How To Remove Rear Speakers from a 2007 Toyota Corolla S

 

Tools needed:

2 Flathead screwdrivers, one short & fat (6-8 inch shaft), the other long & skinny (8-12 inch shaft)

1 Phillips-head screwdriver

10mm wrench (socket wrench is ideal)

 

Procedure:

1. Open the trunk:



Fold down the rear seats by tugging on the left & right levers:

and pulling the headrests toward the front of the car:



2. You have now exposed a plastic panel behind the rear seats (top right of the picture above). There are 7 plastic screws & grommets here - remove them all with your phillips-head screwdriver:



The panel should now be loose. It is actually two pieces of plastic held together by a little plastic clip in the middle:



Disconnect the pieces from each other, and just let them hang there.



3. Next, partially remove the rubber weather stripping from around the rear doors. Note that you do not need to remove the entire strip - only the part in the upper back corner. I did this by first prying it up with a short flathead screwdriver:



and then peeling it off with my fingers:



This is the extent of what needs to be removed:



Do this around both rear doors.

4. Now that the weather stripping is gone, the upper rear panels may be removed. Pry up the white plastic clips around each panel with a flathead screwdriver:



and firmly pull them off:



After all of the plastic clips have been disengaged, slide the panels toward the front of the car, and lift them off. Do not pull them toward the opposite door, because there are two plastic guides behind each panel that can easily snap. When the panels are gone, you will end up with a rear that looks something like this:



5. Now it is time to remove the rear dash, in order to gain access to the speakers. Lift up the front lip, and peer underneath. You should see a few white plastic clips (the same ones as before), which are the only fasteners securing the panel. Using your flathead screwdriver, pry up as many of the clips as you can see.



You won't get all of them, however... some are hidden in the back. So, this is the tricky part: using both hands, with firm and steady pressure pull straight up on the panel until you feel the remaining clips release.



Pull the freed panel toward the front of the car, and let it hang out of the way:



6. With the rear dash panel removed, the rear speakers should now be exposed:



Disconnect each wire lead at its junction:



Using the 10mm [socket] wrench, remove the four screws from the perimeter of the metal speaker mount:



You should now be able to remove the speakers by pulling them straight up and out of the mounting holes.

 

Congratulations! You are now free of your stock rear speakers. Put some high-quality 6x9s in their place... you don't want to have to do this again. ;-)

 

Special thanks to jpaoli's post on CarSpace for helping me through this!