Help troubleshooting car stereo speaker problem

[Ziggy]

So here's the problem: my rear speakers aren't working.

I have a standard sedan speaker setup. Two front speakers and two rear speakers. They're all stock factory speakers, and I have an after market CD deck. Everything worked fine for years.

I haven't been using the stereo much in recent months (just the radio). Recently, I put a CD in that required the volume to be turned up. I noticed that the balance and whatnot was off. So I go through the settings. Balance was set a good ways to the left which is odd since I always keep it in center. Fade was set to center, and I usually set fade slightly to the rear since I have 16x9's back there and I like the way it sounds with the rears a little louder than the fronts.

Anyways, I set the balance back to center then proceed to adjust the fade back to where I like it. I notice the volume drop. So I set fade ALL the way to the rear, and it's just dead silence. No humming or hissing, just dead quiet like there's no rear speakers hooked up.

So today I got a chance to troubleshoot it a little. First I pulled the deck out to make sure all the wires were snug and whatnot. My car actually has two wire harnesses for the stereo, the rear speakers are on a different wire harness than the rest of the connections. So I made sure that wire harness in particular was all OK. Still not working. So I went through all the settings on my deck to make sure there wasn't anything, and there wasn't. So I unplugged the main wire harness to reset the deck, still nothing.

Some time in the past year I actually pulled out basically my entire interior because my carpet got soaked from my sunroof which wasn't draining properly (I wanted to pull out the carpet to let it dry in the sun so my car didn't smell like moldy basement). So I was thinking, I don't know, maybe I fucked up the rear speaker wires when I was doing all that. So to test it, I did a continuity test between the wire harness up at the deck and the speakers in the rear. I tested the + and - connections on both speakers, and they all have continuity. So it's hooked up properly and all that. But still, they're not working as if they're not hooked up.

Then I remembered my deck has a recessed reset button, so I tried that. I didn't have the manual handy, so I held it down for 30 seconds just in case. When I turned my deck back on, all my presets were gone so I know it reset itself. And... still my rear speakers are not working.

At this point, I'm not sure what the problem is. I'm pretty sure the speakers aren't dead, and even if they were, my deck has a failure indicator for blown speakers. I could test some spare speakers, but since mine are factory they're soldered wire terminals and I didn't feel like messing with that. I could just jump the connections with alligator clips, but that would change the load and I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Maybe if at low volume and only for a few seconds just to test it would be OK. But even so, I'm sure the speakers are fine. The only other thing I could think of it if some how the deck itself is messed up. Everything else with the deck is in perfect order, so I wouldn't think so. I do have a spare deck that's the same exact model, I could swap it out I guess. But I'm pretty sure the deck is fine. Everything else works fine.

Is there something I'm not thinking of? It's bugging me out since it just mysteriously stopped working, and I did nothing to cause them to stop working. It's not like I blew a speaker out, I would know about it. And even so, BOTH speakers stopped working together. It's just bugging me what the problem is, I'm hoping I could bounce some ideas around with the usual suspects here.

edit: Forgot to mention... I'm pretty sure my deck only has the one fuse. I pulled it out and checked it and it's not blown.

[CRTGAMER]

Since both rear speakers are not working I suspect it is the fade control. Is it a mechanical knob or done digitally? If mechanical, some Alcohol or Electrical Contact Cleaner soaked and then dried inside the potentiometer might help.

Hooking up a spare speaker temporarily and keeping the volume down won't hurt anything. Your total ohm load rating will be off, but at least it should confirm if the rear speakers are dead or not. You can also test one of the speakers to another audio source but that would mean desoldering from your existing system.

Maybe that spare deck would be the quickest way to verify? At least it would confirm if the existing deck is defective or not.

[Ziggy]

Since both rear speakers are not working I suspect it is the fade control. Is it a mechanical knob or done digitally? If mechanical, some Alcohol or Electrical Contact Cleaner soaked and then dried inside the potentiometer might help.

It is digital.

Hooking up a spare speaker temporarily and keeping the volume down won't hurt anything. Your total ohm load rating will be off, but at least it should confirm if the rear speakers are dead or not. You can also test one of the speakers to another audio source but that would mean desoldering from your existing system.

You know, I was just thinking. Since I have a separate wire harness for just the rear two speakers, I could leave the main harness plugged in (which powers the deck) and just unplug the rear speakers. I could then just use some jumper wires to connect a temp speaker and then not have to worry about loads and whatnot.

Maybe that spare deck would be the quickest way to verify? At least it would confirm if the existing deck is defective or not.

Yeah, I guess I should do that. I didn't think of it until after I put everything back together. And now that I think about it, not only do I have a the spare deck but I also have the factory deck too.




I just find it difficult to believe that a speaker blew or there's a wiring problem since BOTH speakers suddenly stopped working. That makes me think more that there's a problem with the deck itself. The front speakers work fine, so perhaps this deck has two internal amps for the front and rear. OK, I guess using a temp speaker and/or swapping out the deck is the most logical test at this point.

[Hobie-wan]

Ok, so you tested continuity down the speaker wires, but did you make sure that they're not shorting somewhere ant not also connecting where they shouldn't? Disconnect both ends and mane sure they're not still connected together and also between 1 wire and the car frame? I know most stuff is grounded to the frame somewhere in cars anyway, but if you disconnect both ends then they shouldn't be connected to it anywhere unless there's a problem.

[Ziggy]

Yeah, I mean, when I was putting my interior back together I could have pierced a wire and now it's shorting. But still, I just find it hard to believe since it's BOTH speakers. I guess it's possible.

It's snowing right now so I can't do shit, but when I get the chance I'll hook up a temp speaker and see if it works. If not, then I'll swap the decks. If both of those things don't work, then I'll assume there's a problem some where in the wires from the deck to the rear speakers.

If there IS a short or something, it'll be a pain in the ass but I guess it'll give me an excuse to get new speakers. I've been wanting to for a while now anyway. If I get new speakers I'll just run new wires to the back. I wont mind doing that. IDK why, but having to run new wires for my stock speakers just seems like a pain in the ass and not something I wanna do lol.

But either way, it's just bugging me that they're not working.

[stickem]

If i was you i'd splice the rear channels off the harness and run wires to another set of speakers to see if your rear channels on your deck isn't blown. If they work you have a short and would just run new wires back there.

[Ziggy]

If i was you i'd splice the rear channels off the harness and run wires to another set of speakers to see if your rear channels on your deck isn't blown. If they work you have a short and would just run new wires back there.

Exactly what I was planning to do.

[Ziggy]

Finally got a chance to do more trouble shooting...

First, I have a spare deck that's the same model I have in there now. So, I swapped it in. Rear speakers still weren't working. Then I thought, well, I never used this spare deck, so for all I know it has the same problem. So, I swapped in my factory deck, which the last time I used was in full working order. Rear speakers still didn't work.

So, I decided, I'll just jump the connections off the rear speakers with a spare speaker and test it that way. And guess what... it worked. That means the deck and wiring is all fine, and both speakers failed. That, in my mind, was the least likely possibility. I just find it odd that BOTH rear speakers decided to fail all of a sudden. And when you think of speakers failing, you think of blowing them and having them go out with a bang. Not out with a whisper lol.

So, obviously I'll be replacing the two rear speakers. And there's just no way I'm doing that without doing the front two as well. And since the deck works fine, I'll be keeping it in there. Especially since they don't make any good decks these days. Now I just have to decide if I wanna put an amp in or not. I keep going back and forth with it in my mind. I guess I'll just upgrade all 4 speakers first and then go from there.

[Hobie-wan]

Maybe the surrounds rotted on the rears? On my 99 Neon that I had, both front speakers rotted from dampness getting in the doors. They were like that when I bought the car. On my 00 Beetle, both rears rotted out for some unknown reason too.

[Ziggy]

The weird thing tho is that they look fine, as I can see most of the speaker from inside the trunk. Of course, I'm looking at the bottom of the speaker only, but I can see most of the cone. The cone looks fine, intact. They don't look like they wouldn't work.

Weird as hell, but I'm not complaining since I finally have an excuse to upgrade the audio system in the car. I think I'm gonna go with these speakers...

Front doors: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130TSA1685 ... etails-tab

Rear shelf: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_2064CS6934 ... erview-tab

I don't want a sub for a number of reasons, so I just tried to pick out speakers with the lowest Hz rating (30Hz for the 6x9's and 34Hz for the 6.5's) figuring that they'll put out the most bass. And they're both 4ohm. They're of the highest reviewed speakers on Cruthfield, so I'm hoping they'll be good.

I'm just still debating whether or not I wanna get an amp or not. I picked this one out: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_500MRPF300 ... 2&tp=35782

I don't need my speakers to be excessively loud, I'm just looking for clarity and definition, and less distortion. My deck puts out 17w per speaker, where as the amp would be 50w. I'm just wondering if there will be like a night and day difference or not. I keep telling myself, just get the speakers for now and see how it goes. But something in the back of my head keeps saying, nah fuck it just get the amp with the speakers, you know you want to.