How To Clean Your Car Speakers

How to Clean Car Speakers

Like every other gear, car speakers also require regular maintenance and cleaning. This makes them function better and last a long time. You could, of course, take them to the maintenance store. Do get in touch with some guys and get your device a thorough cleaning and servicing every once in a while. 

However, that’s not very economically efficient. Also, you probably wouldn’t be doing it that frequently either. The obvious alternative, in this case, is cleaning them yourself. 

But the question is, how do you clean it properly? More importantly, which is the ‘proper’ way of cleaning car speakers? Is there any proper way at all? Well, let’s find out, shall we?

 

Why Should I Clean My Car’s Speakers?

Reasons to Clean Car’s Speakers

Good question! There are a handful of reasons to answer why you should clean your car’s speakers and why you should constantly try to keep them that way.

First of all, a clean car will make your trips more enjoyable and hygienic. It might not seem like it has much of an impact, but cleanliness brings comfort and actually makes us feel more peaceful and calmer, allowing us to enjoy our trips more.

Clean speakers last a long time while delivering a premium audio quality as they used to when they were brand new.

Last but not the least, since speakers that are cleaned and maintained regularly last longer, you won’t need to get new ones very often. This will save up on your budget big time.

 

Things You’ll Need for the Job

Things You’ll Need to Clean Speakers

Here are some things that you should use to clean your car speakers. Well, they’re not exactly designed for cleaning car speakers. However, they get the job done really well. You can find most of these pieces of equipment at a hardware store or electronic equipment stores, or just lying around the house.

Also, when choosing your equipment for cleaning car speakers… always remember that these things are just as sensitive as other speakers and amplifiers.  Hence, getting the right kind of equipment is crucial, as well as using them carefully.

  • Piece of microfiber cloth.
  • Water and a sprayer for spraying it.
  • A can of compressed air for removing dust.
  • A 2-flat blade screwdriver for removing the casing.
  • Soft brush for cleaning.
  • Cotton cloth or rag.
  • Mild soap or shampoo.
  • Lint roller.
  • Sonax rubber protectant
  • Stain or nail polish remover.

 

Things You Need to Do

To make it simpler and easier to follow, I’ve divided these instructions into separate sections for cleaning different components of your car speakers.

This would also make it easier for you to find how to clean a particular portion of your car speakers. So, if that’s what you’re looking for, you can just skip the rest. Here we go!

Cleaning And Removing the Grills

Removing Speaker Grills to Clean

Use a soft brush to brush off any dust or dirt that might be stuck between the grills. Use compressed air to blast off any dirt particles stuffed inside the grill cloth.

Be very careful while doing this because if the pressure is too high, you might end up damaging the diaphragm of the speaker. Use a low amount of air pressure, almost like a gentle summer breeze.

Then remove the grills and the cover cloths by taking off the screws that are holding them to the door panel one by one. Use the screwdriver for doing this.

To clean the grills further, mix the mild soap or shampoo with water. And then soak a piece of cotton cloth or rag into it. Squeeze the extra moisture out of the rag, ensuring that it’s not too wet so that the water doesn’t seep into the components of the speaker.

Then, use it to clean the area around the speakers, the grills, and the cones.

Once you’re done with the cleaning and drying, it’s time to screw the grills back onto the speakers. While doing this, make sure you put all the wires and plugs back into their original positions.

Place the frill and the cloth back to where they are supposed to be and drive the screws back into place using the screwdriver.

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Cleaning The Cones

Cleaning Car Speaker Cones

Start by blowing compressed air through the woofers to get any dust particles that might be stuck inside the speaker cones. Then, dampen a piece of soft microfiber cloth slightly. Do this by spraying water onto it and then using the cloth to wipe the woofer cone down. Do it slowly across the edges until it’s spotless.

Repeat the same process for the areas surrounding the cones.

Then, use another piece of dry microfiber cloth to remove the extra moisture from the cones to make sure they’re completely dry. Remember, the cones are really delicate. Even the slightest scratch on them can damage your entire sound system.

So, be very careful while doing this, and don’t use anything other than really soft microfiber.

In case there is some stain or dirt stuck to the plastic of the cones, use a stain remover lotion the same way you used water to clean it off.

Very often, you’ll find random stickers on the plastic portion of the cones from quality checks by the manufacturers. Use nail polish remover on microfiber to gently peel off the stickers. Don’t use your fingernails or any sharp object as it might damage the speakers.

 

Cleaning The Subwoofers

When you’re cleaning the subwoofers, you don’t need to spend so much time carefully choosing the microfiber cloth. In fact, you can easily switch to more heavy-duty equipment. In fact, you can even use a vacuum cleaner instead of a can of compressed air.

But in this case, you have to keep in mind to use a relatively soft sucking brush and not too intense sucking pressure just to be extra sure not to cause any harm to the subwoofers.

 

Cleaning The Tweeters

Cleaning The Tweeters

Cleaning the tweeters may sound a bit tricky, it isn’t. Trust me, it’s actually simpler than it seems. You can just blow the dust off with a can of compressed air or a vacuum cleaner, and that’s basically all you need to do and should be doing with them.

Pro Tip: Never use water or any kind of wet substance to clean the tweeters. It will do more harm than good to them. Just blow them clean, and that should be enough.

 

Cleaning The Foam Ring/Rubber Surrounding

Most speakers have a coating of foam that surrounds the edges of the cone. In some higher-end speakers, this coating is made of very thin butyl rubber. To clean this bit, do the same drill and use the soft microfiber cloth.

Once you’re done, use Sonax Rubber Protectant all over the coating and then wipe it dry. Sonax gives extra protection to the rubber by making it more elastic and increasing its lifetime.

 

Getting Rust Off from The Speakers

Getting Rust Off from The Speakers

Often you might come across the phenomenon when you won’t be getting any sound coming out from the speakers even if everything seems to be properly in place. In this case, if you inspect closely, you might find that the internal wires or terminals have become corroded.

The best way to get out of this situation is to use a thin brass brush to get the rust off. But again, you need to be very careful because you might end up damaging the terminals if you handle them too roughly.

But if you still see that the terminals are coming off from the speakers, it probably isn’t your fault. Terminals can get damaged due to rust and corrosion. As a result, can come off from the speakers. If this is the case, then you’ll have to replace the terminals with new ones.

 

Some Final Words

A lot depends on how often you clean your speakers and more importantly, how you clean them. To get the most out of your car’s speakers, you need to maintain a regular routine of cleaning and taking care of them. I’m sure my guide of sorts will help you tackling the tasks better.

 Hop this article helps you to keep your speakers clean and ‘sound’ (pun intended). Don’t forget to follow the tidbits to manage the tiniest aspects of the cleaning process.

Have any comments regarding the process? Tips to share? I’d love to chat in the comments. Let’s engage!

 

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