GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Yesterday I turned my volume up really fast and I heard a pop from the front left speaker. Instantly noticed it was weaker than before. Did a little trouble shooting by fading all the way to the left very quiet but audible and then all the way to the right. The right speaker was moe than noticably louder even from the drivers seat.The speaker still works since its still making noise so what is really wrong that can be fixed. Is there a fuse that could have blown? I'm no audio guru but I can't guess how it would work at around 50% capacity if something was really broke.Any Ideas?

If the speaker is muddy and/or rattles now it's the speaker itself that's blown. If the sound is clear, but the volume is low now that would be the amplifer has blown that channel. Either way, the solution is to replace that part. My '04 M&T amplier is blown on both rear channels, so I will be replacing it tomorow with this: http://shopping.msn.com/prices...32451. It a 4 channel rated for 2 ohm speaker loads. It's beautiful sitting on the coffee table right now.

A blown amp can also distort (sound muddy) - depends on the nature of the failure. Most amps use resistors to set the gain using negative feedback in the earlier stages - if the resistors change value you you can get a volume drop. On the other hand if the output transisor gets damaged you can get things like excessive crossover distortion.If the speaker is blown usually the coil would have burnt out due to an overload. No fix - needs to be replaced. The amp can probably fixed if you can geta hold of a schematic but generally it is much faster and less bother to replace.

About 20 years ago I cranked an amp really fast once with no music playing, just the natural hiss from the amp... and to my surprise I heard a loud pop. And then noticed that there was a tiny bit of smoke coming from both tweeters.I was reading online recently that too much power and distortion can cause a speaker to "melt" inside. It could be your amp, but I would start with the cheap part first. There has to be a way you can test the speaker.... maybe try plugging your speaker into a different source? Then you can see if it works/sounds normal on something else. Either way, sorry for your loss

Same thing happened to me last summer with my 2004....I had a stereo shop replace the speakers....

Not suprised about that - the hiss has a lot of high frequency content and a sudden surge can cause a speaker to blow.Most high quality audio amps have a slow turn on circuit so that a power up spike does not destroy the speakers. Also some of them have fuse inline as protection. That may be worth adding to prevent this in the future. You just need to figure out the max power rating of the amp (rms) as well as the speaker impedeance and use ohm's law to calculate the max current. This will not be exactly accurate but close enough and then add a few amps margin on top.

The weak speaker make sound and sounds fine its just suddenly weaker. It can still go loud but not as loud as the other one.So if its the amp is there a fuse or module that can be replaced or does the whole thing ned to be replaced? Does anyone know how much one costs or how to replace it?

I'm not familiar with the radio/cd unit on the vibe. If you can remove it and make up a connector to swap the speaker connections that would be a good way to see whether it is the speaker or the unit. Either that or try swapping the speakers if that would be easier. Then just replace the faulty item.The correct and easiest way would be to check it with a scope but that's not an option for most people.I personally doubt if the unit has a protection fuse - I wsa just suggesting that may be a good thing to add for the future.

Quote, originally posted by seanx35 »The weak speaker make sound and sounds fine its just suddenly weaker. It can still go loud but not as loud as the other one.So if its the amp is there a fuse or module that can be replaced or does the whole thing ned to be replaced? Does anyone know how much one costs or how to replace it?You most likely burnt only part of a voice coil in that speaker, so you get sound, but not as much as you would normaly... I doubt it was the amp in any way, usually they just quit... I would be looking at replacement speakers... Start maybe at Crutchfield.com, they are really easy to find gear and usually give you what fits the car... they also include just about EVERYTHING needed for the install, including INSTRUCTIONS...!