156 Replacement Speakers

[Beatle]

More pics

[bazzbazz]

Sound?  Yes, the speakers work, but struggle with high volume.  I suspect this is more the fault of the factory head unit than of the speakers.  The factory wiring is quite heavy gauge.

So, your disappointed that on your morning drive to work you won't be able to really appreciate the subtlety of your Iron Maiden collection? 

[Beatle]

Verde!!!!  At Full Noise    Windows down of course 

[martym00se72]

Just because I am scoping this out as one of the next jobs on the list - how do you go about getting the old speakers out and the new ones in - do the door cards need to come out or do the speaker covers clip on/off and access is direct through there?

And thanks for answering q's around the tweeters and wiring - great info!
Cheers
Marty

[Craig_m67]

Speaker covers clip in the door cards (careful, they're brittle)
Speakers are screwed to the door card, come out from front.

Door cards are easy to get off if you want to add dynamat(etc) to the inner door and or wooden speaker mounts (rings) to stiffen the door cards, they're quite flimsy.

[Beatle]

And when you remove the speaker covers, look closely at how they are orientated so you can replace them the way they came off.  From memory the fronts are slightly different to the rears, and they have a top/bottom.

[martym00se72]

They have 3 spring clips and a locating tab - locating tab at the bottom.

Job done - much better. But I still want a small sub - probably one of those under seat jobbies but so I can remove it for track time

On a similar vein - my head unit is aftermarket but seems to be wired so that you need the key in the On position for it to work rather than the Acc position - is there a particular wire to tap into for Acc power?

[Beatle]

On a similar vein - my head unit is aftermarket but seems to be wired so that you need the key in the On position for it to work rather than the Acc position - is there a particular wire to tap into for Acc power?

There is no ACC equivalent ignition switch position in the 156.  Only OFF/ON/START (and PARK).  However you can turn on the factory head unit without the keys in the ignition by holding the PWR button.   It's on a timer to protect the battery voltage.  To turn off, hold the same button (pushing it quickly will mute). 

The Alfa head unit wiring is almost, but not quite, ISO standard.  So if you used a standard wiring adaptor you'll need to swap the power wires, otherwise the headunit memory gets wiped each time you turn the IGN off.   You may find the solution here, though it sounds like whoever fitted the unit has accounted for this quirk: https://www.alfaowner.com/threads/how-to-install-aftermarket-headunit-a-guide-for-147-156-and-gt.153629/ 

But I guess that unless your aftermarket head unit has similar functionality to the factory unit, if you connect the head unit and memory to the constant 12V wire, you'll need to physically turn the unit off whenever you get out of the car because it will be 'hotwired' on, independent of the ignition switch.