Rear speakers; blown or no power?
 

So, since buying by 03 enthusaist, non Bose, a year ago - the rear speakers have never worked, the previous owner has replaced the front speakers. I got a new double din and the speakers still didn't work. So, I decided to take on the fun activity of getting to the speakers.

After pulling all the panels off I expected to see no speakers, or the stock speakers unplugged, but there they were, stock Clarions, plugged in.

Anyone ever experience this? May just buy a new pair but wondering if anyone else has had this issue? Do they typically blow and just die?

Before you try to install new rear speakers, determine why the existing ones aren't functioning because I guarantee you that you'll feel pretty stupid putting in new speakers just to find that the fault is downstream and the new units are as silent as the originals. Speakers don't fail completely.... they may sound like shid but you'll at least hear pops and scratches out of them unless the problem is between the speaker and the source. NOT nothing at all.

You can test a speaker by connecting a 1.5v (i.e. a AA) battery across the terminal briefly, and see if the cone moves.

Your rear speakers are probably fine. They are not working because of a wiring problem.

And, you can check the wiring to the rears in a similar fashion to checking the speakers themselves. Find the pair of wires going to each rear speaker in the console, and disconnect them from the headunit. Insert that 1.5v battery across the wires for each speaker, and if the wiring is intact, you should hear a little crackle from the appropriate speaker. If you're not sure which wires to check, look in the owner's manual for the headunit and check the wiring diagram for the appropriate colors.

Belive it, or not, with a decent headunit, the OEM speakers don't sound terrible, although they won't play very loud without distorting. They're OK for background sound. I know because when I installed my system, just for laughs I installed the headunit with the OEM speakers, before I installed the amps and new speakers/sub. It wasn't terrible, and MUCH better than the sound with the OEM headunit.

You describe exactly my experience. I had the OEM Clarion CES. The sound was poor, but replacing the H/U with an aftermarket model improved the sound. Of course replacing the speakers and adding an amp provided much better performance.

Is it not possible for me just to use a multimeter in the harness plug to see if the plug is getting power ?

No - it's an AC signal.

I think my multimeter has an AC setting ... but I have only used it a handful of times, if that, so I could be terribly wrong...

Still won't work - the signal is too low-level, and it's continually variable. It's very unlikely the meter will pick it up, but you can try. The meter is really looking for a constant voltage it can get a lock on.

Correct. Using the meter to detect this level signal is not reliable.

So, finally had some time to remove both speakers, and I checked resistance in the speakers and got no reading at all, but in free I had it on the wrong setting I decided to use the 9V battery trick as well. When hooking a wire from each battery terminal to each terminal on the speaker warranted no movement, in or out.

So at this point I'm assuming I can conclude that voice coil in the speaker has gone and my issue is within both speakers and not a power issue?

Thanks everyone for your help.

So... You think both speakers had an identical internal failure?

That would be very unusual.

Ok, so whats your suggestion then? The speakers are 14 years old, I've owned the car for a year... I don't think that its so unusual that over their lifespan they had internal issues, maybe all the speakers did, as I know the front have been replaced with aftermarket...

Sounds like you've confirmed they're blown, although I'd be very careful using a 9V battery again - I said 1.5V for a reason - speakers don't tolerate DC very well. Boy some new speakers, but before you snap all the body panels back in place, make sure they're working OK, and if not, run new wires from the headunit.

Will do, and after doing it 2-3 times at this point, the panels coming off and going on go back quickly ...