2002 S2K, stock radio

So I noticed about a week ago that the left speakers cut out periodically. The right speakers are fine. If I move the balance all the way to the Right, they work, if I move it to the Left, no sound. Then, while driving, the lefts will come back on, then off, etc...

So, the question is ... Am I more likely to be looking at a wiring issue or a head issue. I can't image its the speaker as I believe both the regular door speaker and tweeter up top are going in and out together. I'll have to confirm that, at highway speed its tough to tell.

Thoughts?

 

Most likely wiring issue, you have an aftermarket right? Just pull out the head unit turn the power on and play some music while wigglying the wires see if it cuts out or not, if it doesn't check the wires connecting to the speakers themselves.

 

Nope--

2002 S2K, stock radio....

 

If both both the woofer and separate tweeter are cutting out, it's unlikely to be
the wiring in the door. It could be that the connector to the headunit has loosened
up, or that there is an internal failure in the headunit. Unfortunately intermittent
problems are notoriously hard to pinpoint - you could take the headunit partway out
and jiggle the connector, but that still might not answer whether the connector is
loose or if there is a bad solder joint in the headunit where the pins connect. But
that is where I would start, anyway.

 

I'm not saying that the wiring somewhere after the HU is more likely than it being the HU or the connector at the HU but why would both of them cutting out make it unlikely to be the wiring? Anything but a connection problem on either the tweeter or the woofer would cause both of them to cut out. A short on either could also cause 'em the cut out.

Play with the connector and see if that helps. If it doesn't, then maybe you can find someone local with a stock HU that you can borrow.

 

Unmolested factory wiring is pretty simple and pretty robust. The weakest
points are at the connectors and anything that is soldered. If it was a
connector within the door, or a solder break on the speaker itself, it would
only affect that one speaker. While a short would affect both speakers,
that's low probability compared with an open circuit. In some cars the
flexing of the wires as the door opens and closes can lead to breakage,
but I've never heard of that being a problem on this car.

 

OK - thanks guys, more news.

I replaced the HU today with another stock S2K HU. Same issue.

If I change the F/R fade to the Front(Left turn on the knob), I get no sound at all, while if I go to the R (Right turn on the knob), the sound comes from the right speakers.
If I change the Balance to the Right, the right speakers sound fine, if I move it to the left, it seems like just the lower door speaker is out, the tweeter is still working. It's unclear if its very low or that's the expected amount of sound. For an untrained technician - ME - I will have to experiment some more to be definitive on the sound levels of one speaker compared to two.

I hope that does a better job of explaining it.

 

Do you know how to burn audio to a CDR?

Try burning a 1/f power sine sweep to a CDR and see how it sounds on the right side, and then on the left. It should be pretty obvious. Start at a low volume.

Use this file:
16Hz-20kHz-Exp-1f-10sec.mp3
http://www.dr-lex.be/software/testsounds.html#Sweeps1f

You can also pull the door panel and inspect the wiring to the speaker and the speaker itself.

 

I would agree with oth. Gary, the door panels are really easy to take off. IIRC, there's 2 or 3 screws.
- door opener handle, visible (1x)
- screws in the door handle underneath the circularish/oval tabs. (1 or 2x)
- Then you just start at the top and pull carefully. These are just held in with wedge clips.

The speakers are held in with 3 or 4 screws in a speaker bracket.

 

Its the speaker. Took off both door panels today and swapped them. No sound from the bad one, good sound from the good one. Wiring is fine. Off to the store.

Thanks everyone!