Problem 1: S2000.

I've just swapped a set of speakers from another car, they were working perfectly and so were the ones I took out the S. Now the left hand speaker crackles when I turn the volume up, the (Kenwood) HU went into 'protect' mode, which kicks in when there's a short circuit in the speaker wiring and the the sound cuts out occiaionally until I turn the HU off and back on again.

I've checked the wiring and everything seems to be correct; any ideas what the problem might be (moisture maybe)???

Problem 2: Pug 106 beater.

After 30 mins or so of playing music quite loudly but clearly and normally, the sound starts to distort and the volume drops a little. The symptom has remained despite changing all the hardware - HU and speakers. The only part that hasn't been changed is the wiring. Incidentally, I've noticed that there's better quality, thicker speaker wire on one side compared to the other.

Any advice or suggestions about either problem???

Cheers,
FB

 

Problem 1 sounds like a dodgey connection/wire. Have you soldered any off the wires, how old is the HU? Could be a dry joint in the HU...

It could also be a damaged voicecoil on the speaker. This could have happened through a number of means. Overdrive, moisture, foreign contaminant... try swapping speakers left to right to see if the problem moves.

Problem 2 what sort of power draw do you have in the system (RMS cottage) it could be that your pulling more than the battery can provide over time. Are your lights dimming at all? He different gauge wire won't make that much of a difference tbh. It will give slightly different resistance values but probably not something you would be able to hear...

 

Yup sounds like a short to me somewhere too - either in the power wiring or in the speaker wiring. Check, check and recheck.

 

How deep are the speakers? It could be metal on metal contact. maybe worth using insulating tape at the connectors on the back of the speaker to avoid metal/metal contact with the door. Is there dampness in the door?

Second problem sounds like it's pulling too much from the battery. Good point about headlights - do the other car electrics suffer at this time? Presumably you're just running a head unit. No basstubes/amps etc?

 

The second problem can also be due to heatsoak. If you are pulling lots of power you will generate lots of heat. If the heat has nowhere to go it will eventually cause the unit to overheat which causes loss of volume, static type sound, and other assorted annoyances.

 

Thanks for the comments all. I'll break, clean and re-make all the connections on the door speaker and see if it fixes it.

As for problem no.2, there's only a HU and four pretty ordinary speakers (200w rear and 150w front), no amps or subs. Could this still put too much load on the electrics or overheat it, and if so, is there a simple cure or does it need a beefier alternator and battery?

Cheers........

 

Those are probably too juicy for the HU to cope with if it's the factory OE one? You are probably placing too much draw on the amp of the headunit - does this happen at any volume or just after youv'e been playing it loud for a while.

 

i dont know the symptoms of incorrect ohms, but i guess mis-matched ohm rating kit could cause the issues?

iirc amp manuals say incorrect ohm can result in overheating/damage to amp...
i'd guess the kenwood is reducing it's output to avoid overheating...?


it's been a few years since i've been into ICE, so the above could be complete BS

 

It is possible that the headunit is trying too hard to drive those speakers, an external amp would help no end in both performance and sound quality. The speakers will be standard 4ohm jobbies which is correct for the headunit, problems only really arise when you start running multiple speakers/voicecoils in series or parallel. The ohmage will change and you have to make sure the amp is stable at the new ohmage.

 

The fact it starts to die after extended loud running would indicate it is overheating and cutting back on output to protect itself. Have you tried just running two front speakers? Could never understand the reason for running 'rear fill' in a stereo environment.