Buzzy/staticy car speaker

[ChadTower]

I have one speaker in my car that's all buzzy... not all the time, but any time it tries to pull any real amps.  It's a 6x9 regular car style speaker, decent but nothing that would be under powered.  Head unit is a recent Blaupunkt, can't recall the model #, but it plays mp3 to give an idea of age. 

When I installed it a few years ago I didn't know how to solder, so I had just twisted the pairs and covered them with electrical tape.  I just uncovered them all and gave them clean solder connections, no difference.

The wire connections on the speaker are clean solder joints.

I'm pretty sure it's not the speaker, but just in case, I do have a couple other spares I can swap in to be sure.  I'll try that over the weekend. 

If it's not the speaker, and we can assume it's not where I had to splice the car system to head unit harness, what else could I try?  The pins in each end of the harness for that speaker look reasonable, not burned or bent or anything.

The only other two things I could think of would be that the head unit developed a problem on that line or maybe somehow the speaker wire has developed a short between the car end of the harness and the speaker... does that actually happen?

[psik0tik]

It can be a few things...it can be a short from stereo to speaker or it could be a channel on your stereo going bad. I would deff try to swap the speaker first it may just be a dying coil in the speaker also if you have an amp try a diff set of rca cables on it.

[ChadTower]

No amp on this one, just straight head to speaker.  The other rear 6x9 works just fine, same setup.  How would a short develop from stereo to speaker?  A pinched wire somehow?

[psik0tik]

More like vibrations in daily driving rubbing a wire against the body somewhere till the insulation wore off..it's happened to me before.

[ChadTower]

Good thought.  If swapping the speaker doesn't do it, I'll trace the wire.  I have no idea what route it's taking.  It's a Civic, if that helps.

[psik0tik]

along the bottom near the floor pull the carpet back and look under the plastic molding on the bottom..check for the short near the door.

[lanman31337]

Try a better ground from you head unit to chassis - this should clear up your problem.

[ChadTower]

Thanks... tomorrow, I'm going to hook up a different speaker directly in the harness, see if it still buzzes.  That should test the head unit... and then if it passes, I can run a new line from there to the existing speaker, which should see if the problem goes away without that potential short.

A better ground... would that affect only one of four speakers?

[ChadTower]

If it helps, I cut that speaker connection at the speaker this morning... on the way in to work, I cranked it the whole time and all three other speakers sounded strong and clear.

[psik0tik]

then it's more than likely the speaker...a ground wouldn't make just one speaker buzz

[ChadTower]

A short in the line out to that speaker would, though, yes?

[boykster]

A short in the line out to that speaker would, though, yes?

Yes.

My initial diagnostic tree would be:

1) check speaker for fault:  swap a different speaker in with same wiring and amp
---> No buzz? you found it, most likely the speaker
---> Buzz? keep going

2) check the wiring / amp:  get a short length of speaker wire and connect it directly to the headunit for that channel.
----> No buzz? the speaker wire has developed a short somewhere
----> Buzz? it's most likely the amp channel (even head units have amps, their just internal), keep going to verify

3) check the amp channel:  hook the original speaker wire to a different channel, and put buzzy speaker back on it.  ie if right rear buzzes, hook that wire up to left rear on the head unit.

I'd put my money on the wiring.  Its pretty easy for the vibrations in a car to cause shorts. 

[shardian]

Your speaker is bad. You pinheads tend to complicate things, don't you? It's like you want to go to town with your multimeter.

Swap the two 6x9's and see what happens. Look for cracks in the speaker cone. If these are the trunk mounted ones, it probably got poked with something in your trunk. My mother in law has a Camry and she has poked several speakers.

[ChadTower]

My mother in law has a Camry and she has poked several speakers.

So she is that old chick who hangs outside the convention hall in an old Camry.

[shardian]

My mother in law has a Camry and she has poked several speakers.

So she is that old chick who hangs outside the convention hall in an old Camry.