Stereo Question, and Air Con??

[pasoundtim]

Hello!

Before i start i would just like to state that im feeling smug!
Afer joining this forum, i decided to have a go a fixing the rear window myself,
Not being very mechanically minded this is a real achievement.
Anyway replaced the motor and regulator yesterday, works great - wa hey!!

Right now onto my questions.

Firstly my stereo.
The car came with a cd player fitted, but if you turn it up over a certain level, then the speakers cut out. front two only, others arnt connected.
I believe the speakers are the original ones, so therefore thye are 2ohm right?
Could this be the reason?
I really like having the CD player, but i have the original stereo.
(catette/radio)
I have seen people fit 2 stereos in, could i do this?
And use both somehow?
Also i believe my ariel should "pop-up" aswell, but it doesent, but thats cos im not using the original stereo right??

I know i could just take the car to somewhere like halfords, and get them to do it all (fit new everything) but im sure it would cost me a fortune.
i no its been covered on this forum before, but i cant find an exact answer to my rather rambling question (sorry)
So HELP!!! any ideas from anywhere? could anyone help me/ tell me what i need to do?
Im in the Tamworth area.

Second small quastion,
When i bought the car, it didnt say it had air con.
However i have a button on the dash thats in the right place.
it doesent have a front, ie that says A/C
but if you press it, a light comes on, doesent seem to make the air ice cold though.
Any thoughts?

Thanks
Tim

[Slugsie]

The standard speakers fitted in a Surf (well, mine anyway) were absolutely dire. The front ones had basically disintegrated and had to be replaced (I've not investigated the rears yet). I sourced a cheap set of speakers (5inch IIRC) and they just popped straight into the places in the front dash that the old ones occupied, and greatly improved the sound quality.

The cutting out might be caused by the crap speakers overloading, or could also be caused by the head unit overheating. If it really is the original (can you only listen to Radio 2? ) then it wants replacing to a UK spec one. Plenty around, if you search ebay you can often pick up double DIN ones too.

The aerial is activated off a signal from the head unit. 99% of modern units can send the right signal (can't remember off the top of my head exactly how it should be wired). The same signal that operates the aerial also switches the rear speakers on (they had a powered amplifier).

The A/C switch is the right most one on the bank of switches above the heater levers. If you are not getting cold air then it's one of several things, most likely the air con needs a gas recharge.

[pasoundtim]

The head unit in there at the moment is a new style one.
ie, get all radio channels, plays cds.

So can i just replace the speakers with any 5" ones?
Like these for example?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Thanks
Tim

[Slugsie]

I wouldn't like to say for 100% certain and you go and buy the wrong item. I think the ones I bought were 5inch, I got them from Maplins for about a tenner. If you can, then take the current ones out and measure them. The easiest one to get to is the one on the passenger side by the glovebox. Couple a screws along the top of the glovebox, and a couple below and the whole things comes down. There is then a 'sounding box' that you will need to remove, and the speaker if screwed onto the front of that. Should take about 5 minutes to remove and refit.

AIUI, most in car speakers are 4ohm units. I guess it depends on your header as to wether it will cope with 2ohm (or indeed 8ohm). Some adjust their output automatically (apparently).

[pasoundtim]

just checked my speakers,
was easy to get to the passenger side one!

its a 4ohm driver,
and is only 4" across!

So im guessing i can just replace the front two with 4ohm, 4 inch drivers.
Will get some off ebay.

There were also wires coming off the front ones, in parallel.
going off down the side of the car, must be to the rear somewhere, ill have to investigate this at a later time

Sound about right??

Tim

[Chillitt]

sounds right, i took one out of mine yesterda y to check for size.

[Slugsie]

just checked my speakers,
was easy to get to the passenger side one!

its a 4ohm driver,
and is only 4" across!

Hmm, thinking about it, the speaker is 4inch across the cone, 5inch from screw hole to screw hole. Sorry if I confused matters.

So im guessing i can just replace the front two with 4ohm, 4 inch drivers.
Will get some off ebay.

There were also wires coming off the front ones, in parallel.
going off down the side of the car, must be to the rear somewhere, ill have to investigate this at a later time

Sound about right??

Tim

Hmm, no idea what the parallel wires are for, didn't have them in mine. Maybe at one time it was fitted with a head unit that only had two speaker outputs, so the speakers had to be wired in parallel. However, by doing this, it has effectively halved the ohm rating of the speakers. May not be a problem, but I'd fully investigate if possible before splashing out your hard earned.

[Bobby Doc]

100 Watts

My front two speakers were shot, but I changed the front and back ones with some Kenwood 10CM 100watters, I found them easy to fit. Drop the two front side dash panels down just unscrew the old speakers and pop in the new, but you have to strip the back interieor panels out, this is a bit time consuming but easy. I did'nt undo the whole lot just enough to get at the speaker pods and replaced them. I can have a decent amount of volume now but they are a bit tinnie! This is because they are only 10CM, you need a decent diameter speaker for better bass. I have a 300 Watt amp and sub to go in when I get around to it. Then I will have the treble and the bass to a perfect ballance. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

[pasoundtim]

The new ones ive bought are 10cm kenwoods, so that meant they should just drop in like yours.

Lets hope so.
Im gonna investigate the rear ones at a leter date.
May need to extend the wires to the back of the head unit in order to run them all seporately.

Tim

[Bobby Doc]

There is a small plastic tab on the speaker pods, use a stanly knife and cut one off each pod, then they will drop in, but you will see what I mean when you do it.