Caution - long post but worth it if you're considering doing a speaker install:

There are many posts on installing speakers and most were quite helpful, but the choices can make your head spin. After literally days of searching and reading, my conclusion was this: if you want to make quick, inexpensive, and relatively easy work of seriously upgrading your sound, try these Pioneers in the front and these in the rear. Got 'em for $68 a pair at Wal-Mart.

Tips from my experience (apologies for no pics):

- Get Crutchfield's Installation Mastersheet for your year/model of Xterra (mine's an SE with the 6-disk in-dash changer and A pillar tweeters). Costs $4.99 and helps greatly with installation. I didn't change out the headunit but it covers that as well as speaker installation and the interior panel disassembly needed. They also send along some generic worksheets on adding satellite radio, iPods, and video systems. One disappointment is the lack of obviously important stuff like +/- speaker wire colors and speaker mounting depths.

It took a lot of searching but I finally found the colors in another thread (thanks Mav63!) for the 2002 SE:

POS NEG

LT FRONT
+BLUE -BLK/WHT

RT FRONT
+BROWN -BLK/RED

LT REAR
+LITE GRN -BLK/YELL

RT REAR
+ORANGE -BLK/PURPLE

Other wires are
RED/YELLOW HOT 12V

GRN/RED SWITCHED 12V ACC

BLU/RED ILLUMINATION
PINK/BLK ILLUMINATION

- At least for the 2002 SE, Metra\'s 72-7400 speaker wiring harness DOES NOT WORK. The factory plug is totally different so I ended up having to cut and splice.

- Installation is a snap in the rear cargo area. There were tons of posts on mounting depth issues but these Pioneers drop right in. I find it odd that Crutchfield only sells smaller speakers with an adapter for the rear because these Pioneer 6x9's fit perfectly, even the screw holes match right up (which is expected for 6x9's but it doesn't always work that way). Ironically, the depth wasn't an issue, it was that the smaller components on top were pretty snug to the interior panel and I worried they'd buzz. No buzz, they sound terrific.

One thing, once you have the interior panel loose, you don't remove it, you hold the rear end of it out towards the center/front of the truck for the install. Have a helper hold it or simply bungee it to something on the opposite side of the truck.

- Before you start, spring the $10 or so at your local auto parts store for a panel removal tool as shown below. Makes it very easy to pop out those retaining clips. You could also order one from Crutchfield when your order the Mastersheet.



- The front door installation is by far the trickiest. Remember this is for an '02 SE only with the Pioneers mentioned above, can't speak to other models, years, or speakers. You'll find plenty about this in other speaker replacement posts but here's what I did: the stock speaker is built into a big plastic mounting/spacer ring. Use this for your new speaker if you possibly can because 1) it fits perfectly of course with no drilling and 2) once you remove the white plug, there's a perfect hole in the side to run your wiring through. This is CRITICAL because the front speaker wires do not come up through the speaker mounting holes, they're secured to the interior of the door above the speaker.

I bought some aftermarket spacer rings but returned them after successfully operating on the stock rings.

There's a seam between the top and bottom of the ring and the top prys off. You have to work at it with a small flat-head screwdriver or something similar but it will come off. Once it's off, cut the little support "struts" that hold the crap they pass off as the stock speaker and remove the speaker. Actually "remove" isn't accurate, it's more like "tear out." Just rip it out of there. I used wire cutters to do all the plastic work as the plastic isn't as tough as it would seem to be based on the thickness.

Remove the white plug by squeezing the little tabs at the sides and pushing IN towards the center of the ring. Clear out all the plastic - all of it, including the housing for the plug, the little pins that stick out the top, everything you can so you're left with nothing but the lower ring (you pried off the top before).

Here's the hard part - using a template (there's one you can cut out from the Pioneer box or use your speaker if you're brave) - mark and drill VERY small starter holes in the top of the plastic ring. By "top" I mean the side opposite the 3 large mounting screw holes. Use small screws - smaller than provided with the speakers, use small washers if you have to - to secure the speaker to the ring. The Pioneer has holes but also has little U-shaped projections for screws and that's what you'll use.

Attach the wires that come with the speaker and run them through the hole where the plug was. Once you install the speaker and splice the wires, tape over what's left of the plug opening with electrical tape. I used wire nuts, taped them individually to hold everything together, then kind of stuffed the 2 of them into the plug opening in the ring (they can stick out a little) and taped it across with electrical tape. May not sound like it but it looks clean when you're done.

Search the forum and you'll find an alternative method I would have used had I found it: use the stock mounting ring as a template and cut a new one from MDF , found at most home improvement stores. See the specific threads for details.

- Like most aftermarket speakers, the new ones are 4-ohm where the stocks are 2-ohm (WHY do they do that??). I read in another post that this would cut the effective stock amp power in half. Don't know enough about electical stuff to know if it's really exactly half, but what I can say is that with the new speaker setup, a 1/2 volume setting is good for most driving and 3/4 is about as far as I personally would ever need in terms of how loud it is. You could go higher if you wanted (i.e. there's no speaker buzz or whatever) but it's plenty loud with the volume set at 1/2 and it blasts at 3/4.

End result: crisp, clean sound through the entire truck with nice, punchy bass, which is what I was after. Even noticed a twist in one of Tom Scholz' Boston guitar solos that I'd somehow missed before, and "Ursher" blows the doors off with Yeah!

I may go in for a small powered sub at some future point, but for now, this is great.

That's everything I can think of for now, may edit later if anything comes to mind. Feel free to contact me with specific questions.

The question I'm left with is simple: why did it take me nearly 3 years to do this??

I did the same exact thing to my 01 with the exact same speakers from walmart too. It sounds totally better doesn't it. Did you replace your HU too? I did last night and that just made the system sound even better. I lost the 6-disc changer but oh well.

Nope, kept the stock HU and amp...for now.

thanks been wondering what to hook up to me Pioneer fmp 4200 head unit

Great suggestion here!! Like you I was looking for a cheap upgrade that would give me some crisp sound. No need for amps and shaking my doors off with a sub. I just put these in my '00 SE and a great fit, good sound and a quick replacement for a nice price.

Took me 4 years and 70k miles to do this. I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.