Stock Radio Speaker Issue

[wilson234]

Replacing all the factory stock speakers with new aftermarket ones. Everything went as planned, but the passenger front speaker has no sound. Balance and Fader is adjusted appropriately, so it's not a simple adjustment issue. Now trying to trouble shoot.

I did put a volt meter on the speaker, mainly to confirm polarity of the factory harness wires when hooking up the new speakers. So there is a signal/voltage at the speaker, confirmed it turns off when stereo is turned off. To eliminate the possibility of the new speaker being the culprit, I tested more than one of the new speakers and it confirmed, no sound.

What could this be? If it was a wiring issue, I would imagine i wouldn't get the voltage/signal. Could it be the factory amp is bad? Does the factory amp power each speaker individually? Rest of the speakers installed and work with no issue. Planning to pull the factory headunit to see if I can uncover anything, but hopeful someone has some guidance.

Thanks!

 

[C.J. Roberts]

This is just a shot in the dark, but are you sure that the speaker is grounded? Maybe test with a second ground wire from the speaker terminal to a good ground.

 

[suicideking]

Did you swap the two front speakers and confirm it's not the speaker? If it's not the speaker, then it's either the cable that goes to the speaker, or the output of the radio.

Are they aftermarket speakers? If so, you're probably using a metra adapter? Try swapping the adapters. That's what fixed my issue with the passenger front. Tried a new adapter and it worked.

 

[ChasUGC]

It can only be two things. Either it is the wire coming from the radio or the radio itself. The way to check it is to bypass the harness and connect new right front speaker wire to the radio and the speaker. If it still doesn't work, it is the radio. If it works, it is the speaker wire. It is best to list the Wrangler year, and whether this is a stock radio or aftermarket. But, the steps to determine the issue will be the same. Also, if you have the radio balanced fully to the left, you won't get right speaker sound. Polarity really won't have anything to do with the sound itself, just the quality of the sound.

 

[DuckNut]

This is just a shot in the dark, but are you sure that the speaker is grounded? Maybe test with a second ground wire from the speaker terminal to a good ground.

Speakers do not require grounding.

 

[DuckNut]

Incorrect polarity won't cause no sound, but it will cause poor sound.

But what doesn't make sense is that you hooked up a different speaker and got the same result. Here is what baffles me, you tested for power and got power. Power from the stereo results in sound and would rule out bad wire and the stereo is good.

Only thing I can think of is maybe you tested it incorrectly.

 

[ChasUGC]

Incorrect polarity won't cause no sound, but it will cause poor sound.

But what doesn't make sense is that you hooked up a different speaker and got the same result. Here is what baffles me, you tested for power and got power. Power from the stereo results in sound and would rule out bad wire and the stereo is good.

Only thing I can think of is maybe you tested it incorrectly.

Good point. I would switch the speakers. If you get sound from the right speaker after switching them, then the problem is the right speaker. If you still don't get sound, then I would default to my earlier troubleshooting recommendations. If the radio has a female harness then connect the wires directly to the harness through the holes. A diagram from the harness should tell you what connections are for the power and what connections are for the speakers. If you don't have the harness diagram, then a Wrangler Factory Service Manual, will show the radio diagram. If the radio harness has male connections, then you could probably use butt connectors and crimp the wire side, using red butt connectors. If red is too small, use blue butt connectors. It is a fairly simple troubleshooting step.

 

[mudmaster]

I had a loose wire in the factory plug. I replaced the plug to fix the issue since it wouldn't stay tight.

 

[wilson234]

Appreciate all the suggesions. I definitely ruled out the new speaker being the issue, as I plugged it in to the left side and got sound. Just as confused about getting voltage on the speaker wire when stereo is on, meaning it's not likely a wire or connection issue. Nonetheless will pull the factory head unit (2005 LJ) and see what I uncover.

I installed 4 Kicker 5.25 CS speakers, after installing 2 Kicker CS 6.5 in another vehicle and impressed with their performance. I will say the performance with the OEM stereo was just ok, not as good as I was expecting, even on just 3 speakers working. This might lead me to get a new headunit if I can't figure out why the one speaker is not working. The other car is running an aftermarket headunit rated at 45x4 RMS, I gather from searching here on the forum the stock jeep headunit is single digit RMS. While I like the look of the OEM unit, would it be worth running an aftermarket amp or just scrap it and get an aftermarket headunit? I run a bluetooth FM modulator so I have modern connectivity with the OEM unit.

 

[CharlesHS]

When I purchase my '01 the passenger rear speaker was not working.
I swapped speakers and the same problem.
Tested the wiring and found voltage, but also found the negative wire at the radio harness connector was loose in the pin out terminal.
Disassembled the connector, stripped the wire, reattached the wire and terminal and installed into the harness connector.
This resolved the problem and that speaker has worked properly since then.

 

[wilson234]

Very cool, good to know, hoping this is my situation, give me a few weeks to handle task at hand and will report back. Looking at compact amps that can fit behind the glovebox area to give the OEM unit some more power! Thanks everyone!

 

[DuckNut]

Very cool, good to know, hoping this is my situation, give me a few weeks to handle task at hand and will report back. Looking at compact amps that can fit behind the glovebox area to give the OEM unit some more power! Thanks everyone!

If the old one was working when you took it out, the new one should work. However, since you were playing with wires it would appear something came loose during the process.

I don't think you have anything major. But tracking down electrical issues somehow always becomes major time consuming issues.

 

[ChasUGC]

Very cool, good to know, hoping this is my situation, give me a few weeks to handle task at hand and will report back. Looking at compact amps that can fit behind the glovebox area to give the OEM unit some more power! Thanks everyone!

I would start by upgrading the OEM head unit after you seem to have already upgraded the speakers. A 20 plus year old radio might be your problem and they are so outdated. Amping a stock radio with 10% THD isn't really going to improve the sound. In fact, adding an amp to a lousy OEM head unit is just going to give you worse sound by increasing the distortion. Phone connectivity, GPS, Bluetooth, and hands free technology available today will greatly increase your driving experience. Many Head Units today even provide built-in amps.

 

[KennethS]

I would start by upgrading the OEM head unit after you seem to have already upgraded the speakers. A 20 plus year old radio might be your problem and they are so outdated.

Very true. I was amazed at how many more features the new aftermarket radio had - and with all those additional features, it was much lighter than the one itr replaced (which was a lot lighter than the factory radio). In the past, I had concerns about the radio making rattling noises due to all that weight bouncing around, and tried to adapt the factory rear brace to the replacement radio. With the new radio that was so light, my concern evaporated and I didn't need that rear brace.

 

[ChasUGC]

Very true. I was amazed at how many more features the new aftermarket radio had - and with all those additional features, it was much lighter than the one itr replaced (which was a lot lighter than the factory radio). In the past, I had concerns about the radio making rattling noises due to all that weight bouncing around, and tried to adapt the factory rear brace to the replacement radio. With the new radio that was so light, my concern evaporated and I didn't need that rear brace.

You should always put in that rear brace. All the weight on the front plastic bezel could damage it, and maybe snap it. They are very costly to replace. A universal back strap is easy to install on any radio. If you hit a lot of bumps, the radio could get damaged too, flexing in the front that way. It can also help with electrical static noise and humming to ground the radio. Plus, the radio is much more secure with the rear brace as it is normally metal connected to metal, and provides a proper return path for current which might eliminate radio malfunctions. It is always a good idea to ground the radio chassis for these reasons. Google, "is it good to ground the car radio chassis"

 

[wilson234]

ok the saga continues, got a new Alpine stereo to replace the factory unit. Came with a harness to plug into the factory connector. Wired up everything, Crutchfield provides a clear instructions on wires to connect, pretty much no brainer, all the wires in the harness match the colors of the Alpine harness. Put it all together and everything works, on, off, bluetooth etc. but no sound. No FM radio sound, no bluetooth sound, can see the songs playing with song timer and FM radio has the name of the station and song details etc., but no sound, nothing.

My 2005 TJ has no subwoofer. The harness adaptor that plugs into the factory harness had one blue wire, which I connected to the Alpine blue white stripe wire, per the instructions from Crutchfield (amp ready). The only wire that was left behind was a solid blue wire from the Alpine harness for a power antenna, which i didn't connect to anything.

I even got another radio sent as I tried to trouble shoot with Crutchfield and they were thinking it was a bad unit. New unit same issue.

I did find some youtube videos with people having the same issue, due to the need to send positive power to factory amp before the stereo signal would work, all fixes indicated connecting the blue wire to the red wire. The fix was to connect the blue wire from the factory harness to the red ignition + wire to activate the factory amp.

I did this and still no sound. I don't have a factory subwoofer, is there another amp possibly? This can't be this hard!! Anyone else have this mysterious no sound issue when trying to install a new radio?

 

[wilson234]

Figured it out with the help of Crutchfield, kudos for their awesome customer support. It ended up being faulty OEM wires for the passenger front speaker (i.e. the speaker that wasn't working with the OEM head unit). Snipped the signal wires for that speaker leaving the new headunit and presto sound is back.

I guess the newer head units are smart enough to know if there's a short (that's what I think I have) it will not power up any of the speakers. Totally random issue, but figured it might save someone from hours of agony!

 

[ChasUGC]

No headaches here. I had mine done by a professional. My stereo specifically says to be installed by a professional. After the amp and under the steering wheel install, I like the added insurance and expert support too. No mickey mouse and hack jobs in my Jeep.

 

[Jeme]

What ended up being the correct wire to connect to to activate the factory amp/sub? Please and thanks!

 

[ChasUGC]

What ended up being the correct wire to connect to to activate the factory amp/sub? Please and thanks!

Why not just take it to a professional and ask him how much to connect your sub? Then, if he is good and the price reasonable, you could have all your upgrades done by him with no worry on your part. This is what I did. A good installer will insure all his own work for life. And, if you have problems, he is expert support. Granted, it took years for me to get to this point, in my search, and in my own ego driven mind. Sometimes, you have to pick your fights, and sometimes you have to choose the expert, and not worry about the fight. Sure, you might be able to figure it out and fight with it, and risk messing everything up, but why not just pay a expert and let him do it, without the fight. Save yourself the aggravation and gain an expert ally. He has also suggested awesome upgrades like 255 color underglow lights and he did a complete 255 color LED interior light change. In two years, I've had no problems with any of his work. Not only did he install my stereo with the Alpine 4.1 system, mounted under the dash, and tuned to perfection, he installed front and back recording cameras, interior microphone, back up camera, rock lights, and installed the switches for everything in one location. No matter how much I hacked, I could never do it like that. And, the frustration is completely gone, as well as the hacking disaster. This is how a professional installer can take care of your entertainment system and electrical upgrades. He owns a Jeep Wrangler too as his daily driver. So, he knows what sets Jeeps apart from the rest of the crowd. Even if your installer isn't a Jeep Wrangler owner, he could be a Wrangler fan or enthusiast. Think about talking to a professional installer or a few, until you find the right one.