jwbeck17

Hi, friends. I was doing a little radio inspection of my 928 and noticed that no sound comes out of my rear passenger speakers. So I pulled out the CDR-220 Porsche aftermarket stereo and noticed that the passenger rear positive and negative lines from the stereo harness were cut.

When I connected one of them (positive, I believe) the rear speakers worked. When I connected the negative, all sound stopped. I thought then I would be good with just keeping the positive connected, but whenever the stereo is shut off, you won't hear sound until the speakers are unplugged and plugged back in.

My suspicion is that there is a short in the passenger rear line, however I am not an expert at this. What are the recommended ways to identify where the short is happening? The fact that when one wire connected the sound works give me hope.

Any suggestions?

mkriete

For the speaker to work with just one wire, it has to be grounding somehow. I suspect the speaker has a short itself. Inspect the speaker and see if one of the wires is grounded to the housing (if so, bend it out of the way and see what happens). Otherwise the short could be in the speaker coil; time for a new speaker. You can also use a multimeter to check for a short in the speaker.

jpitman2

It ALWAYS helps to tell us your model year, as speakers and doors skins changed! I replaced speakers a few years ago, and then saw intermittent total loss of sound, and HU going dead. Eventually found left door speaker was shorting, due to new speakers being a tad fatter. A little panel beating on the speaker pocket fixed the problem.

jp 83 Euro S AT 56k

jwbeck17

My apologies! i assumed my signature appeared, but I guess some settings changed and it's not showing. It's an '89 S4, so the 10-speaker model.

jwbeck17

Any special technique to rear speakers removal? I suspect I need to pop the grates off then there would be screws, but I want to make sure I remove the grates cleanly without breaking. Any suggestions?

jwbeck17

Never mind about the grill removal. I got it off and pulled out all three speakers.

Sweet lord Jesus, what a mess. I can see why there is a short...and maybe a body along with it.

Will test the speakers to see if they are worth saving. There are some cut wires back there so I'll have to check that too.

jwbeck17

Thanks for the help, everyone! Once I got the low range speaker out I found the culprit - an unconnected wire that also had some insulation missing. Once i reconnected the wire and repaired the insulation issue. I reinstalled and the low range speakers are working.

The mid and hi range are not functional, but it doesn't look like they are on either rear side. I believe the wires were cut to those and there is no clear reconnect path. You can tell me if there is a big sound loss there, but I suspect not, so I will leave as is. Just glad to have the sound balance more normal.

Thanks!