How to Clean Car Speaker Grill by Yourself
You can clean the speaker grill by yourself through vacuuming and using dry cleaning powder. You can opt for wet cleaning using mild detergents and a microfiber sponge for plastic and metallic grills.
Table of Contents
Top-quality and well-kept speakers are indispensable for a great stereo experience in your vehicle. To keep them “well-kept”, you need to clean their grills once in a while. Grills protect speakers’ internal structure (cones) from dust, dirt, pet dander, and other pollutants to keep their sound as good as day one.
Cleaning speaker grills doesn’t involve any technical stuff. It’s a straightforward DIY task, and this write-up will help you to pull it off without a hassle.
Here, we will share with you a step-by-step guide on how to clean a car speaker grill by yourself.
What You Will Need to Follow this Guide
- A vacuum cleaner with a dust brush and upholstery attachments
- Screwdriver
- Dry cleaning powder spray
- Mild detergent
- A microfiber cloth/sponge
Steps
Turn off the Stereo and Disconnect the Speakers
Turn off the car stereo and remove the cables connected to the speakers. You can also start the cleaning process without removing the cable.
However, it is always better to exercise caution and isolate the speakers from the rest of the stereo system before cleaning their grills.
Remove the Grills
After disconnecting speakers from the rest of the system, you can remove their grills.
It is important to mention here that don’t get impatient when pulling the grill off the speaker. They are tightly secured in their place and need a bit of tow to come off.
Don’t put too much force to remove the grill to avoid damaging its delicate perforated surface and speaker cones.
A good approach to remove speaker grills is to gradually take them away from one end to the other instead of going on it all at once.
If the grill is secured with screws, you will be able to remove the grill without wrestling with it through a right-fit screwdriver.
Clean the Grills
Here, we will discuss three steps that will be enough to clean all sorts of speaker grills, even for the most stubborn grime.
1. Vacuum Clean the Grill
Place the speaker grill on any dry surface and vacuum clean it with the dust brush attachment.
Don’t keep the vacuum hose too close because the powerful suction can cause warping and permanent damage to the fabric grill.
Vacuuming is the only way to remove the dust from the micro-perforations of speaker grills.
2. Dry Clean the Grill
If you think that vacuuming alone is not enough, use a dry cleaning spray to further clean the speaker grill. You can easily find a top-quality dry cleaning powder spray.
Put a mask and evenly spray the grill with the cleaning powder and leave it for a couple of minutes so that the powder can absorb the baked-on dust and greases of the grill.
When you see that the sprayed grill surface has developed whitish/grayish powder accumulation, vacuum it again. This double action will be enough to clean most speaker grills.
3. Wet Clean the Grill
If your speaker grill has been subjected to spills and other stubborn messes, you might have to give it a conventional wet clean as well.
Use a mild detergent to keep the grill safe from the damaging effect of strong chemicals. Also, use a highly absorbent microfiber cloth/sponge instead of a regular cotton cloth.
Scrub the grill with the detergent for a minute or two, and then rinse it with cold water.
For sturdy plastic and metallic grills with severely baked-on messes, you can get around the first two steps and directly give them the wet cleaning.
Cleaning the Speaker Grill without Removing It
If you can’t remove the speaker grill or your speaker has a built-in irremovable grill, you can vacuum clean it with the brush or upholstery attachment.
If you have a lint roller, you can use it too. However, don’t wipe clean the grill to remove the dust because it can further push it down in the perforations.
Conclusion
Cleaning speaker grills extend the operating life of your speaker and keep them in glittering, pristine form all the time. We hope that this guide answers your question about how to clean the speaker grill by yourself. If you find this tutorial helpful, don’t forget to share it with your fellow car owners who like to keep their audio systems as good as day one.
Last update on 2024-04-26 / Affiliate links / *Image Disclaimer: We use images/data from Amazon Product Advertising API solely on products that link to Amazon. On products with the "Price at Crutchfield" button, we use images/data from Crutchfield.com as per the partnership deal.
