Dead Speaker Help

[Jamil]

Hey guys,

I finally noticed yesterday that there is nothing coming out of my front right speaker. Every other speaker in the car works, both rears are ok, the door tweaters are both fine too. It's just the front right. I took the speaker out today and everything looks like it's connected so I'm not sure why it's dead.

Please help! Thanks.

[Teaguer]

Check the fluid level .

[Jamil]

Check the fluid level .

Wow, you must really crack yourself up.


Anyone with real advice, would be appreciated. Btw I forgot to mention it's an '88 with the premium package if it makes any difference.

[Teaguer]

Wow, you must really crack yourself up.
Anyone with real advice, would be appreciated.

Well whats to know , really ?

Sounds like its blown and needs to be replaced .
Try swapping in a known good speaker like the one from the pass side and see if it plays .

If it does then its the speaker obviously , if not then run a continuity check on the speaker leads back to the deck .


Better ?

[Jamil]

Much better, thank you. I actually hope it's just the speaker and not some electrical issue.

[netcsk]

I would assume it's your amplifier being shot. A speaker just doesn't "blow" and stop working. Most of the time, for a speaker to flat out stop working it has to go through hell and fire and sound like crap before it happens. Most likely, its the channel on your amplifier gone bad.
If you have access to a test cd (with a tone on it) you can hook the leads up and check for AC voltage while you're playing a sine wave. You can do this on the deck, amplifier, speaker leads and wiring to isolate the problem.

[StereoInstaller1]

Hey, Canuck...do it the easy way. Pull it out and grab a known good speaker and test it, you should know in seconds.

[Jamil]

I'll try the other speaker first. I hope it's the speaker but I have a feeling it's not.

If that fails I'll start checking the wiring. Thank you again.

[Dave]

If its the stock premium amp and you need one, PM me, I have one available for fairly cheap.

[Jamil]

I ran a connectivity test and the wiring is ok. To be sure I swapped the speaker and sound came out so I have a dead speaker. For my own education and anyone else who doesn't know, can you please explain why the stock speaker has 3 wires connecting to it and what each one is. I've labelled the connectors. Thanks again.

[Jamil]

What I got so far: connector 1 goes to the tweeter. The capacitor at the top removes bass from the signal before it gets to the tweeter. Connector 2 is the signal coming from the amp. Connector 3, maybe ground?

Let me know if I'm on the right track.

[StereoInstaller1]

OK, so from the angle you posted, I cannot quite tell which is which, but the terminal that has both the cap and the coil attached is "input positive" from the amp...looks like #2 from here.

That would mean #1 is the output to tweeter positive, and #3 is definitely ground.

See how the cap and the coil attach at one point, but the coils output is on the other side of the speaker, where the actual speaker terminals actually are?


Goofy IMO, but BMW never called me to ask.

Luke

[Jamil]

I did also try checking the resistance with a multimeter across the positive and negative terminals (2 & 3) and I got no reading. I'm sourcing a used one now.

Thanks again, I have a better understanding of how the speakers work now.

[StereoInstaller1]

Jamil, check for continuity across "3" and "4", you should see 4 ohms or so. Those are the actual speaker leads...see how the leads actually go into the voice coil?

[Jamil]

Hey Luke, tried it, I'm getting no resistance.