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Speaker cutting in and out...

Old Apr 4, 2005
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Question Speaker cutting in and out...

I have a strange issue. My front passenger side speaker cuts in and out. It's wierd, it might play for a while then go silent, then come on again for no reason. I checked the connectors at the amp and re-cut/applied and this made no difference. So, I have to check the actual speaker connection next. Any ideas what else this could be? I know my speaker isn't blown cause it works fine when it is on. Hmmmm....

I have a 4-channel amp BTW. Channels one and two going to the fronts and 3 & 4 bridged to my subs. I was wondering if I just switched the channels around on my fronts to see if my other speaker would cut out?

Any ideas?

Last edited by UltimateWarrior; Apr 4, 2005 at 07:07 AM.
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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have you checked the connections to the speaker itself? I had that same issue and it turned out that some water had gotten into the door and caused a little rust in my connections therefore makign it cut in and out as I would make turns or hit a bump.
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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No, I haven't had time to check that end yet. That makes total sense (what you mentioned) but I could be just sitting idle in my driveway with only the battery on and it will cut in and out at random. So, it's hard to imagine it being a loose connection because road bumps and vibrations are not even a part of the equation. When I get time I will tear into the door and check that end. In the meantime I have switched the (RCA) leads coming off my head unit into the amp to see what happens. At least I can rule out my head unit this way I think.

L8ter
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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Originally Posted by eye_see_you
have you checked the connections to the speaker itself? I had that same issue and it turned out that some water had gotten into the door and caused a little rust in my connections therefore makign it cut in and out as I would make turns or hit a bump.
MY passenger side woofer is doing that too, cuts in and out. Tweeter is running OK, so I assume it's somewhere between the crossover and the speaker. Funny enough, it came back on this weekend, only when it was raining hard. When it stopped around 5 last night on my way home from work, the speaker cut out again. I'm too lazy to pull the door panel right now. Oh well, off to work again...
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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I see two possibilities - either a wiring issue or you're gradually losing a channel on the amp. I had this problem last year and it ended up being the amp.
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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sounds like the wire is touching metal inside the door somewhere
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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i had the same issue except driver side, i opened the door panel to find that water had rusted the connection, i cut the wire, crimped a new one on (with rubber covered connectors), havent had a problem since
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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Originally Posted by UltimateWarrior
I have a strange issue. My front passenger side speaker cuts in and out. It's wierd, it might play for a while then go silent, then come on again for no reason. I checked the connectors at the amp and re-cut/applied and this made no difference. So, I have to check the actual speaker connection next. Any ideas what else this could be? I know my speaker isn't blown cause it works fine when it is on. Hmmmm....

I have a 4-channel amp BTW. Channels one and two going to the fronts and 3 & 4 bridged to my subs. I was wondering if I just switched the channels around on my fronts to see if my other speaker would cut out?

Any ideas?
I would switch the wires around at the amp, just to eliminate the possibility of the amp being the cause; it's easier to try that before taking the door panel off.
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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Crimp terminals are known to give this type problem, Should always solder and heatshrink, then no worries.
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Old Apr 4, 2005
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Could be the coils on your speakers. Mine were almost blown, and losing connectivity at high volumes, than eventually fried the coils apart. Check to see if they are burned looking, could be it. Same thing has happened to subs and components in my cars.
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Old Apr 5, 2005
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I really think it's the amp. Even though I did not check the actual speaker connections or wire in the door area I doubt it's that. I don't have to be going over bumps or anything. I could just have the key on sitting in my driveway and it will go in and out sometimes. Almost like it's fading in and out, not a clear cut off. Wierd. I think one of the channels in my amp is going bad to be quite honest. I am going to switch the wires on the amp to see if the problems moves to the left speaker. If so, then I know. If not, then I guess I have to tear the door apart again and check everything. Grrrrrrrrrrr

To be continued...

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Old Apr 5, 2005
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Ultimate - that's about the exact same scenario I was in. Unfortunately the first time it happened was my initial install and I thought I had the wiring backwards so paranoid me redid everything and it seemed to go away.

The second time I lost balance controls and then the channel simply started to cut out. I always thought that when a channel "blew" it totally died. Not so in my case (nor yours).
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Old Apr 6, 2005
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mine does it too. Sometimes the tweeter will go out, also the passenger's side. idk whats up. its hooked up to a 4 channel amp. But i hear cracking noise.
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Old Apr 8, 2005
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Well, guess what? Before I had a chance to do some more investigating on my issue all of a sudden my amp shut off. The red light on my amp now stays lit and even cutting the power off and on won't reset it. POS

I am shopping for a new amp, possibly two now. I really need two seperate amps, one for my fronts and one for my subs. I think my cheap Legacy 4ch amp just bit the dust.

I'll never buy another POS Legacy product. I know, you all warned me!

Speaking of amps now... what would be best for my situation? I have only the two fronts (cheaper Panasonic speakers for now) and two awesome Pioneer 12" subs. I plan to upgrade my fronts soon to something like the Kappas. Anyway, should I get another 4ch, or one 2ch for the fronts and a good mono for my subs?

L8ter

Last edited by UltimateWarrior; Apr 8, 2005 at 05:17 AM.
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Old Apr 8, 2005
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Check your ground on your AMP. I just had that happen last week. The ground I was using for that AMP just wasn't working anymore, I'd hook in the ground wire from my other amp worked fine. Hook back the ground that it was connected to, didn't work at all, just the red light.

So I cut a new wire, replaced that ground wire, hooked up to the same spot and wouldn't work, but if I hooked it up with the other ground wire, no problem. It's odd, that the ground worked for 10 months but then it didn't like that ground anymore. But I was experiencing the same problems prior to it happening, the front speakers were breaking in & out. So before you buy a new amp, check that out, hook up the ground for from another amp (if you have one), or try to place the ground somewhere else, it's better, to test that before buying a new amp.
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Old Apr 8, 2005
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Unhappy

It's funny you just wrote that because before I read this I checked the lead to my ground, under the carpet area and it came out of the terminator/connector so my ground was just laying there, not even hooked up! It was probably working loose from the area (over time) and eventually broke free.

I reconnected the ground and my amp came alive! but I still have an issue.

Now my two fronts work but my subs won't! Grrrrrrrrrrrr I switched sub leads and channels around (3 and 4) and still nothing. Channels 1 and 2 for my fronts work fine but now 3 and 4 for my bridged subs are either dead or something else like the ground is no good like you said. Very weird. I will try to replace the whole ground wire tomorrow and move it to a new spot but that seems rediculous to me. Isn't a wire a wire? I mean, how can it actually go bad? And drilling another hole in my car for a new spot just logically should not matter. I am no expert with electronics by all means but how could a ground wire go bad?



I mean, heck.. I'll try anything at this point. Any other ideas to try now that I found my ground laying there? I hope I didn't damage my subs but the chances on two subs blowing would again seem rare. I would guess my amp channels would go before the actual subs?

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Old Apr 8, 2005
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How clean is your ground area? It baffled me as well, I worked on it, and switched the connected between my two amps, because both are PPI, it's just a quick pull out and plug in. Thats how I figured out it was ground, cuz I knew that it wasn't the power wire.

But yea, I would just test all the channels with regular speakers and see if the channels are bad or if the subs are bad.
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Old Apr 10, 2005
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Ok gang, I baffled. I switched channels and my amp channels are ok. My subs are getting NO response. I also reconnected my ground and cleaned up the area at the ground side and it made no difference. I did not replace the ground wire though. You really think this is necessary? I will if so. I also pulled my head unit and switched RCA's to my subs. (I used the rear speaker RCA's I ran just in case I wanted them one day) This also made no difference. So, it's not my amp, not my RCA connection wire. I could have a bad preamp sub output from my head unit I suppose. Or, do you still logically think it's the ground wire? I don't know what else to do.

Recap:

One day my whole system just cut out. It worked fine for many months. I checked my amp and the red "protect" light was lit. I found my ground worked loose from the bolt/terminator I had it grounded to. I reconnected my ground and now my amp works again but no matter what I do my subs won't work. Hmmm... I really can't imagine both subs blowing. I have two subs hooked up in parallel going to two channels on my amp which worked fine all along. BTW, when I was playing my radio I didn't have it loud either. I was just playing it at a low volume when it just cut out. My ground wire probably caused all this but how could that blow my subs?

HELP!



(If my subs are blown I'm giving up. I am not going through all this crap again)

Last edited by UltimateWarrior; Apr 10, 2005 at 11:24 AM.
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Old Apr 19, 2005
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Talking

Update:

DOH! I feel like an idiot. I found the problem....

You see, when my amp went out and before I discovered my ground wire had come loose, I was messing around with my speaker wire, both fronts and also my subs. Well, like the dork that I am I didn't hook my sub wires back to the amp properly! I had + and - together on one channel and + and - on the other. DOH! I guess when I took everything apart I forgot how I had it originally. So, I messed around with it again tonight and finally realized I needed + and + on one channel and - and - on the other! You see, I have two DVC subs going to a 4-channel amp, using two channels bridged... if that makes sense. AAAAnnnnyway, I found my stupid goof-up. Sorry for the hassle.

Boy, will it be nice to hear bass again! I can't even listen to a radio anymore without subs. It's like listening to an old A.M. radio! Why bother?

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Old Apr 19, 2005
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sounds to me like the woofers blown, voice coil is only making contact sometimes
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Old Apr 23, 2005
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Originally Posted by booba5185
sounds to me like the woofers blown, voice coil is only making contact sometimes



Damn!... now it's broke again? I thought I fixed it!


Dude, it's fixed. Guess you didn't see my last post. Thanks anyway!
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