I have small speaker box in the trunk and was wondering if removing the stock sub would help or hurt the lows for my sub box? creating a large hole im sure will affect the dynamics of the trunk space.

Im getting ready to change out the back speakers and thought i might remove the oem sub while i was back there

 

If you're doing it yourself, you have to take the OEM sub out by removing the backseat and the X-pillar panels first.

 

C-pillar

 

but is their any sound benefit to removing the sub and leaving just the hole?

 

you could just disconnect it?



i don't really see what you're trying to accomplish here.

 

Pulling the sub will allow more air to pass into the cabin. Depending on the size of the aftermarket sub the results will vary. 2 15s? Get as much open air as possible. 1 8"? Probably not going to make much difference for you.

If the trunk was completely sealed like in some of the Mercedes and BMW cars then any little bit will help. These cars aren't really bass traps though, so there is a point of diminishing returns. Especially considering how much work it is to remove the factory sub. (pull the back seat and deck as stated above)

 

ok thats what i was looking for. I thought a few might have tested removing the sub and leaving the hole. I have to replace the 2 stock speakers regardless they are blown. I currently have a 10" in the trunk but want to add two 12's or maybe 10's that fit up against the back seats

 

Definitely remove the stock sub if you're going to be in there anyway. How did you blow the rears, are they amped? I ran my stock speakers off of 75w which is 3-4x stock power for a couple years and never hurt them.

 

I have a 12" DVC, had the stock sub removed. I had the same sub in an open cabin setup (Jeep Grand Cherokee). It sounded way more powerful in the open cabin setup compared to the TL.

For sure it makes a difference if you remove the stock 8" sub, especially if you plan to put in 2x12". I can tell by how hard the sub hits the back seat compared to the front seats in the TL, whereas in the Jeep I had very close amount of bass hitting the front seats compared to the back seats.

 

i am second owner and first guy replaced the rears with the wrong speakers. I have already replaced the front speakers and the sound quality and level is twice what the rears put out even off the stock amp. he also replaced the stock sub but it has been disconnected a long time. looks like bestbuy done the work yuk

 

When I had a 10" sub in the trunk I removed the stock sub from the rear deck and it definitely allowed more bass to get into the cabin, especially when the ski pass was closed. What I hadn't realized until later though was removing the stock sub allowed the metal around the sub hole to vibrate very easily. When the sub woofer is bolted down the center of the rear desk shelf is much more rigid and less prone to vibrate. You can easily tell how flimsy it gets by knocking on the metal around the sub hole with your knuckles and then remove the sub and do it again. Using sound deadening doesn't help much it's way to flimsy without something there.
The better option I think is to remove the ski pass frame and put a speaker grill in it's place. This is what I did when I went IB with single 15" sub.
I removed the plastic ski pass frame which opens up the pass through hole quite a bit more.
I found a piece of thick metal mesh at fleet farm. I think it's 1.5 mm thick or so. I put a 1 inch boarder around the edge of both sides of the mesh using speaker carpet. It's glued to the mesh with 3M spray adhesive. I then wrapped it in gray grill cloth. The 1 inch boarder around both sides gives something for the grill cloth to be glued to and lifts the grill cloth off the mesh so it's not pressed up tight against it. The speaker grill is then attached to the existing metal rods on the back of the seat with cable ties.

From inside the car you wouldn't even know that it's a speaker grill and can't see that there's 15" sub woofer directly behind it. It looks very OEM and completely and easily reversible if I want to go back to stock.