Passenger-side Speakers Cutting Out

[contouraround]

I bought my '99 Contour used in Oct. 2009, it had 47K miles on it, got it at a great price and it was instantly a great car.

The only problem was that the passenger-side speakers would occasionally go out. I thought it was the AM/FM Radio w/cassette and bought a new one that was also Ford (I have tons of cassettes going back years and years so I didn't want to lose access to my collection when I traveled).

I kept the old one for a back-up, and the new radio worked for a while - but then the passenger-side started going out again.

Gradually I noticed the pattern - if I turned the volume way up after a short, turned the radio on and off, or ejected/inserted a cassette often the passenger side would "pop" back on.. Also opening and shutting the passenger-side door would help..

If I went around a curve it would short out, and sometimes over a bump. Extremes of heat, cold and rain also would make the passenger-side short out.

I had tried getting it fixed on maintenance visits to the Ford dealership - but of course each and every time it was working FINE around the time I brought it in. If I had them take a look at it they would write "Could not duplicate customer's description" on the receipt.

One time it actually "popped" back on, during the drive to the dealership leading me to believe that the car was haunted!

Finally I lost the passenger-side completely and after a few weeks I brought the Contour into a car-stereo shop. They said that the back-passenger-side speaker was completely shorted out and dead - I had not heard that because i was never a passenger in the car and I never had more than a friend or two in the car.

They replaced that speaker and everything worked fine... for a few months. Then it started again. I brought the car into a higher-end car-stereo place and the mechanic took a good look at it..

He said that it was likely that there was a short in the back speaker wires, and that was affecting the whole system - so he disconnected the back speakers, double-checked the wiring behind the radio to make sure it was plugged in properly.. He didn't go into the door panels at the speakers because that would greatly increase the cost.

I didn't mind losing the back because I usually had the Fade balanced toward the front anyway. The speakers worked fine and when the passenger-side occasionally shorted out it would pop back on right away if I played with the volume.

Things were fine for a year or so - but on a long drive recently the right side shorted out and did not come back.

I have a portable cassette player that takes 4 "C" batteries so I've been using that and it's fine - not the best sound of course but the tension from never knowing when the thing would short out is gone! I just didn't want to spend a few hundred dollars on new speakers and a new cassette player/radio (Pep Boys sells one) if the same problem kept coming back.

And of course if the cassette player ever dies there's hundreds of cassette players listed on eBay, some New-In-Box, that I could get as a replacement.

I'm thinking of just getting rechargeable batteries and a charger and calling it a day.. Radio Shack sells DC power cords - but they only go down to 9V, my player and most players use 6V.. I've also seen DC to AC converters where I could just plug in the AC adapter - except that they have fans, seem to use a lot of battery power, would result in a tangle of cords in my car, pose a fire hazard, etc...

I read up a bit on what exactly goes on behind the radio and it seems there's a Ford amplifier behind the radio - so the problem might be there. Also the door-speaker wires pass through or at the hinge - so maybe the wire is worn out there.. How exactly do the wires reach the speakers?

My feeling is that the problem is in the wiring - is it possible to get all the wiring replaced, or would this be a fortune for a mechanic to replace all the wiring.

In the meantime - I'm fine with the cassette player, I rarely listened to the radio except for traffic reports - and actually now there's Google Traffic which is on-demand (not waiting for "traffic on the one's) ....

But I would eventually like to get the sound fixed, even if it's just the front speakers - in case I ever want to sell / trade in the car....

....or not have my friends laugh at me when we ride around listening to music on a taxi-yellow Sony Sports cassette player from 1980. :crazy:

 

[jrichardson]

I would say the problem is in the wiring. A job like that isn't gonna be too bad, bit it won't be cheap. Depends on if the repair guy removes the old stuff or not. That would require loom dismantlement. If your willing to put the time in its not that hard to run new wiring to the doors, you just need to be able to solder and fish wire through tight spaces.

 

[bigboyricky93]

^^ +1 this is what I did when I had this problem. I pulled and cut the old wires in the glove box and ran them under the trim thru the original wire ports and into the door panels. I left the original wiring intact so as to save time and effort because they are all hidden anyway. I used larger sized wire with better insulation so they would not weather as much as some of that smaller stuff. one trick I used to help save time is I broke open a very thin coat hanger and pushed it through the small wire holes and when it came thru, I bent the new wire around the hanger wire and hooked and electrical taped it well so it wouldn't snag. Then I pulled it back thru. It takes a bit of time and effort but much cheaper than going to an audio guy.

**** just make sure you get the +/- sides of the wires consistent to all the speakers so that they aren't out of phase. if they are you will lose a lot of the hard hitting sounds as the waves cancel each other out.

 

[jrichardson]

And I do stress soldering if you do the job yourself. Crimp connectors work fine but they can come apart over time. Soldering guns are cheap.