Rear speaker grills

[Guest]

I am recovering my speaker grills. I would appreciate any hints on removing the rear ones.

Thanx, Bob

[Rawja]

You're gonna have to do a fair amount of dissasembly to get at 'em...

You need to remove the rear center cover over the third brake light. Open the cargo pass-thru hatch, remove the two screws at the top of the opening that pass thru the top center luggage tie down, once these screws have been removed, the cover is removed by lifting the front of the trim piece and pulling it towards you (the rear of the piece is held in place by tabs inserted into slotted openings).

Now, you should have exposed the attaching screws for the top side trim pieces which are located below the center trim you just removed... remove them as well as the screw that goes through the seatbelt trim plate located on the 'B' pillar. There is also some velcro used to attach the trim at the top or the'B' pillar. These pieces (both right and left) are also removed by gently pulling towards you from inside the car).

Now, to remove the lower rear trim pieces.... you will see a number of screws along the top of the lower trim, remove them and the screws on the sides of the pass-thru opening. you can then remove the lower trim pieces by pulling up on them (the bottom of these pieces are held in place by spring clips).

The grilles are held in place by metal clips and are accessed from the rear of the trim panel you just removed.

Some Notes:

The adhesive backing on the velcro on my car had lost it's stickyness and warranted replacement.

Be gentle when when trying to remove the trim and try to feel where the trim connections might be binding before yanking on the piece of trim you are removing, as I (or you) might have overlooked a screw or two.

To eliminate squeeks and rattles, I installed high density black weatherstripping to the car's body under the trim pieces before re-assembly.

On re-assembly, make sure you are getting all the tabs and spring clips to properly engage their attaching points.

[Guest]

[Guest EDBSO]

I was able to take off the old grill cloth, wash it , dry it and reinstall using a plastic solvent glue and paperclips to hold in place. They look like new.

Just an idea if you can't correctly color match.

[Rawja]

I washed mine without removing the cloth from the plastic grilles. Just did it in the sink with dish detergent and a little oxy-clean. Worked great.