Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Speakers "buzzing" after removing head unit

I installed a set of 10" Polk subwoofers and an MTX Thunder 152 amp recently. Trying to save money on a "professional" install, a buddy of mine and I installed the subs and amp ourselves with no problem. We performed a trial run to make sure everything worked and it did, flawlessly. We then cleaned up, pushed the head unit back in, put all the panels back in place, turned the car on and .... a horrible buzzing noise came out of all four speakers, but the subs played fine. I have had to physically disconnect the Metra wiring harness which goes from the head unit to another grey connector which I presume goes to each of the four speakers?

The buzzing is NOT coming from the sub shaking the speakers. If I crank my head unit up very loud I can faintly hear music, but it is nearly completely covered up by the incessant buzzing noise coming from the speakers. My worry is that in pulling out and pushing back in the head unit several times, I may have severed a wire somewhere and created an additional ground loop which is causing the noise. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can check or do, or should I just fork over the cash and take it to a local HiFi Buys or Circuit City and have them fix it? Is it possible that all four speakers will need rewiring? Or should I just cut the harness out completely and try to splice the wires directly from the head unit to each individual speaker and test it that way?

I have a 1998 Contour SE without the "premium sound" badge on any of the door panels.

Is the sound only, when the engine is on?

Or the buzzing sounds always

When the head unit it on, the buzzing sound is always there, regardless of whether the engine is running or not.

Are you sure that the buzzing noise is coming from the speaker and not something that may be loose in the doors? I installed four speakers recently and after everything was all cleaned up i turned it on and the plastic speaker adapters were loose and rattling. I guess its hard to help if you can't actually hear the noise..im sure its not a rattling but more of a buzzing noise.

Check that the buzzing isn't from a fault in the head unit---get a cheap speaker (even a PC speaker or one out of a busted clock radio or something) and hook it directly to one of the speaker outputs of the head unit. If that buzzes, it's probably something in the head unit.

Also, make sure that you didn't cross any of the speaker wires, as in left front negative got connected to the same speaker as right rear positive.

I'm guessing that when the door panels were reinstalled that something either was put back on and left loose, or that the panels may even interfere with the operation of the speakers. Take the door panels back off and try it again. It may be just as simple as loose panels on the car. HTH.