Anyone good with car sound systems?

[abillybob]

Your HU will be able to run them, no doubt. The OEM speakers will be 4ohm impedance, and the new ones will be too. You either have a wiring fault/miswire, a duff speaker, or another issue.

 

Cheers man! I have tried all 4 speakers and none of them work though when trying the OEM speakers it works fine. I really don't get it!?

[3s-gtech]

You've most likely got the wiring outputs wrong, but there could be something else at play. Can you photograph how you're testing this, there's a multitude of things that could be wrong and it's difficult to guess. Basically, car audio wiring is simple, but it gets more complex if your car has separate OEM amplifiers etc.

[abillybob]

You've most likely got the wiring outputs wrong, but there could be something else at play. Can you photograph how you're testing this, there's a multitude of things that could be wrong and it's difficult to guess. Basically, car audio wiring is simple, but it gets more complex if your car has separate OEM amplifiers etc.

 

Cheers mate I'll try take some photos tomorrow it's too late now 😊

[abillybob]

@3s-gtech sorry mate quick question, do I have to use the crossover? The speakers I ordered came with two woofers and two tweeters, do I have to use the Crossover for it to work? Could this be where I'm going wrong or should it work fine without it and just hook the orginal speaker wires straight to the woofer??

[michael2k6]

abillybob,

 

Hi. So then. The reason you don't have a switched live on the head unit is you can expect it will be canbus ran on that year. To that end you don't have a traditional ISO connector like in the good old days. You will still have speaker outputs from the headunit though.

What should happen is that you go from speaker output to crossover, and crossover to tweeters and woofers. Yes you need to use these, unless your headunit already wires tweeters and woofers separately in which case it's done internally. The point being that the crossover manages the frequency - it splits high frequency to the tweeters and low to the woofers, and will be set to what those speakers can best cope with, which is why they're supplied with the speakers.

 

It wouldn't stop them from working though it would just sound pants.

 

I had a further problem changing the head unit in my parents A4 cab (though it would be the same the other way around for you if you suffer the same problem) - the woofers in the doors and rear were aplified at the speaker. So when I chopped the cable for the new head unit (don't get me started on the converters that came with it), i soldered RCA onto them and used the low level outputs on the head unit. Worked a treat. The problem was that then with the old headunit the tweeters were powered by the headunit. The new headunit when I wired the tweeters to them but the output of the tweeters were far too high in comparison to the woofers. The amps on each speaker can't be controlled. So I ended up putting in a mini amp for the tweeters and using another RCA feed to them. I could control the level of that amp to set what i want and that's connected to switched live.

 

I've only ever seen it on Audi's or on something with a premium sound system like bose - but if your speakers are powered outside of the head unit that could be why your new ones aren't working - you're trying to power your speakers with no amplifier. I'm not sure how you'd work that out other than with a multimeter (but i'm not sure what the levels should be) or by looking it up online somewhere.

 

I can't think of anything else causing you a problem.

 

Also, take the remote take off for the amp from wherever the hell you like. It's a tiny ampage which operates a relay internal to the amp - that's the whole point of it! The main current will be drawn from the main live, which should ideally be straight back to the battery on a 15 amp fuse. - I had a 30amp supply to my fuse box in the Alfa GQV so I took it out and added another fuse for the amp which was pretty sweet it looked OEM

 

Another thought... if your cig lighter is switched with the ignition, they're usually somewhere accessible in the dash and pop straight out - if you want to avoid the fusebox piggy back onto that for remote switch for amp.

ALso... if you've wired your amp at 'high level' which means you've used either a separate ratio step down converter or it's built into the amp, then it's come from speaker outputs, which means the head unit is outputting an amplified signal and should power the new speakers.

Edited February 26, 2015 by michael2k6
another thought

[Pyroman]

I'd suggest if you're struggling then call an auto-electrician, 12v won't electrocute you but it's really good at starting fires.

[woodham]

id second what's above

 

this should help

 

Wiring Diagram

[abillybob]

Ok so it seems that the wires on that side of my car are broken. The new speakers work in every other place but that one! So next question is how do you go about fixing the speaker cables? poor car!

[michael2k6]

Unless you can find the break in the wire with a probe you might be as quick running a new one. Could this be related to the accident? Just thinking if they had the door off have they plugged it all back in? For example, if you've electric windows on that side and that's where the issue is does that work? just wondering if there's part of a loom unplugged somewhere?

[abillybob]

Well the speaker that wont work is on the other side of the car (Drivers side) yet I was hit passenger side, would there be any reason why they'd need to access the drivers side? And it's the rear which because it's a 3 door dosen't have a door on the back so no Windows to check! Though that's a good point will check both front windows to make sure they work tomorrow just in case Thankyou! 😊 Might have a good look at the wire tomorrow and see if I can see any obvious place it's gone wrong otherwise it could mean a weekend gone re-wiring it all again! Nothings ever straight forward Haha!

[sippo]

Was it working before the accident. If it was, I'd be straight on the phone.

[abillybob]

Was it working before the accident. If it was, I'd be straight on the phone.

 

That's the problem.... I don't know :/

[sippo]

Get on the phone anyway then and blag it. How can they prove it? I would say it was working and now it's not.

 

It might be hassle, but worth a try.

[woodham]

just a quick one before you jump into rewiring the rear speaker you have checked the fader on the head unit ? and did it work before you disconnected the old speaker? if it did then it's probably something local to the area around the speaker location. I miss playing with car stereo

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGpVv_4XTdY

[abillybob]

Get on the phone anyway then and blag it. How can they prove it? I would say it was working and now it's not.

 

It might be hassle, but worth a try.

 

They can argue it because I soldered some connections onto the wire last year to fit my Subwoofer unfortunately.

 

just a quick one before you jump into rewiring the rear speaker you have checked the fader on the head unit ? and did it work before you disconnected the old speaker? if it did then it's probably something local to the area around the speaker location. I miss playing with car stereo

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGpVv_4XTdY

 

Yeah one of the first things I checked, I don't think it did though can't be certain. Should have checked this before I took the speaker out I have cut back some of the wire thinking it might just be a problem with the end of the wire but it hasn't helped!

[3s-gtech]

Wait - how did you solder in the subwoofer? I'm guessing that you put a bridge in to power a high level converter for the RCAs? If you did that, you may have damaged the amp in the headunit, as the impedance would be well off the factory levels. Really need to see a diagram of what you did.

[woodham]

please don't take offence at this but its like troubleshooting a problem at school:

 

1. this wont work

ok try this

 

 

 

2. I have but its not working

 

hmmm that should work...

 

and all I did was cut this and replace that and.and.and... rest of story ....

 

if you have already altered the wiring once to fit your sub then there is a high possibility that you might have done some damage to the head unit im going to guess that you just added in two wires and took them direct to the high level inputs on the amp ? or was it a convertor ? a photo or diagram would really help

[woodham]

Stop cutting and get out the multi meter to check out the cables if you don't have one go pester the tech/science department for a loan of one over the weekend

[abillybob]

Ok so my Amplifier that came with my subwoofer has a "High Input" which basically allows me to connect 4 Speaker Wires to the Amplifier and then the Amplifier does the job in converting the high level input to a Low Level for my Subwoofer. So all I did was use the two rear speakers solder two new speaker wires onto the Input on the rear speakers and then connect them to the amplifier.

 

The best I can do in regards to a diagram is this hopefully it makes it a bit easier to understand Really appreciate the help guys!

[3s-gtech]

Did you unplug the rear speakers when the feeds were being used for the amplifier high level inputs?

[abillybob]

Did you unplug the rear speakers when the feeds were being used for the amplifier high level inputs?

No why?

[3s-gtech]

The speakers are 4ohm each. The high level converters are probably designed to be 4ohm too. You will have wired them in parallel, so the resulting impedance will be (4x4)/(4+4) which is 2ohms, this is far below what your factory HU would be happy with and you may well have damaged it (especially if you wound the volume up). Car audio wiring is fairly simple, but some things are no-no, and that is one of them. You can run many aftermarket amps at an impedance that low, but rarely factory fit.

[Pyroman]

By the looks of the diagram you've used an amplified output from the Head unit into rear speakers and then into the amp? wouldn't surprise me if you've stuffed something up along the way either amp or head unit or both. I'd cut your losses and get an auto electrician to have a look Edited February 27, 2015 by Pyroman

[abillybob]

Oh Sh:censored: So would it be the HU that's now not outputting any sound or is it a problem with the cable? If it's just a problem with the cable I'll simply re-wire it, if you think it's the HU though I may need to buy an aftermarket one!?

@Pyroman I've contacted three places, two in Telford and 1 in Wolverhampton neither want to help me they all say it's far too much work..... Though it seems I'm not the only one this has happened to as Civic owners on the forum seem to not be able to get anyone to do audio work on their car

Edited February 27, 2015 by abillybob

[Pyroman]

Oh Sh:censored: So would it be the HU that's now not outputting any sound or is it a problem with the cable? If it's just a problem with the cable I'll simply re-wire it, if you think it's the HU though I may need to buy an aftermarket one!?

 

Explain to me what's actually happening in the diagram. Before you modified anything there were 4 sets of connections from the head unit 2 to the front speakers and 2 to the back. How have you added the amplifier into the system, where to the inputs/outputs go?