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Guide: Removing front door card Octavia Mk3 including changing tweeter capacitor for better sound


seanantenbring

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Very useful! I am considering doing this myself.

Did you replace the capacitor in all 4 doors?

 

I replaced the capacitor in the front doors only. So far so good, the rear doesn't seem to suffer as much in regards to sound distortion. I may do the rear at a later date if I think it requires it but at the moment the rear seems fine.

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Thanks for this. Mine is ordered with 'Canton' so I wouldnt have thought I would need to do this mod however I want to sound deaden behind the panel with dynamat or similar and wondered how the panel came off!
Cheers :-)

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Now I am on my computer and can see you have a recent model, which is a bit of a surprise.

From what I had read on the subject in other threads I thought it was more of a problem on the early models (such as mine) that had since been addressed, but obviously not.

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Thanks for this. Mine is ordered with 'Canton' so I wouldnt have thought I would need to do this mod however I want to sound deaden behind the panel with dynamat or similar and wondered how the panel came off!

Cheers :-)

 

You're welcome. Now I know how to remove the door trim I may install some dynamat myself also.

 

 

Now I am on my computer and can see you have a recent model, which is a bit of a surprise.

From what I had read on the subject in other threads I thought it was more of a problem on the early models (such as mine) that had since been addressed, but obviously not.

 

Yes I believe the earlier models suffered a fair bit. Skoda tweaked the newer cars so although improved it still isn't perfect!

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You're welcome. Now I know how to remove the door trim I may install some dynamat myself also.

 

 

Would you put the dynamat on the inside of the outer door skin or on the inner panel behind the door card?

 

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You're welcome. Now I know how to remove the door trim I may install some dynamat myself also.

 

 

Would you put the dynamat on the inside of the outer door skin or on the inner panel behind the door card?

 

 

 

I would personally put it on the inner panel behind the door card, so to the rear of the door card itself. The metal door frame has various things bolted to it so it would make life harder to shape the dynamat around the cables and equipment. The door card itself you should be able to cut one nice large sheet and stick it to it. Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3snLcxiDEsI and skip to 1:43 and you should see what I mean. This is someone removing the rear door card, pretty much the same as the front passenger door card.

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Just to be boring, please be very careful when soldering capacitors. I would recommend some kind of light eye protection just in case there is a short and it pops on you. A guy on the motorcycle forum I use found this out the hard way. Sorry to go all 'elf n safety' on you!!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thank you Sean for the write up!

 

I have done this on mine. I used 2.2uF caps bought from Amazon.

 

The screwdriver you need is a Torx T30 with about 6 inches reach and some method for holding the screw on the end so it doesn't fall off into the door. By far the hardest part is removing the drivers side window control without scuffing the plastics. The trim removal tool set is a worthwhile investment. The soldering is very fiddly and its all too easy to melt the plastic of the plug socket by overheating the pins - so be careful with this.

 

The circuit has the cap in series with the tweeter, those and mid-range speaker are wired in parallel. The 6.8uF cap fitted as standard allows the tweeter to take too much of the mid-range (and probably overloads it). It's better now and the mid-range speaker can output the same frequencies fine. In fact you may not need the tweeter at all (if you suspect this is the case just leave them disconnected - or use an even smaller 1uF cap).

 

Definitely sounds better and just some adjustment of bass-mid-treble controls is enough to get a decent rendition of The Dead Daisies. I plan to do the same on the rear doors in due course.

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Thank you Sean for the write up!

 

I have done this on mine. I used 2.2uF caps bought from Amazon.

 

The screwdriver you need is a Torx T30 with about 6 inches reach and some method for holding the screw on the end so it doesn't fall off into the door. By far the hardest part is removing the drivers side window control without scuffing the plastics. The trim removal tool set is a worthwhile investment. The soldering is very fiddly and its all too easy to melt the plastic of the plug socket by overheating the pins - so be careful with this.

 

The circuit has the cap in series with the tweeter, those and mid-range speaker are wired in parallel. The 6.8uF cap fitted as standard allows the tweeter to take too much of the mid-range (and probably overloads it). It's better now and the mid-range speaker can output the same frequencies fine. In fact you may not need the tweeter at all (if you suspect this is the case just leave them disconnected - or use an even smaller 1uF cap).

 

Definitely sounds better and just some adjustment of bass-mid-treble controls is enough to get a decent rendition of The Dead Daisies. I plan to do the same on the rear doors in due course.

 

No worries, I hope you found it useful!

 

I ended up putting two 3.3uF capacitors in series which gave 1.65uF which for me is spot on and works a treat! I had spare 3.3uF capacitors and wanted to take a tad more mid range from the tweeters after making the first capacitor change in the guide above, so rather than buying more capacitors I just used two of the ones I had which gave me 1.65uF.

 

Why on earth Skoda didn't test the speaker setup properly in the first place I have no idea! Really poor in my opinion and clearly a major quality control issue.

 

I will do the rears when I can be bothered :) 

 

TTFN!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have now done the rears. These are very much the same as the passenger side front door. Removing and especially refitting the window switches is very difficult but you have to do this to get access to one of the retaining screws. 

 

But you cannot remove the tweeters from the door card. If you plan on changing the caps like I have done you will need to remove the door cards from the rear doors.

 

To disconnect the door card completely: Pull out the small cable clip at the top out of the door - don't be tempted to yank on the cable, just use a trim removal tool to carefully pop it out of the metal. Once this is free you will have a bit more room to work. Disconnect all electrical connections including the window switch. The door release cable is disconnected by unclipping the white plastic retaining clip then you can wiggle the cable nipple out of the slot in the release lever. Don't loose, step on or otherwise mangle the circular plastic seal that is a push fit on the mid-range speaker unit!

 

Having done all four doors tweeters now the sound is improved but still lacks bass oomph. I think I may fit an under-seat active woofer unit. 

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  • 5 months later...
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That's just a simple manipulation of the 1/(2xPixRxC) formula. 

 

Trouble is the impedance of the speaker varies greatly over the audio frequency range so this simple formula doesn't really apply. The rated value is typically the minimum in the working range of the speaker. 

 

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_characteristics_of_dynamic_loudspeakers#Load_impedance_and_amplifiers

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On 25/03/2016 at 19:06, TDIum said:

Thank you Sean for the write up!

 

I have done this on mine. I used 2.2uF caps bought from Amazon.

 

The screwdriver you need is a Torx T30 with about 6 inches reach and some method for holding the screw on the end so it doesn't fall off into the door. By far the hardest part is removing the drivers side window control without scuffing the plastics. The trim removal tool set is a worthwhile investment. The soldering is very fiddly and its all too easy to melt the plastic of the plug socket by overheating the pins - so be careful with this.

 

The circuit has the cap in series with the tweeter, those and mid-range speaker are wired in parallel. The 6.8uF cap fitted as standard allows the tweeter to take too much of the mid-range (and probably overloads it). It's better now and the mid-range speaker can output the same frequencies fine. In fact you may not need the tweeter at all (if you suspect this is the case just leave them disconnected - or use an even smaller 1uF cap).

 

Definitely sounds better and just some adjustment of bass-mid-treble controls is enough to get a decent rendition of The Dead Daisies. I plan to do the same on the rear doors in due course.

Does this improve bass. Amd can u suggest me which capacitor do i need to use.only Twitter capacitor can improve sound?

i do t have much knowledge abt capacitor work for speaker.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 05/10/2018 at 10:22, tuskyworld said:

Does this improve bass. Amd can u suggest me which capacitor do i need to use.only Twitter capacitor can improve sound?

i do t have much knowledge abt capacitor work for speaker.

 

If you have no knowledge of electronics then this is not a job for you. You could perhaps just disconnect the tweeter. 

 

The bass remains awful.

 

TBH I have now given up on getting good audio out of my Mk3 Octavia and plan to replace it with another make. Very possibly a Merc. 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 months later...

I had my door card out to do some sound proofing yesterday evening; I wish I'd taken a picture of it because it would have really aided my description... Does anyone know what the little black boxy thing that sits above the speaker is? It's got like two tabs I think you're supposed to use pliers with and pull on if you want to remove it.

 

Is it just an access panel to get behind the inner frame?

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  • 1 month later...

Hey everyone....I’m looking to do the same thing because the tweeters are so loud and clangy. Clearly not doing a good job of playing mids because they’re not designed to and the soundstage is so high that it becomes unbearable.

 

confused as to which value capacitors to get

 

some people have used 3.3, some 2.2 others less

 

what sort of sound should i expect.....

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  • 1 month later...

Hello

It sounds the much same but the tweeter is less intrusive and it works better when it only gets the high frequency currents it's supposed to handle. 

I would suggest you get 3.3 or 2.2 uF caps and solder them in series with the installed ones. If you don't know how to do that, don't try. 

Update on this from me: I bought another Octavia (😱 I know, I know) this time with Canton sound, and believe it or not I think the tweeter is still overloaded. I don't fancy doing this job all over again but I might have to ...

Edited by TDIum
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