since it's not a hugely powerful sound system and running new wires is really just a pain. First I had to bypass the existing amplifiers. Simple enough, I ripped them out (one front and one rear) and pulled the wires out of the existing harnesses. Using the 9V battery to bridge speaker contacts I mapped out the wires that popped the speakers all around the truck. For some reason the leads from the front amplifier popped the rear speakers/tweeters and the leads from the rear amp popped the front speakers/tweeters. Makes no sense to me why they'd wire it that way, but whatever...desired effect achieved.

Oh yes, and anybody reading this that wants my original amps, HU, and/or speakers, just pm me and I'll give them to you for free if you pay shipping. For real. I don't need them at all. No intention of reselling this pathfinder and they are just taking up space at my house. One rear speaker is slightly damaged and the other is fine. The front speakers are in mediocre shape. The rear amp looks fine and a resistor in the front amp looks melted (probably why it crapped out in the first place).

Knowing that each speaker must have a pair of input leads and output leads to and from a given amplifier, and that the input leads would eventually need to hook up to my new head unit, I just figured out the mapping. Say purple and purple/black wires coming from the H.U. are the +/- for the Right Front speaker. On the original nissan HU harness, these positions map to...say...blue and orange (nissan wire colors). Remembering that the rear amp controls the front speakers, I go to the back and find the blue and orange leads that were the inputs to the rear amp. Now simply take the blue and orange and solder them to the leads for the right front speaker...say...black and white. Why they are a different color at each step, I have no idea, but whatever. Now when you go back to the dash and use the 9V battery across the purple and purple/black leads coming from the HU, with all the joints along the way soldered, you should pop the right front speaker. Alternatively, you can use a voltmeter to test continuity. Since I didn't have one at the time, my mapping method plus a 9V battery worked just fine.

To make the spacers I used the cardboard template mounting hole pattern from the back of the speaker box and the original plastic clarion baskets. By overlaying a traced pattern of each, I was able to figure out a shape that would accomodate the speaker while still fitting inside the original door speaker covers. The original speakers had a 3/4" plastic spacer/basket combo thingy, and the new speaker magnets are only 1/4" deeper than the original ones, so there were no clearance issues. A larger speaker would certainly interfere with the window and/or the speaker cover however. Pretty easy to make the new spacers all in all, but the time consuming part was the slight modifications and trimming with my dremel multi-tool to get the MDF spacer to fit nicely into the door and the original speaker screen at the same time.

Anyway, time consuming but not terribly difficult. I'm stoked to try the rear speakers, though I think clearance might be an issue back there. The front speakers are installed now and sound just fine. The whole system is a bit weak without the rear ones, but I plan on attempting an install tonight. Will update and post pics later on.

Hope this was helpful. And be careful of posts that say "oh my 95 pathfinder should be the same as your 93 or earlier pathfinder"...I looked at some of the 95+ advice in other posts and it just doesn't apply to my 93 model at all. Not with respect to speaker sizes, amp positions or wiring...which makes it about as useful as the futureshop website.
Modified by cerveza_fiesta at 10:49 AM 9/2/2008

cerveza_fiesta
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:49 am
Car: 1993 Pathfinder SE 4x4

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Got the rears installed last night.

Turns out the ceiling drop in the back is a convenient metal piece that just screws onto the ceiling of the car. Accessing it was a pain, off came the rear quarter panels, off came the rear seatbelts, off came the upper rear panels, off came the rear holy sh*t handles, off came the trim along the gate hinge and half of the trim up to the front holy sh*t handles. Pop out a couple plastic rivets in the center of the roof upholstery and the whole thing sags down.

About 10 screws later and the removal of a few electronic couplings plus the rear dome light the speaker drop panel pulled free of the roof. There were 3 metal clips holding it up there in addition to the screws. If anything, pathfinders are solidly built! Once the drop panel was removed, I was able to remove the rear tweeters as well, since they aren't fed by the new head unit.

So, I just got the cardboard stencil from the back of the speaker box and traced it over the oval holes in the speaker box. It worked out that they needed pretty much 1/4" widening all around to accomodate the mtx audio 5x7s. Using my trusty dremel tool with a reinforced cutoff wheel I cut a nice 1/4" wide donut out of each speaker hole. and dropped the new speakers into place. Perfect fit, except that I had to bend the little mounting tabs to fit the contours of the speaker drop panel. Whatev...got the speakers attached and reinserted the drop panel into the pathfinder roof.

The magnets are tight in there, almost definitely touching the roof. The Nissan manufacturers kindly put a foam pad underneath the old speakers though, so I doubt I'll hear any rattling, plus it pretty much converts the roof into a giant sounding board. Cool. Reattached all the panels and the roof upholstery, speaker screens fit nicely over the new mtx's...all good as new.

That pretty much concludes the install. I still have to figure out how to make the antenna work for land-based radio. I think the adapter I bought is only carrying the signal from the windshield antenna and not the mast antenna. Since the mast antenna is the better receiver, I just need to mess with the plug and figure out how to attach the one I want. Also need to attach a permanent ground to the chassis, since the original radio just grounded via the antenna plug. Best to have it all grounded via the black wire coming out of the H.U.

Now, Unfortunately my camera died when I had the roof all apart. So no pics. I can get some front door pics though if anybody's interested.

I'll also include rear tweeters in my offer above for free stock audio equipment.


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MacBoy212
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:12 pm
Car: 1993 Nissan Pathfinder SE

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hey any way you can still post pics of the install?


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