Its been a long time since I have had a question that could not be answered by a simple search. However, I cannot seem to find the answer from previous posts.

I have an 03 Touring with the Bose system. About two months ago, I was driving down the road and noticed that the stereo seemed to be playing at a lower volume that normal. After cleaning out my ears, I realized that it sounded like all of the sound was coming from the right channel. I tested my theory by adjusting the balance so that all of the sound was coming from the left channel. I heard virtually no sound at all - so my theory was correct.

The next time I got in the car, I noticed the sound seemed to be normal. Once again, I tested this by playing with the balance - all was well.

Since that time, my stereo has done this about 4 times.

There was however, one time that stood out from the others. In most cases, I noticed the only way to get "full" sound was just to ride it out. But one time I was driving along with only the left channel playing and my car hit a bump in the road - not a big bump at all.....just a small bump - and suddenly I had sound again coming from the right channel.

Its worth noting that prior to the first occurance, nothing had been changed in the car. At that point, I had never taken out the radio - never even removed the center panel where the radio is enclosed. I am mentioning this because if someone were to tell me this story, my first assumption would be pinched wires.

Its also worth noting that two weeks ago (WELL AFTER the first occurance,) I installed a Sirius satellite radio. During the installation, I removed the center panel to drill a hole for the wires - it is mounted in the little cubby hole also known as the empty space for non-navigation Z's. While the center panel was dismantled, I looked at the wiring harness, and the wires themselves. There seemed to be no abnormal bends in any of the wires.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. I am about to install a Line-in adapter for the satellite radio for improved sound (fm modulators suck) and that would obviously be the idea time to use any information gained from this post to try and fix the speaker issues at the same time.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

Does it happen with only the CD player? If so that's a common problem. You can replace the headunit or search, I think there's a fix that involves taking it all apart and fixing the weak part. Mine has the same problem but I don't care because I use the ipod with it and it works fine.

 

Not sure....I have never used the tape player - EVER. And the radio gets very little play time.

 

happened to my left bose speaker as well. i just hit left panel of the stereo from the drivers side and the speakers start to function normally. it doesn't seem to go off now... probably got tired and bruised up from all the banging i did. lol