inigopete

Just resurrecting this topic...! I finally fitted the Focal IS 165 VW speakers at the weekend. My notes, from my attempt to fit: - The Focal speakers use a 4-pin connector, which I didn't have. Fortunately I had some small spade connectors which I could just use to attach the speaker wires directly to the terminals on the speakers. - The original Skoda Octavia Mk3 (Estate, if that makes any difference) has two pairs of wires in the loom(s) in the door - one to the tweeter and one to the woofer. The Focal IS 165 VW woofer seems to take one connector, which then has a pair of wires which go up to the tweeter. So I disconnected the original tweeter cable, knotted it round itself and tethered it safely against the door skin, in case it was needed in future, and wired the Focal tweeter in parallel with the woofer. - I removed the Skoda 2-pin connector from the woofer wires so I had two bare ends. I removed the Focal spade connectors from one end of the paired tweeter wires. Each wire pair had one with a black stripe, so it was easy to make sure polarity (positive and negative) was kept the same throughout. And the Focal speaker has a - and a + on the plastic moulding, so it's easy to see what should connect where. - I tested and experimented with the wires - it seems the four terminals on the Focal connector are two -ve, two +ve, in pairs next to each other. In other words, the two terminals near the "-" symbol are connected in parallel, and so are the two terminals nearest the "+" symbol on the speaker. - I twisted and soldered the Skoda loom feed wire and the Focal tweeter wire together and connected them to a spade connector, then covered them up with heatshrink. They gripped the speaker terminals well. - Drilling out the plastic clips that held the original speaker in was fine. HOWEVER the rivet / screw holes in the door panel are around 8mm diameter, so the nice Focal rivets that come with the speakers didn't work - they expanded and popped, but hadn't expanded wide enough to hold the speaker in, they just rattled out! I run a bicycle shop, so I used bottle cage rivnuts. They were a bit of a faff to fit, but meant I had tidy nuts held in place, so I could use M5 bolts and washers, with Loctite 243, to really hold the speakers securely in place. - the tweeters were actually way less hassle than I expected. The Focal tweeters come with a removable ring; once that's removed, the diameter of the tweeter is the same size as the original. To remove the original tweeter, you just need to cut the three pins off the plastic housing with a sharp knife, then pull the tweeter away. I then cleaned up the cylinder in the door housing so the new tweeter fitted neatly onto it. I then used a hot glue gun and plenty of glue to glue the new tweeter in place, making sure the wires fitted neatly through the retaining clip. - the original rubber ring to fit between the woofer and the door panel _doesn't_ fit the Focal speakers. But it's very close - so, again with the sharp knife, I trimmed off the small plastic moulding lumps around the outside of the ring and made it as close to a uniform circle as I could, then offered it up against the Focal woofer... it fitted around outside the moving parts of the speaker, so I held it in place and wrapped some PVC insulating tape around it a couple of times (pull it slightly and it stretches, to hold the ring firmly in place) then fitted the door panel, checking that it hadn't been dislodged and it wasn't fouling the actual speaker. ...I think that's it! With a completely flat EQ profile on the OEM sound system, the new speakers sound clear, the range is great, the definition is superb and I'm very happy with them so far. (I just wish I'd taken photos!)

Hi Feargal, FWIW I'm having the exact same problem at the moment. Bought a pair of Focal IS 165 VW speakers, went to fit them yesterday and a) spotted the woofer connector is significantly different (Focal is 4-pin, Skoda 2-pin) and b) the tweeter is a different size - the stock Octavia tweeter is tiny and has a small port behind the grill that won't fit the new tweeter without some modification. I'm looking into it... let me know if you found a solution yourself!

I know this potentially belongs in the Audio sub-forum, but I've put it in here because I want to make sure I get the right speakers for my specific model. One of the door speakers has blown on my 2017 Octavia Estate, it's a 1.5 SE Technology. Can anyone confirm that the Focal IS 165 VW is the right speaker set to replace it with? I've searched on here and found a couple of threads, and by the looks of this one - - I think I'd rather leave it to someone who knows what they're doing, which means buying the speakers myself and finding a reputable car audio fitter. ...so I just wanted to check these were the right ones to buy, I hope that's OK! https://studioincar.co.uk/products/focal-integration-is165vw-2-way-speaker-system

Great, thank you - I'm in no rush. Have PM'd you. Enjoy your holiday!

If you don't already have a buyer, please consider giving me a shout - I'm just about to start looking for a OBDEleven and found this post while looking for more information about them!

Brilliant, thank you... now looking into OBDEleven. 😮

Imagine I'm an almost-total n00b, because I am... I'm happy to help, but how do I go about doing that? I'm not averse to buying an OBDEleven dongle if needed but the pricing structure seems a little opaque to someone with no experience.

I'm in London, so when I drive near home I get used to this "feature" a lot! I haven't found a way to disable individual responses, e.g. "car in front moved away" - as @varaderoguy says, maybe this could be hacked coded in custom firmware.

I'm having this problem too, on a 2017 Octavia Estate. As far as I can tell I've got Amundsen, but I can't find any option to enable Skoda Surround - it also tells me that my firmware is up to date (although at the same time Skoda Connect won't let me finish activation... 😕 - can you tell me where to find the option for Skoda Surround, please? I'm pretty sure the driver's door speaker is actually blown, it's making horrible raspy noises even at low volumes, so I'm also looking at physically replacing the speaker.

This is brilliantly helpful (especially as I'm about to head over to France) - thank you Bigade1!

Fair enough, thank you! It's the right size, so I've taken a punt on it. I'll update the thread when I discover if I've made a mistake...!

I've got a 2017 Octavia Estate and I'm about to change the rear wiper blade for the first time. From new, it has always been irritatingly noisy - unless it's absolutely tipping down, whenever the wiper has moved it's made a loud creaky scraping sound as it moves across the glass. I'm about to buy a full set of wiper blades and would like to fit a blade that doesn't make this noise. It's a 13" blade, as far as I can tell - is it worth fitting a better-quality front blade to the rear of the car (Bosch Aerotwin Plus AP13U, for example?) or is there some other fundamental difference between the shape of rear and front blades that I've missed, that would mean it's incompatible? For an extra couple of pounds it seems to make sense to avoid further irritation (and waking up sleeping small people in the back of the car on long drives!). Thanks.