Repairing sub-woofer on my X308 XJR
Posted: Mon May 17, 2021 5:02 pm
This weekend, with the weather fine, it was time to replace the foam surround on the sub-woofer; several months ago, the sound from it became quite distorted, and it had to be set to zero to resolve. I started Saturday at 4:00 PM.
I ordered two replacement foam surrounds from SperakerWorks.com in Oregon (heir and a spare). It’s part number SWK69A. I was assisted by a lovely representative — Carole — who made sure I had the right part and took the time to send their two types of glue, as one can be impacted in shipping by colder temperatures. I ordered on a Friday, and the parts arrived in Tuesday post; I live in Canada, so that’s blisteringly fast for cross-border work. Others have attested to SpeakerWorks.com’s attentiveness, and I’ll add my name. A great operation.
Here’s what has to happen to get to the sub-woofer:
Disconnect negative terminal.
Have your camera ready and use it to record how things were assembled before you touched them, loosened them, disconnected them, or removed them.
Remove both kick panels under the rear seat. Place in front passenger’s seat. Use Torx 30 bit to remove two screws affixing front of seat to an anchor point accessed inside the foot panel area, one screw on each side. Place screws on rear floor mats (you will not be using the floor mats at any point in this process) Ease seat towards front of car a few inches, and disconnect the two heated seat connections on each side. Remove seat and store safely (and consider vacuuming, and cleaning and conditioning the leather while it’s out).
Use Torx 45 bit to remove the outboard seatbelt anchors from the passenger and driver’s sides. Use the same bit to remove the two seatbelt buckles, then then the middle seat seatbelt anchor from the middle of the seat area.
Use two small slot head screwdrivers to depress the two tangs in each of three seatbelt finishers (located in the leather and through which the seatbelts exit the innards of the seat and drape nicely over the seat). These are plastic tangs, so they will deform; use pressure sparingly. The finishers seem to fit under some pressure, so mine kind of popped out when the tangs were released. There’s a slot in each and use this slot to remove them from the seatbelt. Place finishers on rear floormats (a good time to use some Back to Black or other vinyl/plastic restorer to tidy them up; same with other black plastic bits so I won’t mention this again).
Carefully remove the three plastic covers for the child seat anchor bolts located on the parcel shelf. Use a 13mm socket to remove the bolt, being aware that there is a ¼ inch loose fitting washer that sits below the parcel shelf that you should remove at the same time: I used one of the small slot head screwdrivers and my finger to get each out. Store the anchor pieces in each footwell, two on one side, one on the other.
Using a Phillips screwdriver, remove the four screws that affix the squab or setback to anchor points near the floor. Place two in each footwell.
Now, placing folded up towels on the ground outside each rear door — to protect your knees — lean into the car and notice that in the two inbound anchor points, tangs from the squab/seatback slide in behind the anchor point. This means to remove the squab, you’ll be lifting the squab up first, before the base can swing out.
Still kneeling on the towel outside the car, lean into the car and, doing one side at a time or with a helper doing both simultaneously, lift up the squab — not out towards the front of the car, but up towards the roof; follow the same plane. The two metal tangs will clear the two anchor points, and the seat will now swing at the base of the squab, held loosely in place at the top. I was on my own, so I lifted and swung out one side with my left hand so I could get my right hand up underneath to the top where there is one of three seatbelt retractors. Applying upward pressure on the squab with my left hand, I used the knuckles of my right hand to provide further targeted upward pressure while my fingers eased the squab up and free of the top of the seatbelt retractor. It held in place while I walked to the passenger side and did the same thing with hands reversed. Releasing the passenger side in the same way seemed to allow the middle part of the seat to release on its own. Remove the squab and store safely (as with the base, consider vacuuming the squab and cleaning and conditioning the leather while it’s out).
Sitting with feet outside the car and with you seated inside, just inbound of the sill trim (a folded-up towel works well here, too), look up and use a very small slot-headed screwdriver to remove the plastic trim behind which are the anchor bolts. Take a picture of how the metal and plastic bits underneath the screws are oriented. Using your Torx 30 bit, remove the screws and place them and the grab handles in the footwells.
Loosen the felt door trim from halfway up the rear of the rear door opening to the roof; just remove this section from the edge, as it will free up the covering underneath the grab handle and which extends to covering the C and D pillars.
Carefully pull out both pieces of trim that meet under the grab handle — perhaps an inch at most — so you can free up the rear piece. Now, the part of the trim covering the C and D pillars is affixed with fir fasteners. There are four on each piece; two on the C pillar part, and two on the D pillar. Theoretically, I guess you might be able to shift the trim up by an inch, and the fasteners will slide out of their retainers. This didn’t work for me; too much pressure and you deform the trim piece, and I didn’t want to do that. I carefully pulled at them, so the fir fasteners were eased out of their securing holes in the frame of the pillars. I then disconnected the wires for the lights and removed the pieces to a safe location. Now, on one side, I cracked one retainer in the trim. On the other side, I cracked three. So, I found the pieces, and took them and the trim to my work bench and glued them back together with two-part epoxy glue for plastics; they were good as new in the morning. I then used a soft cloth and some cleaner to tidy them up.
Next, remove the third brake light. It’s easy. Climb into the car and with knees on the floor underneath where the seat would have been, remove the plastic covering of the break light, as if you were going to change a bulb. Then, use a light and note that at the very bottom of the brake light, right down near the parcel shelf, there are two simple tangs. These tangs protrude from two one-inch square pieces of metal that are glued to the window. Using your fingers, or the small slot head screwdriver if your fingers are too large, gently lift the flap of the retainer that snugs over the tang. And then, pull up along the glass, not out towards you. Up along the glass. The while thing slides up off the metal guides. There is a wire, and just disconnect it and place the brake light in a safe location (taking time to change any burned-out bulbs, and to clean the red lens and housing. This is also a good time to clean the glass in that location, as it is hard to reach with the brake light in situ).
Now, with all that done, you are ready to remove the parcel shelf. There are two fir fasteners on the edge closest to the front of the car. Remove them carefully; the parcel shelf material looks to be pressed carboard, like the door card on my Interceptor, so it can’t be handled roughly or will tear. I used a plastic lever with a very wide bade, and as soon as it was up 1/8 of an inch, I protected the shelf and levered the rest of it all the way out from the top of the shelf. Put the fir fasteners in the footwells.
Move into the middle of the rear seat are. Grab the parcel shelf at both ends, and draw it towards to lifting at the same time to clear the seatbelt retractors. It’s a tight fit. So, I moved to one end and using gentle force, bent then end down; this solved the problem, so I did the same simultaneously at the other end, and it was easy to remove it the rest of the way in this very slightly bowed position. Store it in a safe location, and with this piece especially, do take the time to vacuum it, using a toothbrush if necessary to clean out the crack between the leather covered shelf and the plastic base it’s anchored in.
With that done, there’s the sub-woofer. Use the Phillips screwdriver to remove the front screws, and a stubby Phillips to get the rear two screw out. Place them in one footwell. With the speaker lifted up a couple of inches from its base. Take a picture to record the orientation, and which wires go where. Disconnect the wires and remove the subwoofer.
After this point, it’s over to SpeakerWorks for their wonderfully detailed instructions on how to remove and replace the foam surround. Once I had the sub-woofer back in the car, I reconnected the negative terminal of the battery. I turned the stereo on, and played a CD. It seemed to me that it took a few seconds — perhaps close to a minute — for the system to find and reintroduce itself to the sub-woofer. But it did, and how! It was very powerful. And after that, re-installation is the reverse of that noted above; I tested the sub-woofer at several points just to make sure that after major installation steps, it continued to work. It did.
But I will say this: It’s clear that there is a paper gasket glued to the underside of the black-plastic oval piece that fits on top of the woofer (it has a thin cloth screen on it). I saved this gasket when I separated the two pieces, separating it from the plastic with a sharp blade. On the JagForum site, one owner who demystified much of this project, noted that his repair worked great and the sub-woofer was back to life — until he re-glued this gasket to the new foam surround, and then the sub-woofer then did not work. He had to start over, re-order the surround, and make sure that the second time, he did not glue the gasket to the foam surround as well; only to the plastic cover. I followed his learned lead. And after gluing the gasket to the cover — but not to the foam surround — I used my Dremel tool to narrow the base of the cover by perhaps 1/16 of an inch where it might contact the side of the dome of the new foam surround; there was a suggestion from this helpful owner that the profile of the new surround might be slightly different, and come into contact with the gasket/cover. I thought that were this the case, narrowing the cover/gasket might make a difference. I’m not sure, but I can report that my sub-woofer works perfectly with the new foam surround!
I also note that re-installing the trim panel over the C and D pillar was a breeze. I placed the fir fasteners in their slots, re-connected the wire for the light, and using a head lamp, watched carefully as I moved the panel to the holes where the fir fasteners would slot in. I may have been lucky, but it seemed to me that with the two holes closes to the front of the car lined up, the two rear ones intuitively lined up as well. A soft pressure, and all four, on each side, satisfyingly snicked home.
Now, I said I started at 4:00 on Saturday. I had everything out by 7:00, and the sub-woofer done by 9:00 PM. I started with some cleaning of the leather and plastic bits on Sunday at 9:00 AM, and had the car all done by 1:00 PM, including a vacuum of the rear with everything out (but not the footwells as all the bits and pieces were there!), then a full clean of the rear glass and side glasses when everything was out, and again after it was all back together.
I did manage to detach one of the metal mounting brackets for the high-mounted brake light. I cleaned the old glue off with Poly-Strippa paint stripper (acetone, etc. did not work), and a quick trip to Canadian Tire, a local automotive store, procured a rear-view mirror re-mounting kit. I followed the instructions, and in 40 minutes, had remounted the brake light, with no further or lasting drama.
Kind of a fun project, really, especially the chance to clean and condition the leather and plastic bits. And the sub-woofer adds greatly to the Alpine system!
Next up: That headliner.
Adam
Victoria, BC
I ordered two replacement foam surrounds from SperakerWorks.com in Oregon (heir and a spare). It’s part number SWK69A. I was assisted by a lovely representative — Carole — who made sure I had the right part and took the time to send their two types of glue, as one can be impacted in shipping by colder temperatures. I ordered on a Friday, and the parts arrived in Tuesday post; I live in Canada, so that’s blisteringly fast for cross-border work. Others have attested to SpeakerWorks.com’s attentiveness, and I’ll add my name. A great operation.
Here’s what has to happen to get to the sub-woofer:
Disconnect negative terminal.
Have your camera ready and use it to record how things were assembled before you touched them, loosened them, disconnected them, or removed them.
Remove both kick panels under the rear seat. Place in front passenger’s seat. Use Torx 30 bit to remove two screws affixing front of seat to an anchor point accessed inside the foot panel area, one screw on each side. Place screws on rear floor mats (you will not be using the floor mats at any point in this process) Ease seat towards front of car a few inches, and disconnect the two heated seat connections on each side. Remove seat and store safely (and consider vacuuming, and cleaning and conditioning the leather while it’s out).
Use Torx 45 bit to remove the outboard seatbelt anchors from the passenger and driver’s sides. Use the same bit to remove the two seatbelt buckles, then then the middle seat seatbelt anchor from the middle of the seat area.
Use two small slot head screwdrivers to depress the two tangs in each of three seatbelt finishers (located in the leather and through which the seatbelts exit the innards of the seat and drape nicely over the seat). These are plastic tangs, so they will deform; use pressure sparingly. The finishers seem to fit under some pressure, so mine kind of popped out when the tangs were released. There’s a slot in each and use this slot to remove them from the seatbelt. Place finishers on rear floormats (a good time to use some Back to Black or other vinyl/plastic restorer to tidy them up; same with other black plastic bits so I won’t mention this again).
Carefully remove the three plastic covers for the child seat anchor bolts located on the parcel shelf. Use a 13mm socket to remove the bolt, being aware that there is a ¼ inch loose fitting washer that sits below the parcel shelf that you should remove at the same time: I used one of the small slot head screwdrivers and my finger to get each out. Store the anchor pieces in each footwell, two on one side, one on the other.
Using a Phillips screwdriver, remove the four screws that affix the squab or setback to anchor points near the floor. Place two in each footwell.
Now, placing folded up towels on the ground outside each rear door — to protect your knees — lean into the car and notice that in the two inbound anchor points, tangs from the squab/seatback slide in behind the anchor point. This means to remove the squab, you’ll be lifting the squab up first, before the base can swing out.
Still kneeling on the towel outside the car, lean into the car and, doing one side at a time or with a helper doing both simultaneously, lift up the squab — not out towards the front of the car, but up towards the roof; follow the same plane. The two metal tangs will clear the two anchor points, and the seat will now swing at the base of the squab, held loosely in place at the top. I was on my own, so I lifted and swung out one side with my left hand so I could get my right hand up underneath to the top where there is one of three seatbelt retractors. Applying upward pressure on the squab with my left hand, I used the knuckles of my right hand to provide further targeted upward pressure while my fingers eased the squab up and free of the top of the seatbelt retractor. It held in place while I walked to the passenger side and did the same thing with hands reversed. Releasing the passenger side in the same way seemed to allow the middle part of the seat to release on its own. Remove the squab and store safely (as with the base, consider vacuuming the squab and cleaning and conditioning the leather while it’s out).
Sitting with feet outside the car and with you seated inside, just inbound of the sill trim (a folded-up towel works well here, too), look up and use a very small slot-headed screwdriver to remove the plastic trim behind which are the anchor bolts. Take a picture of how the metal and plastic bits underneath the screws are oriented. Using your Torx 30 bit, remove the screws and place them and the grab handles in the footwells.
Loosen the felt door trim from halfway up the rear of the rear door opening to the roof; just remove this section from the edge, as it will free up the covering underneath the grab handle and which extends to covering the C and D pillars.
Carefully pull out both pieces of trim that meet under the grab handle — perhaps an inch at most — so you can free up the rear piece. Now, the part of the trim covering the C and D pillars is affixed with fir fasteners. There are four on each piece; two on the C pillar part, and two on the D pillar. Theoretically, I guess you might be able to shift the trim up by an inch, and the fasteners will slide out of their retainers. This didn’t work for me; too much pressure and you deform the trim piece, and I didn’t want to do that. I carefully pulled at them, so the fir fasteners were eased out of their securing holes in the frame of the pillars. I then disconnected the wires for the lights and removed the pieces to a safe location. Now, on one side, I cracked one retainer in the trim. On the other side, I cracked three. So, I found the pieces, and took them and the trim to my work bench and glued them back together with two-part epoxy glue for plastics; they were good as new in the morning. I then used a soft cloth and some cleaner to tidy them up.
Next, remove the third brake light. It’s easy. Climb into the car and with knees on the floor underneath where the seat would have been, remove the plastic covering of the break light, as if you were going to change a bulb. Then, use a light and note that at the very bottom of the brake light, right down near the parcel shelf, there are two simple tangs. These tangs protrude from two one-inch square pieces of metal that are glued to the window. Using your fingers, or the small slot head screwdriver if your fingers are too large, gently lift the flap of the retainer that snugs over the tang. And then, pull up along the glass, not out towards you. Up along the glass. The while thing slides up off the metal guides. There is a wire, and just disconnect it and place the brake light in a safe location (taking time to change any burned-out bulbs, and to clean the red lens and housing. This is also a good time to clean the glass in that location, as it is hard to reach with the brake light in situ).
Now, with all that done, you are ready to remove the parcel shelf. There are two fir fasteners on the edge closest to the front of the car. Remove them carefully; the parcel shelf material looks to be pressed carboard, like the door card on my Interceptor, so it can’t be handled roughly or will tear. I used a plastic lever with a very wide bade, and as soon as it was up 1/8 of an inch, I protected the shelf and levered the rest of it all the way out from the top of the shelf. Put the fir fasteners in the footwells.
Move into the middle of the rear seat are. Grab the parcel shelf at both ends, and draw it towards to lifting at the same time to clear the seatbelt retractors. It’s a tight fit. So, I moved to one end and using gentle force, bent then end down; this solved the problem, so I did the same simultaneously at the other end, and it was easy to remove it the rest of the way in this very slightly bowed position. Store it in a safe location, and with this piece especially, do take the time to vacuum it, using a toothbrush if necessary to clean out the crack between the leather covered shelf and the plastic base it’s anchored in.
With that done, there’s the sub-woofer. Use the Phillips screwdriver to remove the front screws, and a stubby Phillips to get the rear two screw out. Place them in one footwell. With the speaker lifted up a couple of inches from its base. Take a picture to record the orientation, and which wires go where. Disconnect the wires and remove the subwoofer.
After this point, it’s over to SpeakerWorks for their wonderfully detailed instructions on how to remove and replace the foam surround. Once I had the sub-woofer back in the car, I reconnected the negative terminal of the battery. I turned the stereo on, and played a CD. It seemed to me that it took a few seconds — perhaps close to a minute — for the system to find and reintroduce itself to the sub-woofer. But it did, and how! It was very powerful. And after that, re-installation is the reverse of that noted above; I tested the sub-woofer at several points just to make sure that after major installation steps, it continued to work. It did.
But I will say this: It’s clear that there is a paper gasket glued to the underside of the black-plastic oval piece that fits on top of the woofer (it has a thin cloth screen on it). I saved this gasket when I separated the two pieces, separating it from the plastic with a sharp blade. On the JagForum site, one owner who demystified much of this project, noted that his repair worked great and the sub-woofer was back to life — until he re-glued this gasket to the new foam surround, and then the sub-woofer then did not work. He had to start over, re-order the surround, and make sure that the second time, he did not glue the gasket to the foam surround as well; only to the plastic cover. I followed his learned lead. And after gluing the gasket to the cover — but not to the foam surround — I used my Dremel tool to narrow the base of the cover by perhaps 1/16 of an inch where it might contact the side of the dome of the new foam surround; there was a suggestion from this helpful owner that the profile of the new surround might be slightly different, and come into contact with the gasket/cover. I thought that were this the case, narrowing the cover/gasket might make a difference. I’m not sure, but I can report that my sub-woofer works perfectly with the new foam surround!
I also note that re-installing the trim panel over the C and D pillar was a breeze. I placed the fir fasteners in their slots, re-connected the wire for the light, and using a head lamp, watched carefully as I moved the panel to the holes where the fir fasteners would slot in. I may have been lucky, but it seemed to me that with the two holes closes to the front of the car lined up, the two rear ones intuitively lined up as well. A soft pressure, and all four, on each side, satisfyingly snicked home.
Now, I said I started at 4:00 on Saturday. I had everything out by 7:00, and the sub-woofer done by 9:00 PM. I started with some cleaning of the leather and plastic bits on Sunday at 9:00 AM, and had the car all done by 1:00 PM, including a vacuum of the rear with everything out (but not the footwells as all the bits and pieces were there!), then a full clean of the rear glass and side glasses when everything was out, and again after it was all back together.
I did manage to detach one of the metal mounting brackets for the high-mounted brake light. I cleaned the old glue off with Poly-Strippa paint stripper (acetone, etc. did not work), and a quick trip to Canadian Tire, a local automotive store, procured a rear-view mirror re-mounting kit. I followed the instructions, and in 40 minutes, had remounted the brake light, with no further or lasting drama.
Kind of a fun project, really, especially the chance to clean and condition the leather and plastic bits. And the sub-woofer adds greatly to the Alpine system!
Next up: That headliner.
Adam
Victoria, BC