93 4Runner speaker replacement questions

[travis_ufl]

I have a 93 SR5 4Runner and I'm looking to upgrade the speakers and have a few questions. Here's the situation: It came with the upgrade to 6 speaker system and radio/tape/cd player. I changed out the factory cd player for a sony and upgraded the dash speakers about 4 years ago. I upgraded last week again to an apline system and figured it's about time to go ahead and upgrade the rear speakers and tweeters as well. I'd like to do this as simply as possible, no drilling or modifications, just pop the old ones out, pop the new ones in, and reassemble, using the factory grilles. I've found enough posts on how to get to them all, so my questions pretty much relate to the specifics of the speakers:

1) what size are the rear speakers...I've seen a range searching around.
2) according to Crutchfield, there are no aftermarket tweeters that match the stock ones above the tailgate. Is this true, or do they just not have my system in their database?
3) There's another set of grilles in the top corner in the back. What is this for? I know there's nothing in there now, but is this meant for another set of speakers?

Any info would be greatly appreciated

 

[wolfgang]

Years ago I upgraded speakers in my '90 4Runner. I had the 4T speakers on either side of the dash and replaced with a 3way Sony speaker. If you had the premium system you may have the amplified rear side speakers. Its a big plastic box/chamber with small amplifer (5W?) and small ~4" speakers as part of the box. Mine had nothing there so I got 6" 3way speakers from Crutchfield and used their plastic adapter plate. It required no cutting or drilling. Seems that there was room for a 6x9 too - and there was good depth. My guess is the upper grill is just ventilation - back of a vehicle is very effective/good place for tweeters is it?

 

[travis_ufl]

Well, I figured it would be good for tailgating purposes anyway...

I actually opened up one side and took a look in there, you are correct on the 4'' with amplifiers in the side panels. I had assumed that the openings above the tailgate were tweeters due to their size, but when I got the cover off, it's actually 2'' speakers. The corners are about 3x4 or so, agreed probably just for ventilation.

As for replacements, I think I probably have to shop around to see if anybody even makes a 2'' replacement, and for the panels, will I be able to use the factory amplifiers with new speakers or will that be a problem?

 

[wolfgang]

My guess is you'll have a hard time find replacement speakers that fit the side housings (if I recall they are 5.25" but check before buying them). If you have an aftermarket radio now, is it even wired properly to turn the small amps on? Suspect replacing the units with a quality speaker would be as effective even without the mini-amps as the aftermarket head unit probably has more power than the OEM one had.

 

[jrs2]

The grills on the top back corners are for ventilation, air flows threw them out behind the rear side windows. If you're willing to cut a little bit of steel you can fit 4" speakers in there, a friend of mine did that.

When I replaced my head unit and speakers I cut out the rear amps and used the existing wiring between the HU and speakers.

Generally, tweeters sound best when they're in front of you at about ear level.

Crutchfield only lists what they carry. There's lots of tweeters in different sizes available. CarDomain has a pretty good selection. Problem I've had is that they always tell you the tweeter dome size but not always the dimensions of the tweeter itself.

 

[travis_ufl]

Is it possible that it's actually a component system in the back and the "amps" in the box with the rear speakers are actually the crossover boxes?