Bad Luck with Car Audio.

[WackyComputer]

So, about 2 or 3 weeks ago I buy a new Kenwood receiver and a pair of 6 1/2 inch Kicker 2-way speakers from crutchfield.com.
I install it myself and I'm happy, untill today.
I turn on the radio and no sound is coming out of the left speaker and out of the right speaker I'm getting this loud hi pitched whine.

Does anybody have any idea what's going on?

[spldart]

Did it rain and water got in the radio? Shorted speaker wires? Is your ground solid?

[WackyComputer]

No, on the water. It was fine on Friday then it set over the weekend then on Monday I get this whine.

Shorted speaker wires? Is your ground solid?

I don't know I crimped them pluged them in and it worked for 3 weeks.

Think I should pull out the receiver and check out the wires?

[spldart]

If it were my rig...
I'd take the radio out and disconnect it. Take a multimeter and check across every channel to determine correct speaker impedance at the HU harness. Then I check every channel to ground on a high impedance range.
If this all check ok then I would plug the radio back in and turn it on. Then check dc voltage at every channel with the radio on and volume turned all the way down.
This stuff can tell you a whole lot.

[WackyComputer]

Uhh, do what now?

I wouldn't have any idea what I was doing. I don't even have a multimeter.

[spldart]

Ok...Try powering up the deck in the car but have the speaker wires disconnected. Hook each channel of the deck to a 'test' speaker. (maybe a small home speaker you can drag out to the car. See if the symptoms remain or dissappear.

[Denovin]

does the whine change pitches when you throttle the car? If so, its the proximity of audio wires to other power cables for the car. Or something may be getting crossed or touching something else.
That of coarse shouldnt be a problem if you never changed the wiring from front to rear of the vehicle. Unless the wires on the back of the deck somehow are crossing or something.

Did you get all 4 speakers? Same ohm load the deck has for speakers? some come as 2 ohm, most 4, and some higher, like my saturn's stock speakers are 16 I believe, which I of coarse replaced so I could actuelly listen to music. Also, were you listening to the radio when it did this? or CD(Im assuming you installed a CD/MP3 player)?

sperate, but possibly semi related issue:
On my car sterio, there are a couple positive volt power connecters, 1 which happens to lead to my high beams(headlights), which is the constant, that never gets shut off even when the car is turned off power (keeps the memory in the deck. Unfortunitly, when I turn my highbeams on, it shuts my stereo off. I had to do this though, because it was the only cable available that had a constant 12v source. I could probebly run another cable from the battery, but id like to have a fuse on it, and the only seperate mountable fuses in my car are through some fancy electronic thing that I dont want to mess with, and ones that you can buy which are made for 12 gauge or larger cabling, which is pretty freaking huge for just a deck.

[tripodal]

Originally posted by Denovin
does the whine change pitches when you throttle the car? If so, its the proximity of audio wires to other power cables for the car.

This is imporatnt to check, but the more likely cause is failed ignition wires. The 20,000 + volts will induce current into the antenna.
If it were bad eneough it coudl take out your deck. Maybe.

The impedence of the speakers IS important... Mostly imporant for FrontLeft = FrontRight
and the rears to be equal to eachother.

Depending on your speakers ohm rating, if it is too low, that could cause damage to the deck as well. (over heating)
Your manual for the deck will specifiy what ohm speakers are acceptable. Generally going higher than what they say makes no difference. except the higher you go the less volume the deck can produce.

Does it do it while playing CD's?


I would do what spldart reccomended. Test the speakers first tho, perhaps bring a boombox out to the car, hook each of your car speakers to it 1 at a time.

If all 4 speakers are fine (im betting they are)

Hook 1 speaker up at a time to each channel on the deck. Test all 4 outputs.

[Player0]

Hmm. Wiggy. It sounds to me like the receiver has either gone kaput, or theres a problem on the wiring end (gee, what does that leave?)

Anyway, the right speaker obviously works still. I would completely disconnect the left speaker. It may be fused or the wiring is shorting there. Disconnect it at the radio side. See if the right channel functions normally after that.

if that works, hook the right speaker to the left channel wires. Note, this will all take a bit of rewiring on the harness but it shouldnt be too bad.

I had a speaker blow out on me and it caused similar problems, where one side (the dead side) had no sound output, and the other side was making an annoying grumbling crackle. Also on a Kenwood deck :)

My first guess would be a bad left speaker, or short on the left side wiring somewhere. Second would be kaput head.

[WackyComputer]

Yeah, it whines all the time CDs and radio. It whines when the motor is off it whines when the motor is on. I noticed on the way home the only time the pitch changes is when I put my high beams on. But, the funny thing is I could do anything for the past 3 weeks and it sounded fine.

The car only ever had 2 speakers, and that is all I put in.

Speakers (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-PnZk8DUHYqE/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?i=20602K60) Kicker K60

Receiver (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-PnZk8DUHYqE/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?i=113MP225) Kenwood KDC-MP225

I'm going out now to mess with the damn thing.

[WackyComputer]

Ok, after an hour I found out that both speakers, the rear left, rear right and front left channels work, but when I try the front right channel, the speaker is pushed out all the way with no sound.

Now the fact that the pitch changed when I put my high beams on makes me think that there is a problem with the wiring somewhere in the Subaru. Am I wrong for thinking that?

I hate to replace the receiver if it will just happen again. Maybe I will just plug the speakers into the rear channels and see how that works.

Thanks for the help.:)

[Player0]

If its pushed all the way out, it means yuor sending DC to the speaker.

The only possible thing I can think of is a wiring harness problem.

If you took a positive 12v DC line and hooked it to one of the speaker terminals, and then took the right front audio line to the other side, (so, 12v instead of ground), its going to do weird things. It may even play some audio, the whine is probably the amp screaming in pain, and the pushed out cone is the DC just raping the voice coil.

So, its possible that your sending a powered DC line to that speaker. In which case, remove the speaker, and get yourself a multimeter and find out if one of those lines is a 12v source.

Double check your wiring, you may have a goof somewhere. Compare to the car's manual for wire colors.

[WackyComputer]

When I tested the right front channel I used the wires straight out of the receiver.

[spldart]

So. The speaker is pushed out with the headunit disconnected as well? Or only hooked up?
If it's out and the HU is disconnected try some other speaker on that same channel. If you get a loud pop instantly upon making the connection then you have a bad channel. If another speaker plays fine on that channel of the deck then it's just a blown driver.
Don't concern yourself with the whine at this time. It could just be indicitive of a shorted speaker and the reason it changed with high beams is the small change in B+ changing the circuits behavior.

[Denovin]

I say listen to listen to Player0, he seems the electrical expert. Try to check the alternater and battery at shop, there are some places that do electrical diagnostics for free. It could be the alternator going bad and just not getting enough juice back with the audio and lights going at the same time. The whine is indeed coming fromt he speakers yes? If the whine sound is not from the speakers, then it may be the alternator working in overdrive.

[spldart]

grate

[WackyComputer]

spldart,

Both speakers work fine when I try them on the other 3 channels. Both speakers *POP* and push all the way out when I try them on the front right channel.

The whine stopped when I unplugged the rear left and right channels from the harness, at that time the front left channel and speaker were working fine, the front right channel was not.

When I tested the channels and speakers the receiver was still connected to the car by the red, black and yellow wires.

I didn't try anything with the receiver unplugged.

So, what can I do if I have a bad channel?

[Player0]

channel surf? :)

[spldart]

Time for an output IC on that HU. (or a warranty claim) But there is a reason that channel failed. They are built pretty rugged nowadays and generally wont go out without a good reason. Intermittant short or maybe worse a direct short has occured in the speaker wires between the HU and drivers.

What model # is the HU?

[WackyComputer]

Kenwood KDC-MP225

[tripodal]

Wacky, do you have a radio shack or similar to buy a multimeter... then can be had very cheaply.

If the car has been running fine since the problem started, you can be pretty sure the alternator is 1/2 working.

The Deck is Certainly bad. if it is new take it back for a different one. Since P0 got a dead kenwood, i would try to get yoru money back.

Also, this never would have happened if you did it properly with a dedicated AMP for the speakers :) :D

I dont believe your alternator fried the system, as it would have taken other stuff out at the same time...


Also you tested both speakers... if there was a short or a ground... you would have gotten no sound (if it was shorted or grounded the speaker would not pop out)

The speaker being poped out IS BAD, the coil is designed to be cooled by oscilating in and out. If current is flowing and air is not... its like turning off a cpu fan.

[WackyComputer]

I didn't get it at a store I ordered it from crutchfield. If I bought it from bestbuy I would have taken the stupid thing back the next day.

spldart, what's this about an output IC? What does that mean?

I can run some new wires straight from the HU to the speakers bypassing the harness all together. But, I have these speakers in the door panels and I will have to take them off AGAIN and find a way to get the new wires there.

It can't be easy can it? I can't just buy a radio and plug the damn thing in can I?:mad:

[tripodal]

What is your budget?


by "output IC" i am guessing he means the built in amplifier for the HU. if it was wired wrong (shorted to ground etc. ) that would likely happen. That or the deck just sukx.

Does that HU have Rca outputs for connecting external amplifiers?

[Denovin]

Easy way of rewiring the speakers is take the speaker off )c: taping the crap out of the new wire to the old wire, pulling the old ware through till you have the new wire in place. Untapping it, and hooking it up.
You may want to try reversing the cables on the speakers? + and - might be backwords if you havnt done that yet. Which may have been the reason for the damage. Speakers will work backwords.. but im sure its not good for them.

[spldart]

Yeah. Output IC is just a reference to the IC that has a 4 channel BTL (all modern decks) power amp intergrated circuit. It sounds like yours has a blown channel. This can be verified quickly by checking dc volts on each speaker wire out on the deck in reference to ground. Each should be close to 1/2 B+ (B+ is the yellow wire on modern decks)
Most wiring harness on modern cars are capable of handling BTL decks. So this isn't likely to be your problem. But it could. I don't know your car so I can't answer for sure. If I just had a couple of minutes with your car and my Fluke DMM I could answer ALL your questions :(

[spldart]

Just read the last post before mine.
Wiring a speaker 'backword', deck+ to speaker -. Deck- to speaker +, would cause a 180 degree out of phase condition. This causes a loss in bass response and a 'in your head' sound to the music. It will not hurt the driver or deck.

[mjackson988]

hey i just got a Kenwood KDC-MP225 for a 1997 Ford Windstar and i installed it and it worked fine that night then the next day it started making noises and then just stopped working and that evening i pulled it out and rewired it and then changed the fuse. the unit wont come on but it will accept and eject Cds, i then hooked up the old tape player and it wont even turn on so any advice would be helpful.

[unacceptable_risk]

Oh man, what a stuff-around. Kenwood used to have such a good name too.

Wacky is there no chance of replacement of the unit? I am unfamiliar with crutchfield. If the rear outputs work then thats your simple solution, but the unit sounds problematic, and if there is any chance of getting rid of it, I would go for that.

Other ppl have covered the topic well, so I will just agree, a nice standalone amp will give you better sound, and eliminate the need to use the amp built into the HU.

[WackyComputer]

This thread can walk and say a few words and it's even starting to feed itself on its own but those temper tantrums are the worst.;)

[tripodal]

this thread was dead... or so i was led.