Vibe M&T = Nightmare

[arracado]

So my girlfriend has an '04 with the M&T...she had an aftermarket HU (JVC KD-S35) put in by her ex-boyfriend and it sounded all screwy, so I got in there and found that they had hooked up the HU directly without a converter. Bought the Scosche, got it all hooked up, but have realized the following:Rear speakers are useless. There is sound, but it sounds like an old AM radio...only treble, zero bass, and hardly any volume.Front speakers sound fine, but the woofer in the door on the passenger side isn't operating, just the tweeter.So, I am left with the following options as I see them based on researching these forums. Please correct me if I'm wrong:1. Factory amp rear channels are no good. I'm not sure if this is true since there is *some* sound coming through.2. Rear speakers are blown. Since these are 2-ohm speakers, I can't just throw any aftermarket 5-1/4" speakers in there. Does anyone make 2-ohm replacements?3. Bypassing the amp won't work without replacing all speakers, since HU is designed to run 4-ohm speakers. Has anyone done speaker replacements without having to run all new wiring?I'm hoping the front speaker is just a loose wire somewhere. Anyway, any troubleshooting advice would be helpful. I don't want to start replacing stuff willy-nilly without knowing what works and doesn't work. Thanks! Great forum here BTW, I'm new to Vibes but I really dig the car, just want to have better sound.

[audiovibe]

Quote, originally posted by arracado »Rear speakers are useless. There is sound, but it sounds like an old AM radio...only treble, zero bass, and hardly any volume.The speaker could be blown, out of phase, be shorted somewhere, or the amp could be calling it quits. If there is alot of static I am pretty sure we could rule out phasing issues (swapping the positive and negative wires for the people that didn't know). Could the EX have put bass blockers in line with the rear speakers to filter out the low notes? Have you pulled off the rear door panels? I cant remember how the rear speaker wires were ran in the door but it is possible that something got kinked and tore the wires jacked allowing the positive or negative to short out on metal. Also the plug at the amp could be looseQuote, originally posted by arracado »Front speakers sound fine, but the woofer in the door on the passenger side isn't operating, just the tweeter.My car started doing this also I would start looking to the woofer as the culprit here. I would test the woofer by temporarily wiring up a different speaker to see if you get sound from the speaker. The reason I wouldn't suggest the amp as the issue here is because the woofer and the tweeter run on the same channel in a parallel configuration and the tweeter is filtered after the woofer. If the amp was the issue then the tweeter would also not work.Quote, originally posted by arracado »So, I am left with the following options as I see them based on researching these forums. Please correct me if I'm wrong:1. Factory amp rear channels are no good. I'm not sure if this is true since there is *some* sound coming through.I would still check to make sure the polarity is correct going to and from the Scosche piece, even though this shouldn't create any static or hiss unless the level adjustment on the level adapter is cranked all the way up.Quote, originally posted by arracado »2. Rear speakers are blown. Since these are 2-ohm speakers, I can't just throw any aftermarket 5-1/4" speakers in there. Does anyone make 2-ohm replacements?Image Dynamics, Infinity, Polk, and others make 2 ohm speakers. I believe most people on the forum use infinity 6.5" replacement speakers. You should also have no issue using a high efficiency 4ohm driver as a replacementQuote, originally posted by arracado »3. Bypassing the amp won't work without replacing all speakers, since HU is designed to run 4-ohm speakers. Has anyone done speaker replacements without having to run all new wiring?I would not bypass the amp and use an aftermarket radio to power the factory 2 ohm speakers if you have a tendency to crank on the volume knob. If you drive the speaker hard you will in turn drive the amp harder causing hotter temperatures in the amp what could cause clipping creating more heat in the speakers voice coil causing a short in the voice coil creating a paperweight. If you are not cranking the radio constantly there would be no issues running a radio to the 2 ohm speakers. I still wouldn't do this as it is inefficient and will waste any little power you would get from the power source not to mention the total harmonic distortion would raise giving a dirtier signal.Quote, originally posted by arracado »I'm hoping the front speaker is just a loose wire somewhere. Anyway, any troubleshooting advice would be helpful. I don't want to start replacing stuff willy-nilly without knowing what works and doesn't work. Thanks! Great forum here BTW, I'm new to Vibes but I really dig the car, just want to have better sound. If you had access to a factory radio your trouble shooting would be alot less stressful. 99% of the time an issue is related to the installer and not the product but we cant say that for sure in this case as you weren't the first installer to touch the car. The ex could have over driven the inputs on the factory amp from not matching the levels by using a converter, that could also be causing your rear speaker issues. The trouble shooting method I suggested earlier by using a temp speaker to test the output of the front woofer could also be used to test the rears. I would also try to power the speakers from a different source to verify that they are not the issue.Hope it helps.Aron

[arracado]

Thanks so much for all the info Aron. I'll be getting into it more this weekend and these are all great tips!