Moon & Tunes Meltdown

[ColonelPanic]

Wouldn't ya know it, my "Moon & Tunes" package has turned into the "Moon & Road Noise" package... Today was like any other, I was out driving listening to my Sirius. Then, I decided to switch to CD and started noticing some funkyness... The right front door speaker started vibrating... Thinking there was something up against the door panel, or in the door panel rattling, I checked but found nothing. Set the balance to the right, fader to the front, and good god... It was sounding really bad, crackling, popping, vibrating, then the sound stopped leaving only the tweeter. Ok, one blown speaker. No big deal, right? Wrong! When I put the fader and balance controls back to center, the left front door speaker started doing the same crap. It finally died, leaving only the tweeters up front functional - and they sound distorted as hell, absolute crap...So ok, everything up front is f'in dead... Switched the fader to the rear so I didn't have to hear any of the distortion coming from the tweeters. Then, I discovered the right rear speaker is quite loud - like it always was. But the left speaker is faint and distorted. Might as well say it needs both rear speakers as well.So I'm sitting here with no sound system at all. I'd say the amp took a shizzle on me and jacked all six speakers in the process, that's the only thing I can come up with.. I think it's been jacked for a while... But I also have noticed some issues with the head unit as well, it's been making this really weird sound any time you hit buttons on it, this kind of faint "beep boop" sound would come from all of the speakers. Hell, might as well replace the HU as well eh?I'm screwed... This isn't going to be covered under the extended warranty. The credit cards are maxed out and I don't really have crap in the bank. Can't really afford two speakers at the moment, let alone two more, two tweeters, and a new HU. You know, my Vibe wouldn't be too bad if it weren't a horrible, worthless, unreliable, flaky piece of ****. Oh well, at least something broke on this piece of crap that wasn't Toyota's doing this time. Thank ya Delphi! (removed) am I supposed to do now? *cry*

[damronjr]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Wouldn't ya know it, my "Moon & Tunes" package has turned into the "Moon & Road Noise" package... (removed) am I supposed to do now? *cry*Read the Genvibe Pay it Forward thread them IM me and we'll work soemthing out if you want!

[GMJAP]

Holy S***, Colonel, you just can't catch break with this thing, can you?

[millster]

To start ColonelPanic, I have that single CD head unit I'll be sending to you as soon as I get a chance to get it shipped. That'll get you started at least.I've just been kind of busy lately and haven't packed it up to ship it.

[BlueCrush]

Isn't there a lemon law where you could file a complaint about your Vibe? Because it sure sound like you got one. Or you could just crush it and make lemonade.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by BlueCrush »Isn't there a lemon law where you could file a complaint about your Vibe? Because it sure sound like you got one. Or you could just crush it and make lemonade.Lemon laws can only help, really, if a car is repaired multiple times for the SAME problem. Most lemon laws do not cover multiple repairs of multiple problems.CP: perhaps just the amp died out, and that's why the speakers aren't working? I'm bringing one with me to Michigan, we can work something out if you wanna take it home and try replacing just the amp to see if that helps...

[damronjr]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »CP: perhaps just the amp died out, and that's why the speakers aren't working? I'm bringing one with me to Michigan, we can work something out if you wanna take it home and try replacing just the amp to see if that helps...So much for my offer!

[ColonelPanic]

Thanks for seeing through the angry rant, guys. I was fired up! lmaoI'm pretty sure the amp is hosed... It still works, for the tweeters, the right rear, and somewhat for the left rear. It's just a 4 channel amp, right? If that's the case, then the front channel is obviously workign since I get sound out of the tweeters, but the door speakers are probably blown. From the god awful racket they were making earlier, I don't see how they could survive to be honest. Although the amp is functioning in some capacity, I'm not too keen on hanging onto it... I believe the amp started everything, that's the only logical conclusion, right? I could probably replace the speakers, but then I've gotta admit I'll be scared poopless that the amp may whack out again and nuke those. One thing I want to try is to disconnect the amp's wiring harnesses, and if it can even be done, jumper the pins on the connectors so I can effectively bypass the amp to check the speakers... That's about the only way to test this out, right? Any tips on what goes where? I'd like to take the car to Michigan, it would be an interesting project for us to rip apart... But not doing however many miles it will be with no audio, and the various other issues I have with the car now.This sucks! Quite a blowout, and I rarely even crank the stereo anyway! Never thought you could nuke your speakers by listening to jazzy stuff at low to moderate volumes. The volume wasn't loud at all when everything quit.In the end, I'm thinking I will end up replacing the amp and the HU since it has other issues anyway (thanks, millster!) Anybody have any of the stock speakers laying around? I think I'll definitely need those too. Thanks for the help guys! I appreciate it.

[ColonelPanic]

I yanked off the passenger's side door panel this afternoon to see what was going on... I took off the speaker wiring harness and hooked up my multimeter, set it to the 200 mv range and cranked up the radio. I'm seeing voltage there, so the amp *appears* to be functional... Just for sheets and giggles, I also disconnected and reconnected the amp's two wiring harnesses.If I put the fader all the way back, I'm good with the 1.5 rear speakers. I can turn it a bit to the front and have the tweeters going.And I found the passenger's side speaker, if I have the volume cranked way up enough, it starts making some horrible noise when the bass hits. Cuts in and out.... The driver's speaker is dead as can be.Still trying to figure this out.... Something bad happened, after all look at the crap that was killed all within a few seconds of each other... So like I mentioned above, the amp's gotta go, even though it sorta seems to be functioning right this very second.

[GMJAP]

Check the Ohms of the speakers

[bud_one]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »One thing I want to try is to disconnect the amp's wiring harnesses, and if it can even be done, jumper the pins on the connectors so I can effectively bypass the amp to check the speakers... That's about the only way to test this out, right? Any tips on what goes where?It can be done...I did it myself, by passed the factory amp underneath the seat.Takes some work but it's not too bad. Let me scrape up the wiring schematic for ya. What year is it again?See attached :

Attached files

[ColonelPanic]

Well, I went out this evening and swapped out the amp with the one I bought from ragingfish at the meet... Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. With that amp, all I get are the two front tweeters, everything else is dead - including the RR speaker that was working and the LR speaker that worked but the sound was very faint... At first, I suspected that perhaps the two tweeters ran off the radio, not the amp - so I was wondering if the amp was even powering up at all. But after unplugging the amp, I had nothing at all, so that throws that theory out the window.So I had to swap back to the original amp that came with the car. Really uncertain as to why Mike's amp worked in his car but not this one... The labels underneath look different between my amp and the one I got from him, and I know my car is several months newer so I'm curious whether there was a change somewhere with the amp... Perhaps a different pinout on the connectors?Bummer.

[ArcsVibe]

Bro if I get my new speakers next week I will be more than happy to send them to you Let me see since money is tight for myself as well Come on genvibe lets help CP out

[ColonelPanic]

I'm covered for the speakers... Damronjr has been kind enough to offer his factory moon & tunes speakers. So I'm good there. The one thing I am *very* concerned about though, is with the car's original amp... Something just isn't right with it, and I'm worried that the amp will go all ape doodo once I get a set of speakers that work in there and fry those too... I'll try the amp I got from Mike once I get the replacement speakers in, but that may not work considering the outcome of today's attempted switcharoo...Don't know if I should try a third amp, or what. Since both front speakers are blown, the replacement amp could have been working up there and I couldn't tell it... It had to have been, since the tweeters were a tweetin'. But that still does not explain why the rear speakers didn't make a peep, they sorta still work with the other amp. Unless they're really messed up and that amp is smart enough to cut the output to them, while my original was not... (grasping for straws on that theory, bigtime.)gvc rocks! Luckily we've got plenty of folks around who have gutted their stock systems in exchange for something much better, so I'm sure I'll be able to get all the stock parts I need. lol! Thanks for everyone's help on this. Having barely any tunes sure does sucketh!

[millster]

Yeah and now for me to get my act together and ship my contribution. Hopefully this weekend I'll get a chance to get the thing boxed up and get it out my door. Seems things just don't want to come together.

[ColonelPanic]

It's ok man... Believe me, I know how things go sometimes.

[ColonelPanic]

First of all, thanks to fish for the replacement m&t amp, and thanks to damronjr for the speakers. They're much needed and much appreciated. Now for a rant: I must ask this of those genius Toyota engineers: Why the hell do you make most of your parts either snap on like friggin' LEGO's or are removable with a 10-mili-fricken'meter socket, yet you choose to rivet the speakers in??? What gives? I was prepared for the riveting experience - somehat. I bought a rivet gun and an assortment of rivets earlier today.I drove down to the folks' house to borrow their garage for a while, almost considered installing them at home, damn glad I didn't go that route. All was well, ripped off the front passenger's door panel, drilled the existing rivets out and installed the new speaker and installed the new... Or at least attempted to. Yeah, it helps if you have the right friggin' size rivet eh? I had this big ol' pack that I just wasted $7 for and not a damn one fit. So, I had to go back into town and find the right size. Luckily I did, as well as the washer type thingies that go behind them...Anywho, I got the RF installed and just tried the existing M&T amp... It was barely audible, so instead of risking killing that speaker, I decided to change out the amp.Did so... And oh yeah, just realized I forgot to mount the amp. the crap one is still mounted under the seat while the replacement is just hanging out back there... Oh well, I'll deal with that later. The RF speaker worked fine with the replacement amp. Woo hoo! Progress! Not so fast, buddy! Neither one of the rear speakers are making any noise at all! Took off the door panel for the RR door. Plugged in one of the replacement rear speakers... /dev/null. Huh? Went back to the stock speaker still mounted in the door. /dev/null. The rear channel is dead - and I know I have one good speaker back there and one that half-arsed worked. Neither one work now; and neither of the replacements work.At that point, I've considered the rear door speakers a lost cause. Took off the LF door panel and luckily the new speaker works fine. Woo hoo! Drilled, stuck the replacement back in, riveted, put back together. Just gits and shiggles, I removed the HU and reconnected everything. Er, make that reconnected the second harness that the dealer forgot to reattach when they ripped the dash out some time ago. At any rate, that *did* eliminate the white noise issue I was getting long after the car was shut off. But still, no sound from the back.What gives? This amp worked on all channels when mike had it, damn it! Why doesn't it work right when put into my car? Oh well. At least I'm back up to 2 front door speakers and tweeters. It's a start.I'm figuring now I'll just go buy some cheapo $100 or less HU from somewhere (anything is better than what i've got now!) and get that stupid amp out of the equation here. Only thing I can think of... Something still isn't right and I haven't really got the cash to do anything fancy, and I've kinda lost my patience for sitting around troubleshooting a steenkin' factory system. Any ideas would be appreciated! And no, trading the car in tomorrow won't quite be an acceptable idea, as much as I'd like to do it.

[ColonelPanic]

Hmm, wondering something here...I'm planning on trying another stock single disc HU with the amp I currently have installed (Mike's old one.)Here's my question: If the problem persists post HU replacement, what's the deal? Does anyone see any evidence of pinout changes for the moon & tunes amp somewhere along the 2003 MY? Mike's car is older than mine (don't know by how much, but mine was built 11/02 which would put Mike having his car a bit before mine was even built.) The labels on the amps are different between mine and the one I bought from him - I'll get specifics sometime soon. If the new HU doesn't help, it's gotta be either that replacement amp has issues or it's that the replacement amp has issues with *my* car due to mismatchin connections, etc. At any rate, I wonder how much it will send the sound quality down the crapper if I bypass the amp all toghether and have the HU push the four speakers + 2 tweeters?

[Jahntassa]

Doubt they would've changed any of the pinouts that fast...As for trying to power from the HU...er..no. Bad idea. The headunit might be able to power 4 Ohm speakers, but not the 2 Ohm the M&T uses. Plus, it wouldn't be able to power the tweeters.So you'd have to replace your speakers with all aftermarkets if you wanted to try that route.

[ColonelPanic]

That sucks. I suppose that amp has issues then, if it isn't the HU and I'll have to find another amp, I guess. Certainly don't have the $$ to replace all that crap! (and i've got better things to spend my few pennies on than this stupid piece of ****. lol!) Stuck with two front speakers I guess...WHatever it is, this sure does suck bigtime! Mike, did you sell me a dud??

[ColonelPanic]

Ahh, the saga continues! Yesterday I went to turn the volume up and found something just sounded odd... Tons of treble, very little bass... Found that the LF door speaker stopped working. eh?So I was back with two tweeters and only the one RF door speaker.Since I still had the original amp mounted, I swapped amps.Viola, all six speakers were functional. The LR door speaker is a bit muted as it was since the onset of the incident... So I will try to replace that one eventually.Geez, I haven't got a clue... I dunno why the amp I bought wasn't taking kindly to my car... I've got a new HU on the way so we'll see what happens then... But man, what the heck is going on? It's not really sounding all that swell, can't quite put my finger on what it's doing but nonetheless it sounds like dump... Too much treble/mids and not much bass. That *could* be due to that one LR speaker barely working...I dunno.. Scratchin' my head again.

[Viben' round]

not that I am an electronics guru but what I would do is trash the system and get an aftermarket HU, amp, and speakers and have a professional install it. I dunno just a hunch, but it may be worth the coin to have something put in. this way if something goes wrong soon after... BAM... you got it coverd but the installer.

[ColonelPanic]

I believe I'm pretty much back in business now. Got a replacement radio in today, thanks Millster! I'm guessing that my radio had some nasty things going on inside, as the replacement seems to blow it away in the realm of sound quality. The sound is now just about comparable to the way it used to sound pre-all this madness... Now, I just have one more issue to take care of, and that would be the LR speaker. It still remains quite muted, so I'm going to go ahead and replace that once I get a chance. Here's to the hope that I've got this problem taken care of. Woo hoo! This may turn into a good week for me & the vibe...Thanks again for everyone's help, advice, parts, and seeing through my rants throughout this whole mess.

[millster]

Great news!Glad that unit worked out for you (also glad it's not sitting on my desk anymore).