97 Altima Front Speakers Size Question (1 Viewer)

Hi everyone,
My friend has a 97 Nissan Altima. He put an aftermarket deck in it a while ago and we just recently realized his front right speaker wasn't working. We pulled off the door panels yesterday and swapped the left front for the right front and it worked so we determined the speaker just needs to be replaced. He's not really into car audio(much to my chargrin) so he really doesn't care about what type of speakers we put in. The one thing I'm unsure of is the speaker size. It looked to me as if they were 4x6 but Crutchfield says they are 5x7. I've seen other sites confirm they are 4x6. I had 5x7 speakers in the rear in my old car so I'm familiar with what a 5x7 speaker looks like size wise and these seemed smaller. At any rate, can anyone confirm what size the altima takes? The other concern I have is that the mounting depth looked insanely shallow so I'm not sure if I'd need to make a spacer to give it enough clearence.

You're right - it is a 4x6. Very few cars, outside of Ford, uses a 5x7 (or 6x8, same thing) speaker. However, you can remove that baffle that it sits in and fit a 6½" speaker with relative ease (and some self-tapping screws). That's the route I've always suggested in the past, and it'll get you some better sound and a tad more low end. And you can get a nice 3way speaker for under $100 to fit in there. If you absolutely need to, you can mount the grill baffle under the speaker to give you a little more clearance, just make sure the door panels will fit over it. This won't work with the goofy grills that come with the new Pioneer / Kenood / Sony speakers though. Look at the Polk, Rockford Fosgate, or Infinity lines. Look online at Crutchfield, then buy them (for cheaper) at the local shop.

Clearance is an issue, but only if you go with some insanely huge speaker. I've managed to fit most anything into the front doors.

Good luck.

or as just mentioned in another thread, look at CDT. thezeb.com has them for well under a hundred smackers, and they are superior to anything kenwood, pioneer, etc offer, as all they do is make components, and pretty good ones.
That is, if you go 6.5"
if you choose to go 4x6, look at Infinity Kappas.. they make an outstanding 4x6 plate I've used as rear fill in Fieros before.

Thanks for the info guys. As I said my friend really doesn't care much about what the gets and I think he's gonna want to go on the cheap end so probably a pair of 4x6s from Crutchfield for around 40 is what he'll end up ordering.
If it were my car I'd be getting some nicer speakers but he's really nowhere near as critical of stereos as I am.

Why even bother with Crutchfield? I never understood this - they cost the same, or usually MORE than the local Best Buy or Ultimate Electronics or whatever you have in your area. I know that Best Buy sells a nice 2 way Pioneer 4x6 for like $40-45. And you don't have to wait for it or pay shipping. That, to me, would be the smartest option.

I use crutchfield's site for their outstanding product info and images. that's about all though.
occasionally I purchase something from them but they have little that interests me honestly.
However, keep in mind that not all of us live in a city, and not all of us have a local Best Buy or whatever that other place was that you mentioned.
The closest such places to me for example, are 2 hours away by car. By the time I pay for the tank of gas I've already paid more than the shipping, and then I get to add tax to that as well? No thanks.

Say my friend could get the same polk speakers locally(which I don't think we can). 39.99x6% CT sales tax=42.38 add in atleast 5 or six bucks for a speaker wiring harness(my buddy doesn't want to splice his wiring) and you've got 47 bucks right there. Crutchfield shipping is what 5.99 for small items like that? It's cheaper this way and easier. Hell even if it was a few bucks more I'd do it.
Another example, my Polk EX365s were 69.99 at Crutchfield while they were 89.99 at my local Circuit City.
So Crutchfield isn't always more expensive than the local places. As far as ordering from other online vendors, I dunno there are lots of sketchy car audio vendors out there(some probably selling stolen stuff, some probably honest and selling new stuff but not factory authorized to do sell that company so the warranty is void).
Crutchfield is still a good bet in my book as far as car audio stuff.

97 Altimas use a 5x7 in the doors, and the majority use 6 1/2" in the rear, some do have 6x9's in the rear but most do not. I speak from experience, since 1)I own a 97 altima limited, and 2) I owned a car audio shop for several years and still have the wiring diagrams for most cars. If you need one, let me know.

That's odd - I JUST had a speaker install in a 97 Altima (GLE, I think) today (I work in a car audio shop). Had those 4x6's in it, and we put in a 6½". It may be one of those funky cars, where certain trim levels had different sizes. It had a 6½" in the rear as well, if it helps any.

We put in Pioneer 4-ways, if it makes any difference. They turned out pretty good.

They did have some models that had an extra set of 4x6's in the dash, but Ive never seen or heard of one with 4x6's in the doors......

And on that note, did a '96 Altima today, that had 5x7's in the doors, and a 6½" in the back. I'm guessing it's one of those cars where you never know what size speaker you have.
This one had the 4x6 in the dash, too.