Hello all...

I have a Chevrolet S-10 pickup with a four speaker audio system. The
speakers are factory installed Delco units, but the head unit is a Pioneer
cassette player. This truck and the speakers aren't terribly old...it's a
2003 model year truck.

What happens is very strange--and happens regularly, especially when the
weather is cold, some of the speakers appear to become open circuits. They
will not produce audio and tests with an ohmmeter show them to have infinite
resistance. But...if I turn the radio way up loud, the speakers will
suddenly start to work. Checking after doing so reveals that the resistance
of the speakers has dropped to about 4 ohms or so.

I know the head unit is working properly and all the wiring connections to
the speakers are good. But what would cause speakers to open up like this
and then start working again when the amplifier is turned up loud? I plan to
replace the speakers with new ones...

William

William R. Walsh wrote:
Hello all...

I have a Chevrolet S-10 pickup with a four speaker audio system. The
speakers are factory installed Delco units, but the head unit is a Pioneer
cassette player. This truck and the speakers aren't terribly old...it's a
2003 model year truck.

What happens is very strange--and happens regularly, especially when the
weather is cold, some of the speakers appear to become open circuits. They
will not produce audio and tests with an ohmmeter show them to have infinite
resistance. But...if I turn the radio way up loud, the speakers will
suddenly start to work. Checking after doing so reveals that the resistance
of the speakers has dropped to about 4 ohms or so.

I know the head unit is working properly and all the wiring connections to
the speakers are good. But what would cause speakers to open up like this
and then start working again when the amplifier is turned up loud? I plan to
replace the speakers with new ones...

William


Bad connection where the wire connects to the cone.
Sometimes the flexible wire itself fractures.
More often the connection between the voice coil and the
flexible wire at the cone is bad. Sometimes, you can heat
the connection to burn off the insulation and make the
connection work again.

--
Return address is VALID!

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:05:45 GMT, "William R. Walsh"
m wrote:

Hello all...


I know the head unit is working properly

How have you determined this?

and all the wiring connections to
the speakers are good.

And *HOW* have you determined this also?

But what would cause speakers to open up like this
and then start working again when the amplifier is turned up loud? I plan to
replace the speakers with new ones...


Let us know what happens...

William


My money is on connectors either at the head unit, the speakers, or
inline somewhere.

Hi!

How have you determined this?
And *HOW* have you determined this also?

Simple...two things. One of the speakers did this for a while with the
factory head unit in place. The cutting in and out got worse, and then the
speaker died completely. This one was replaced under warranty and hasn't
given any subsequent trouble.

Secondly, I hooked up a known good pair of speakers recently, drove around
for a few days with them and they did not miss a beat. I would use them, but
they are not the right fit.

I did not run my own wiring--the factory wiring has been used with an
adapter to let it connect to the head unit. The speaker wiring has not been
altered (other than my running short alligator clip jumpers to the known
good speakers mentioned above) and is completely original.

I do have a pretty good track record when it comes to installing this stuff.
The majority of the vehicles I've installed audio systems into came from the
factory with no radio, or a radio that only had one speaker, which meant I
had to run the wires for everything else. And those systems have worked
flawlessly. :-)

William