Passenger Door Speaker Not Working

[hufhouse]

The front right speaker on our 2000 Montana stopped working. My wife says that it started sounding "funny", then went out completely.

I took off the door, and the connections were fine. Jiggled everything, and no sound at all out of the speaker.

I then checked the connector with a multitester, and got no power through it at all with the stereo on.

I pulled the stereo and unplugged and replugged the connector block, jiggled the wires, and still no sound.

My question...is there an in-line fuse I should know about? Is there anything else I should know about, or is this probably an internal problem with the stereo?

[kcarlen]

There is no fuse for speakers.
A multi-meter will not measure proper voltages from the stereo, at your speaker connections.
Best thing to do, is temporarily connect a speaker to the two wires (Just use a home speaker) it will do for the test.
Dont do it for a long time, as the impedances are different 4 Ohms Car, 8 Ohms Home.
Chances are, you have a burn out speaker coil.
You can measure across the leads on the speaker with an ohmmeter, with the car stereo disconnected.
You should get a reading in the low ohms reading.
If it is INFINITE, your coil is burned and you need a new one.
New speakers from Walmart, $30 for 2.

[hufhouse]

Originally Posted by kcarlen

There is no fuse for speakers.
A multi-meter will not measure proper voltages from the stereo, at your speaker connections.
Best thing to do, is temporarily connect a speaker to the two wires (Just use a home speaker) it will do for the test.
Dont do it for a long time, as the impedances are different 4 Ohms Car, 8 Ohms Home.
Chances are, you have a burn out speaker coil.
You can measure across the leads on the speaker with an ohmmeter, with the car stereo disconnected.
You should get a reading in the low ohms reading.
If it is INFINITE, your coil is burned and you need a new one.
New speakers from Walmart, $30 for 2.

Thanks. I hope you are right. I thought I would get some reading using the multimeter. I'm glad you corrected me.

Now, I've got a Sunday afternoon project!

Thanks again!

[rkvons]

The front right speaker on my 1998 Montana is intermittent. When it seems like its not working, I adjust the fader and balance to be just on that speaker and then crank it up. It pops back on for another unknown period of time.

-Rick

[hufhouse]

Well, I tried the idea of "cranking it up" with only that speaker, and no luck.

I didn't get to tear into it to test for a signal at the door yet. I'll let you know what I find.

[hufhouse]

Just wanted you to know that kcarlen was right! Last night, I went out with an old speaker from the basement and hooked up the wires and it worked. Evidently, the OEM speaker is just shot. I'll be looking into buying new speakers, and that should solve the problem!

I'm still surprised that I didn't get any kind of reading with the multimeter. I would have expected at least a flutter from the needle.

[kcarlen]

Originally Posted by hufhouse

Just wanted you to know that kcarlen was right! Last night, I went out with an old speaker from the basement and hooked up the wires and it worked. Evidently, the OEM speaker is just shot. I'll be looking into buying new speakers, and that should solve the problem!

I'm still surprised that I didn't get any kind of reading with the multimeter. I would have expected at least a flutter from the needle.

Voice coils on speakers can not be read by the speed response of typical home meters.
You need and ocilliscope to read the speaker's waveform.
Glad you found your problem
Make sure that you PHASE your new speakers PROPERLY, otherwise you will be missing out on the BASS,
(Phase meaning + to + and - to -). Very common to mixup,

[hufhouse]

I just wanted to close this out by saying that I bought a couple of speakers from Crutchfield. They came with everything to make mounting them really easy. They sound great.

I never knew a speaker could just quit like that!