Anybody good with audio issues?

[teambeechstreet]

I have a 95 civic that keeps eating up speakers. I've gone through 4 so far on the driver front door in just a month. 2 were used that I had laying around and 2 were brand new that I had in storage. No signs of going out beforehand. Will work fine for a couple days and then one morning it will just not work. No raspy noises or anything... will just not work. Only happens on the driver front door. I'll swap in another one and it'll work for another week or so before suddenly stopping. No issues with rear speakers or passenger door. I'm an idiot when it comes to electrical. Aftermarket head unit is a Kenwood that is about a year old. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Colt45ws]

How are they failing? Is the coil going open or is the surround tearing or cone separating?

 

[KingCake]

Probably something wrong in the head unit output. DC voltage kills speaker coils.

My neighbor's car caught on fire when his aftermarket hu decided to dump high amp DC into the speaker overnight and the coils got so hot the door panels ignited.

 

[Olas]

Can you borrow a head unit from a friend and swap it out for a few days to test?
Do you have a multimeter?

 

[Andrew1972]

Are you testing them after removing them with another audio source with a speaker level outputs?

 

[supton]

Swap left and right wires at the head unit, see if it is DC as suggested--if it starts blowing a speaker in a different door then it is the head unit.

Otherwise I'd think it was excessive vibration in the door, being slammed or whatever.

 

[mazdamonky]

I would make sure it is wired correctly. I have seen speakers have problems when wired in reverse. There could also be a short somewhere in the wire. I had a couple of speakers blow because the wire wasn't crimped well at the radio end on a friends car. It was giving a bad signal going over bumps and such.

 

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted By: supton
Swap left and right wires at the head unit, see if it is DC as suggested--if it starts blowing a speaker in a different door then it is the head unit.

Otherwise I'd think it was excessive vibration in the door, being slammed or whatever.


+1 for the above comment.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: madRiver
Are you testing them after removing them with another audio source with a speaker level outputs?
This. ^

 

[KingCake]

Originally Posted By: mazdamonky
I would make sure it is wired correctly. I have seen speakers have problems when wired in reverse. There could also be a short somewhere in the wire. I had a couple of speakers blow because the wire wasn't crimped well at the radio end on a friends car. It was giving a bad signal going over bumps and such.


Wiring speakers in reverse just puts them out of phase.

 

[Lubener]

Originally Posted By: KingCake
Originally Posted By: mazdamonky
I would make sure it is wired correctly. I have seen speakers have problems when wired in reverse. There could also be a short somewhere in the wire. I had a couple of speakers blow because the wire wasn't crimped well at the radio end on a friends car. It was giving a bad signal going over bumps and such.


Wiring speakers in reverse just puts them out of phase.


You would know right away if they are out of phase. If you get exactly halfway between the speakers, due to phase cancellation, you would feel as if you are in a glass jar with very little being heard until to moved out of that "sweet" spot.

 

[berniedd]

Don't sacrifice another speaker troubleshooting this situation. Just get an el cheapo 2500 or 3000 microfarad 16 volt electrolytic capacitor. Wire its + lead in series with the red speaker wire in the door and the - lead to the speaker terminal. This will block off any DC current. Leave the black wire to the other speaker terminal alone. If the speaker no longer blows, you've found the problem. If the sound quality is acceptable enough, just keep the capacitor permanently wired in place. It won't hurt a thing.

 

[Lubener]

Originally Posted By: berniedd
Don't sacrifice another speaker troubleshooting this situation. Just get an el cheapo 2500 or 3000 microfarad 16 volt electrolytic capacitor. Wire its + lead in series with the red speaker wire in the door and the - lead to the speaker terminal. This will block off any DC current. Leave the black wire to the other speaker terminal alone. If the speaker no longer blows, you've found the problem. If the sound quality is acceptable enough, just keep the capacitor permanently wired in place. It won't hurt a thing.


Volt meter will confirm any DC riding on the line.

 

[teambeechstreet]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I just started a new job and this speaker issue went on the back burner.

Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
How are they failing? Is the coil going open or is the surround tearing or cone separating?


No physical damage. Just doesn't work even when hooked up to another source.

Originally Posted By: madRiver
Are you testing them after removing them with another audio source with a speaker level outputs?


Yes, tested them and they don't work.

Originally Posted By: Olas

Do you have a multimeter?


I have one but it doesn't work. If I get one, what do I check for? DC signal?


This morning I re-did the wiring in the driver door and installed a used speaker a buddy gave me. Gonna see what happens.

Thanks so far!

 

[Gokhan]

Perhaps speakers aren't powerful enough for the aftermarket unit?

Get a multimeter and set it to DC volts to see if you see any nonzero DC voltage. If you see anything more than a fraction of a DC volt, there is a problem. In practice if you connect a large bipolar electrolytic capacitor in series in the speaker line (meaning cut one of the two speaker wires and insert the capacitor in there), it will filter out all the DC. However, that shouldn't normally be necessary. Correct value for the bipolar electrolytic capacitor is 2,200 microfarads and 16 volts or higher. You could live with around 1,000 microfarads though. Smaller farad values will filter the bass frequencies and small voltage ratings could damage the capacitor. Don't get polar electrolytic capacitors because they cannot withstand AC that oppositely polarizes the capacitor.

Other than that, it could be faulty wiring or a short circuit.

You should also test the speaker coil with a multimeter. Set it to ohms and kiloohm range. It should read probably around a few hundred ohms or less. It shouldn't read infinite (-1). If it does, coil is burned out (open-circuited) from high current -- either DC or too powerful audio output.

 

[Gokhan]

If DC is an issue, use one of each in series in both left and right channels with the speakers (not across the speaker terminals but between one of the speaker terminals and one of the wires):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/150485215760?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

The polarity of the speaker only determines the phase of the signal, meaning whether the cone is being pushed inside or outside when a certain signal is being applied. It won't cause any harm on the speaker or electronics at all if you connect with the incorrect polarity. However, you will have rather undesirable acoustic effects between the two speakers, as the sound waves will originate with the opposite polarity (one will peak while the other crests).

 

[Papa Bear]

I owned a 1993 Accord and the driver's door speaker went open as well.