New speakers, rear left not working right

[BlasphemousMusic]

Please help me troubleshoot this problem!

I had a sony xplod HU, amp, and sub in my 97 xlt for a few months and all was good. After a while the rear left speakers started sounding as if they were blown. I figured they would blow eventually as they aren't used to having that high of an output. So I went and got 4x xplod 5x7 speakers. I installled all of them and they all work ok except the rear left. It plays very quiet and cut out alot! I took out my HU and the ground looks solid, the connections to the rear + and - look like they haven't come apart. Any suggestions to try next?


Also, Why is it that the left rear speaker wire colors are different in the door than to the HU?


PS Someone had mentioned just getting a new wire to the door as those wires may have become corroded or bad, if so where is the connection from the door to the HU?

 

[BigRondo]

Please help me troubleshoot this problem!

I had a sony xplod HU, amp, and sub in my 97 xlt for a few months and all was good. After a while the rear left speakers started sounding as if they were blown. I figured they would blow eventually as they aren't used to having that high of an output. So I went and got 4x xplod 5x7 speakers. I installled all of them and they all work ok except the rear left. It plays very quiet and cut out alot! I took out my HU and the ground looks solid, the connections to the rear + and - look like they haven't come apart. Any suggestions to try next?


Also, Why is it that the left rear speaker wire colors are different in the door than to the HU?


PS Someone had mentioned just getting a new wire to the door as those wires may have become corroded or bad, if so where is the connection from the door to the HU?

Maybe the amp is bad? Did you try one of the speakers that work on the left rear? You say that the wire colors at the left rear speaker are different than at HU. I'm thinking that the wires are spliced in somewhere and the splice is bad.

Just throwing some stuff out there.

 

[BlasphemousMusic]

Ok after a LOT of digging, even skipped dressing up and scaring kids tonight, I realized I have a factory amp in the back of the ex!!!


So, Im trying to figure out what to do now. I have the factory amp still all plugged in but my aftermarket one also plugged in. What happens in this case, when the factory one is still plugged in and still running ( i think) and my aftermarket one is on and working?

I want to bypass the factory one completely and use my sony 1,000 watt amp. Hell, I tried 3 different working speakers to the rear left and none of them work any different.

This just threw me through a loop now because I had no idea I had that amp in the rear... This could be why the speakers, HU, and such don't sound as good at higher volumes and the left rear complete crapola.

PS> I have seen the factory amp bypass harness tossed around, if possible I do not want to buy anything. I do not use a harness for my HU right now, cut everything and crimped together.

 

[BlasphemousMusic]

Maybe the amp is bad? Did you try one of the speakers that work on the left rear? You say that the wire colors at the left rear speaker are different than at HU. I'm thinking that the wires are spliced in somewhere and the splice is bad.

Just throwing some stuff out there.

I found out why the colors are different. It has to do with premium systems. I posted a diagram and answer about it in the stickied thread to why the color change.

 

[BigRondo]

I found out why the colors are different. It has to do with premium systems. I posted a diagram and answer about it in the stickied thread to why the color change.

Maybe check out this thread by Joe Dirt: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274434&highlight=97

 

[BlasphemousMusic]

Maybe check out this thread by Joe Dirt: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274434&highlight=97

a great thread indeed, but it talks about using METRA harness kit wiring, which I do not use. It doesn't have a lot of info on bypassing the factory amp with this setup...

If I only knew I had one before, I could probably have saved a lot of problems.

I am still reading and re-reading tons of threads about this issue. I read something about running RCA cables from HU to aftermarket amp, which I have all ready done to mine, could bypass the factory one.

 

[Infinity08]

It could very well be a simple shorted wire on the speaker.

 

[CALDWELL]

my left rear speaker did this to me also, and i had both rear spaeakers reaplced...

just a simple fix that the wiring to the speaker just was severed, hence why my speaker was dead...


from what my audio installer told me, its a common thing that happens on explorers. he said it wasnt the first time he had seen the problem himself...

 

[BlasphemousMusic]

so where would I look for this severed wire? like I mentioned above its a different color than from the HU, so I figure its connected to another source before the HU...maybe the factory amp?

The speaker itself is fine, I tried 2 new ones plus the old one with same results.


It was suggested on crutchfield that I just wire the speakers directly from the HU with new speaker wire, how would I do this thru the doors??

 

[Infinity08]

That is my suggestion also. Running wire through the accordian boots isn't difficult, but you'll likely lose a bit of blood at some point.

 

[KC90]

Run bran new wires. Yes its a pain but if you get decent 16gauge you wont have corroding issues and will most likely sound better. I totally redid everything on my system. I used 12AWG speaker wire which is pretty overkill but there is no distortion at all. My 4ch shorts out sometimes but thats do to a pinch point error on my part for the front left speaker.

There are like little ditches underneath the plastic floor trims on each side of the eX, you can run the wires there to each doors rubber boot.

 

[2KExplorerSport]

Run new wires from the new HU to the interior speakers. From what it sounds like (and I could be wrong) it sounds like your speaker connections go from the HU into the factory amp, then out to the speakers. The problem with this setup is that you're running an amplified signal (from the HU's internal amplifier) into an amplifier (the factory amp) then out to the speakers. With this setup you could fry your speakers, the factory amp, the HU or all three. The factory amp works in the stock setup because the signal coming from the factory HU is passive (non-amplified). Running new wires from the new HU should solve this for you.

 

[BlasphemousMusic]

I finally got around to installing one speaker from the HU. I did the front right and the sound was...horrible. I asked a few people and of course its due to the amp in the back powering the other speakers. I quit after just doing one speaker because it was so quiet I could barely hear it even at loud volume.

Not sure if I want to try this yet, lots of work involved, but I was going to just rewire all my speakers from the factory amp with new 16 gauge wire. If I did HU to speakers, I'd not be able to hear anything at all! I was thinking of getting a new amp and replacing the factory one but its going to cost an arm and a leg to buy one and install it myself or have a store do it.

**update **I still have front right directly from the deck and the rest are from the factory amp. I have a professional installer doing the above rewiring with new 16 gauge. If it wouldn't cost so much I'd get a new amp and have them just do it from there. Guess I will save up till I can afford that.

 

[BigRondo]

Thanks for the update! Hopefully you will get it sounding the way you want soon!!

 

[BlasphemousMusic]

After cancelling my appointment (too much money when I can just do it myself) I am left with a question.

Should I keep the factory amp in running the speakers or continue to run the other 3 directly from the HU?

I was talking to some professionals about power and such and why my HU wasn't putting out a lot of sound.

Here is my HU specs from the manual

Sony xplod http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/CDXGT54UIW_mksp.pdf

I am not sure how much power my factory amp is putting out. I asked a few weeks ago on crutchfield and other places and they all suggested HU to speakers directly as the facotry amp is no good.

Let me know if you have some advice on this.

 

[2KExplorerSport]

If you're using an aftermarket HU you NEED to bypass the stock amp. If you're going to continue to run the stock amp with the aftermarket HU you're going to damage something. If the volume is still really low after running all the speakers off the HU, try adjusting some of the audio settings. This may help. If it's still not loud enough, there may be a problem with the internal amp of the HU. How old is it? You could also look into an aftermarket 4 channel amp.