I recently replaced the front and rear door speakers on my 2006 RL, and thought I'd share some insights and pictures to help anyone who wants to tackle the job. I also installed a Bluetooth USA Spec BT45-ACU which replaced the HFL and added bluetooth to the car. See the attached PDF for the whole doc.Speakers replaced: Front and rear doors. I did not replace the subwoofer nor the front dash speaker (supposedly no replacement for Center speaker). No intention to replace the subwoofer, though I could have at the same time since I was working in that same area when replacing the rear tweeters. While I was working on the speakers, I installed a Bluetooth USA Spec BT45-ACU in order to have a good HFL replacement and be able to stream music (e.g. Spotify). And since the microphone wire had to go all the way to the trunk, I fed the wire to the trunk while working on the rear tweeters.

Speaker Brand I bought: Polk Audio DB6502 (front) and DB5252 (rear) purchased from Crutchfield. The advantage of purchasing from Crutchfield was (1) installation instructions, (2) wire harnesses, (3) speaker mounts and (4) support if you need to talk to someone. Further below is a picture of the original Bose speakers (bottom 2) vs new Polk speakers (top 2). Notice the magnet size difference and speaker build (old is paper vs new is poly of some sort).

The front door speakers have the woofer in the bottom of the door while the tweeter is in the upper corner of the door. The rear speakers have the woofer in the door and tweeters in the rear deck of the car.

The speakers in the RL doors are separate woofers and tweeters with an internal crossover to separate out the high/low sounds, so you’re wasting money if you buy a coaxial speaker, meaning the highs are not going to the woofer and lows are not going to the tweeter of a coaxial speaker. I did not use the crossover that came with the Polk speakers, just kept the system as it was using the built-in crossover (the crossover is located in the doors). You could change the crossovers, but that involved more wiring time I didn’t want to mess with and I figured the crossovers were set up with the RL system in mind.

I’m not going to repeat anything in the Crutchfield removal/install instructions, but will note any differences or things I went through. I’m also not going to go through the Bluetooth USA Spec BT45-ACU installation except for where I ran the microphone wire to the rear of the car. By the way, installation of the Bluetooth USA Spec BT45-ACU is very simple and adds a lot to your car – highly recommend it (got mine at Crutchfield).



I first tackled the rear deck tweeters. I figured this would take the most time (it did) and I wanted it out of the way. The instructions from Crutchfield came free when you purchase the speakers from them (you can buy instructions for $10 online from Crutchfield – just google it), the instructions have pictures, wire polarity and required tools for each step. I would definitely recommend a tab pulling tool set (plastic), and in addition, a metal bar tab puller because you’re going to remove a lot of tabs in the car. You can find those tools at car part stores, on Amazon or other online places for around $15-$20.

After taking off the rear bottom cushion, you’ll see that there is a wire connector on the driver’s side by the back part of the seat cushion, so don’t forget to release that before taking the back cushion out and reconnect it when putting the seat back together.

The only tricky part of removing the back seat panels is the upper panel by the airbag. One clip slides out (closer to front of car as indicated by arrow) while all others pop out. This is not mentioned in Crutchfield’s instructions. I would recommend popping out all tabs, including those by the back window and then slide the piece back toward the rear window to get it out. Installation is reversed, slide the tab on first and then press other tabs into place.


Picture of rear deck with cover removed, yeah looks like a mess, but the parts were not in the way.



Picture of original rear deck before tweeter removal (above)

Once you have the old tweeters out, now comes the part that takes some time – trying to hand build a tweeter mount to fit in the old mount. I went through a number of iterations to try and make the first one work, but found that using a wire mess (used a gutter leaf guard mesh from Home Depot) and the Polk Audio flush mount together made it easier to manipulate and get the tweeter to solidly mount. Having some small wire clippers and needle nose pliers helps cut out the hole for the flush mount and allows you to manipulate the mesh wire to the right locations. The Crutchfield instructions do list the polarity (positive/negative) wires to use, though their colors were sometimes different. Below are some pictures of what I made.

While the rear speaker deck was apart, I ran the microphone wire for my HFL through the back deck while I had the back seat apart and ran it down to the USA Spec BT45-ACU unit where it plugged in by the XM radio unit (driver’s side rear in trunk).

Once you have the new tweeters installed, test them before you put everything back together. With the RL stereo, you can test just the rear tweeters by going into the RL speaker settings to select only the rear speakers (Fader), turn down Center speaker and Subwoofer in the settings, and turning the Bass all the way down (off). Once tested, put the rear seat area back together.

I then tackled the rear door woofers. Removing the door panel is fairly simple and there are a few steps I’d recommend. Remove the door screws behind the door handle (2 screws) and under the ash tray (1 screw) first. Using a panel flat tool, start popping out tabs in the area of the woofer first (by door hinges) and work your way around the bottom of the door and then up the sides. Make sure you hold onto the door panel when popping off the last (top corners) tabs because your door lock/handle is still connected by cables. Using a small Phillips head screwdriver, there are 3 screws to remove the door lock handle piece from the door panel. If you are doing this by yourself, place a Home Depot 5 gallon bucket beneath the door panel to rest it on while taking out the last tabs and door lock/handle. If the panel drops to the floor, it could break plastic door cable holder (ask me how I know – cost $110 to purchase a new handle).





Here’s a link to a Youtube on removing front door panel, this is similar to the rear panel, but screw locations are different. You only need to watch the first few minutes to see how to remove it, and the ending to see it reinstalled. Some online videos mention disconnecting the cables, but it is easier to remove the 3 screws to the door lock mechanism.
Removing the door woofer is fairly simple by inserting a large screwdriver in the top of the speaker mount and pushing down to release the clip. After that is released, the speaker tilts out.

I reused the original speaker mount in addition to a new (thin) speaker mount to align the mounting screws. The woofer hole in the rear door seemed large enough to put a 6.25” speaker in there (I didn’t measure it), but with the original mount and thin speaker plate adaptor, the DB5252 (5.25”) fits perfectly. Crutchfield supplied connectors that plugged into the woofers and directly to the door wiring.

Test the speakers similar to the rear deck tweeters, though turn Treble down all the way and Bass all the way up.

Before putting the door panel back on, make sure the plastic door covering and Dynamat (if you use it) do not cover the tab holes nor the light green screw holes for the panel, otherwise the panel will not go into place. First re-attach the door lock mechanism (3 screws – use that Home Depot bucket to rest it) and then start at the top by pushing the tabs back in place and then the rest of the tabs around the door, and finally replace the door screws.




Front door speaker replacements – remove the front door panel by first removing the 3 screws (1 behind door handle, 1 behind upper plate by handle, 1 behind plate in the door map holder area. See youtube shown earlier. Don’t forget to remove the door lock mechanism 3 screws. In addition, there are 2 sets of wires you have to disconnect on the door panel, 1 for the rear-view mirror power (smaller white) and 1 larger white one for the speakers/door locks/power for light. Both have a release tab and you have to find the plastic tab/bar to push for them to release before pulling apart. The white plugs have the release in the middle. The green (tweeter) wire can be released after the door panel is off, and it has the release on small thin protruding tab that I had to use my thumb fingernail to press in to release it.

After the door panel is off, remove the tweeter trim piece that goes all the way around the window area. There are 2 tabs (1 each end) holding it in place where you can actually slide the trim piece up instead of popping out the tab. The rest of the trim piece is held in place by the door seal, just pull it back to release the trim.

I first replaced the tweeters. Just like the rear, the first tweeter took the most time to figure out how to mount it. This time I used a small, perforated metal bar which aligned above the original mount holes (once you twisted/bent the metal in various ways) and also allowed for attaching the raised mount tweeter holder. Make sure the tweeter is pointing in the same general direction as the original tweeter and that the bar does not get in the way of putting the plastic door trim piece back on the door (I had to round out the corners of the metal bar). Polk Audio gives you flush mount for the tweeters which I used in the rear tweeters and a surface mount (raised) which I used on the front tweeters.

The woofers were similar to the rear doors, but different in the fact that you had to use the 2 sets of mounts that came with the speakers (a thicker door mount and thinner speaker mount that screws to the thicker door mount). You also have to drill holes in the metal door panel (3 of them) to mount the thicker speaker mount. Wiring came from Crutchfield, same as the rear speakers.

Once you have the tweeters completed, reinstall the tweeter/door trim piece and reconnect the wire to the green plug. You can test the tweeters before putting the door panel back on, but woofer won't work unless you plug in the large white door panel plug.

When putting the door panel back on, attach the door lock mechanism first while resting panel on your Home Depot bucket, then plug in the 2 white wires (rear view mirror power and speaker/door power) and finally, attach panel starting at the top and working your way around door tabs. If you did it right, you should see the screw holes aligned over the green screw holes.

The new speakers sound much better than stock to my ears. Don’t forget to re-tune your equalizer settings on the speakers to your liking. Set the Fader/Treble/Bass to your likings and enjoy the music!


After speaker install front door

Original tweeter - note angle of tweeter. Can't use old metal mount.

Need to adapt new tweeter and surface mount to existing area

Used metal bar by twisting/bending metal to mount tweeter