here's my issue: I bought an alpine type r subwoofer to add to my sound system with a 1600w hifonics amp. the setup worked fine for about a month until one day the speakers all stopped playing, but the subwoofer still works fine. but everytime i turn my car on they make a sound like a guitar getting plugged into an amp. I made sure I didn't blow the speakers and called a store that pioneer had referenced me to to fix the problem. They told me I blew the output transistors on my deck, so I bought/installed a new one a couple days ago. To my dismay the problem still exists. I have also checked all the fuses and they look fine. Any idea as to what's happening?

also..i have alternator interference in just my rear right speaker. but i only noticed it after i installed my deck

 

It sounds to me like you have at least one speaker that's grounding itself out. Check your speaker connections......and always check the easiest stuff first!!

 

would there be a main connection to check out that would affect all the speakers though? i tried grounding them to a new ground and that did nothing. and i made sure theyre all connected at the deck

 

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying.

Try this: Find one speaker (any mid or high) THAT YOU KNOW WORKS, Pull the deck out, then disconnect all the speaker leads from the back of the deck. Once you have the deck out (with only power and ground connected to the deck), try to connect the "test speaker" to the front left speaker leads coming off the back of the deck. If it works, next try the froont right leads, then the rear right, and finally the rear left.

If the speaker works on all 4 channels, then you know it's not the deck. Your next step from there would be to check the individual speakers. If the speakers are all good, then you know it's the wiring.

Let me know!

 

good advice.

i agree you need to remove the head unit and check it separately. if the shop says you "blew an output transistor on the head unit" they should have had a reason why. the only way to verify that is to bench test the head unit, at which point they should have checked the speaker wiring.

to check your wiring, do the following:

use a digital multi-meter (DMM) and set it to measure impedance/resistance (ohms). if you don't have a DMM, take the car to the shop.

if you do, you need to measure the resistance between each speaker lead (+) and (-) and between each speaker wire and ground (Chassis). you probably have a shorted speaker wire.

how did you do your connections at the speaker and at the head unit? crimp connectors? heat shrink and solder? twisted wires and electrical tape?

are you interfacing with factory speaker wiring or aftermarket?

 

okay chip ill try that tomorrow. but is it a necessity to disconnect all other wires other than the power and ground? i know im just being lazy..but just wondering.

my connections at the front speakers are just the factory crimp connectors. with the rear speakers i had to cut wires because they were soldered right on to the speaker, so theyre connected with a twist-on wire connector...and i spliced the connections at the head unit from the factory wiring to the aftermarket head unit wires except for the remote wire. i just used twisted wires and electrical tape as a short term fix because i ran out of splices, but ill be picking up more tomorrow after checking the speaker wires so ill splice it then.

 

twisting wires and using electrical tape is the lease secure and safe method. nylon closed end connectors or splice connectors with heat shrink is more secure. you want each wire connection separately insulated.

you can do the DMM resistance test in the car, but you do need to disconnect the head unit completely. you could, however, just probe the head unit harness without cutting any wires.

when you measure between speaker (+) and (-) you should have about 3.5 ohms. between each speaker wire and ground you should have O.L. or infinite resistance.

 

When you say "twst on wire connectors", you're not talking about Wire nuts are you? Because those are for home use only and they WILL cause a problem in the car.

If you ARE talking about wire nuts, then I'd be willing to bet that's where the problem is stemming from!

 

i assume he's referring to the home wiring nuts that are not for use in a vehicle. they will come off fairly easily due to the difference in wire type (home vs. car) and vibration in a vehicle.

i'll use crimp connectors for most jobs, solder for the special ones. 3M heat shrink is far superior to electrical tape.

 

ok i did the DMM test and got some interesting results. i probed the harness from + to - and got around 5 ohms for the 3 speakers without any interference. with the speaker that sounds like it has alternator interference (rear right), i got 1.8-2 ohms.

i tried from the speaker to ground and got no read from my dmm. this was consistent with all speakers.

this making any sense?