If you are looking at this tutorial, you most likely have been confronted with a very annoying problem in your Eclipse: that stupid center dash speaker that is almost guaranteed to blow out. You may here a lot of vibration on certain parts of songs, and in many cases that can ruin a whole music experience.

When this happened to me, I tried disconnecting the center tweeter but I felt like I lost a lot of the sharp sounds in some songs and decided I would try to repair it, if not, replace it. You have the option to remove and replace or remove and try to fix. I recommend giving my fix a try, it will save you a lot of money (dealership charges $99 for crappy replacement).


Recommended Materials:

• 1 Small bottle of Gorilla Glue. (Should be about the size of your middle finger). @Home Depot or Ace Hardware
  
• 1 Short handle Phillips screwdriver
  
• 1 Pair of latex gloves (optional, for safety)

Pictures TBA.
Step 1. Remove the 2 screws at bottom of dash. They should be relatively tight, so make sure you have a short screwdriver. Don't strip them. Don't lose them!!

Step 2. Grasp the dash piece on either sides of the bottom and pull firmly. There will be metal clips on the top that come out pretty easily, so don't tug too quickly. If they do fall out, make sure you pick them up and put them in an easy to find place.

Step 3. Tilt the dashpiece upwards and find the clip to unhook the hazard lights from their harness. Dashpiece out of the way.

Step 4. You should now see the clock and the oddly shaped casing that covers the dash speaker and the clock housing. Grab the top piece by the overhang above the clock. Pull firmly. Again, look out for those metal clips as they might fall into the abyss of your dash easily.

Step 5. Now you should be able to see the clock housing (white) and the two screws on either side. Unscrew them, don't lose them.

Step 6. You should be able to clearly see the small speaker and its wire harness to the left of it. Make note of its position so that you don't have trouble getting it back in when you fix it.

Step 7. Disconnect the speaker from its wire harness. Push the speaker up from its bottom and it should pop out.

Note: The rest of the steps are optional. If you'd like to try my method of repairing the speaker out, it will require the Gorilla glue I mentioned in the beginning. Repairing the speaker is easy and can save you a lot of money.

Step 8. Take the speaker out and have a look at it in good light. You're going to need to take off the cloth that covers the speaker. If you do it carefully by moving around the edges it should come off relatively easy. Now you should be able to see into the speaker itself.

Step 9. At this point, your case may be different than mine. In most cases, however, the speaker will be broken/fractured in a hairline crack along the circumference of the speaker. (black liner).

Step 10. Now comes the gluing. Take your gorilla glue and trace along the crack. Don't use too much or it may leak onto the speaker surface. I used a constant bead (one small squeeze about every millimeter). If it doesn't look like you have enough, don't worry. The glue will inflate. To get under the crossbars, hold the speaker vertically and stick the mouth of the glue bottle under the bar and squeeze it. (quickly or the glue across the speaker may run.)
Note: If you want to do a really good job wait until the other glue is dry to get under the crossbars.

Step 11. Wait two to three hours.

Step 12. By now, the glue should be inflated and looking like a sealant. Puke yellowish. Make sure you didn't miss any spots.

Step 13. If you want to replace the speaker cloth cover, spread a thin but constant layer of glue around the edges and atop the crossbars of the speaker and lay the cloth on to dry.

Step 14. Retrace your steps! Before putting everything back together, insert the speaker into its housing and plug it into the wire harness. Give it a rip on some songs that cause a lot of vibe.

Step 15. The sound should be a lot better. You may notice a very slight vibration sound, but with the volume even turned up a little you won't be able to hear it.

Step 16. Assuming you like the sound, put everything back on and reconnect the hazard lights.

Note: This fix is temporary and may wear off after a few months or even weeks depending on the climate of your area. I'd recommend using that time to buy a new tweeter. Some car audio places make special plates that can seat up to two tweeters under the dash.


Tutorial made by Korinkoj1, Mitsubishi Forums

 

Perfect directions! Worked exactly as described. Got the speaker working again, at least until I can get a replacement. Thanks!

 

Great instructions! Thanks! Note to all. Only a Mitsubishi speaker is going to fit the space. I tried it fit one I picked up and not going to happen. 69.00 on Amazon. It's worth it

 

Yeah, pics would be cool.