Confused (again) please help Radio/speaker problem don't know what I did

[pablopicasso46]

I'm a new member of the Forum.. so hello to all...I met Jim, Yun and David of the Wazoo's a couple of weeks ago and spent time with them at Jim's garage, fixing a few things on my new (have had it about a month) ' 92 (#501) ... btw, I am working on that artcicle for you Dave.

Anyway.I've been working on my "master plan" on what I want to ,and can fix on my car ,and was thinking about the radio today, which I didn't think was working all that great...as far as I can tell, the only speaker that is working is ..or rather was woeking is the one one the front left.. at least that's the only place I could hear sound coming from.. but I can't figure out where the front speakers actually are? There is no grill or anything..., so is it behind the carpet , down near the floor in front on the sill cover? .. without any kind of faceplate?? That's where it seems the sound was coming from, but as I said I was only hearing it from the driver;s side ..not the passangr side at all, and not the back at all. so I figure I need to fix or replace the other 3 speakers?..

What has me confused right now though is I tried to peel back the carpet onthe side a little bit , where it seemed to be overlayed over the carpet that covers the flor and under the dash , to see if I could see the speaker in there and suddenly that one stopped working too, and the radio and the ac/heat controls started flickering ..so what could I have done to cause that and how do I fix it??

Any ideas?

[Paul Workman]

I'm a new member of the Forum.. so hello to all...I met Jim, Yun and David of the Wazoo's a couple of weeks ago and spent time with them at Jim's garage, fixing a few things on my new (have had it about a month) ' 92 (#501) ... btw, I am working on that artcicle for you Dave.

Anyway.I've been working on my "master plan" on what I want to ,and can fix on my car ,and was thinking about the radio today, which I didn't think was working all that great...as far as I can tell, the only speaker that is working is ..or rather was woeking is the one one the front left.. at least that's the only place I could hear sound coming from.. but I can't figure out where the front speakers actually are? There is no grill or anything..., so is it behind the carpet , down near the floor in front on the sill cover? .. without any kind of faceplate?? That's where it seems the sound was coming from, but as I said I was only hearing it from the driver;s side ..not the passangr side at all, and not the back at all. so I figure I need to fix or replace the other 3 speakers?..

What has me confused right now though is I tried to peel back the carpet onthe side a little bit , where it seemed to be overlayed over the carpet that covers the flor and under the dash , to see if I could see the speaker in there and suddenly that one stopped working too, and the radio and the ac/heat controls started flickering ..so what could I have done to cause that and how do I fix it??

Any ideas?

Stop right there! It is always a good idea to remove the (negative) terminal from the battery before doing any electrical stuff.

The speakers are under blisters attached by screws on the inside of the sill cover - just behind your heel - and can only be accessed by removing the sill cover.

That footwell area is the ingress/egress area for most of the wiring of the car. Lots of connections there, and the last thing you want to do is go on a hide and seek mission...with the battery connected.

First step in troubleshooting 'lectric chit'...as you well know, apparently...is visual inspection. Chances are you only disturbed a connection that may have been damaged and waiting for just such a moment to be known. You'll now need to remove the carpeted hush pannel and support section to inspect all the wiring there for loose connectors and or broken wires. And, the fuse panel, accessed with the passenger side door, may have a fuse (or two) blown. Do you have a FSM yet? If not, you'll want to put that on your list of accessories!

My suggestion would be to send up a distress flare to the WAZOO tribe. Armed with the FSM and their experience with the Z, you'll be in good hands.

JMO. Good luck. Keep us updated.

P.

[pablopicasso46]

Stop right there! It is always a good idea to remove the (negative) terminal from the battery before doing any electrical stuff.

The speakers are under blisters attached by screws on the inside of the sill cover - just behind your heel - and can only be accessed by removing the sill cover.

That footwell area is the ingress/egress area for most of the wiring of the car. Lots of connections there, and the last thing you want to do is go on a hide and seek mission...with the battery connected.

First step in troubleshooting 'lectric chit'...as you well know, apparently...is visual inspection. Chances are you only disturbed a connection that may have been damaged and waiting for just such a moment to be known. You'll now need to remove the carpeted hush pannel and support section to inspect all the wiring there for loose connectors and or broken wires. And, the fuse panel, accessed with the passenger side door, may have a fuse (or two) blown. Do you have a FSM yet? If not, you'll want to put that on your list of accessories!

My suggestion would be to send up a distress flare to the WAZOO tribe. Armed with the FSM and their experience with the Z, you'll be in good hands.

JMO. Good luck. Keep us updated.

P.

Hi Paul

I'm Paul too.. and thanks for responding.

Il earned all about disconnecting the neg terminal when I was removing the door panel and blew the courtesy light fuse when removing the screw behind the courtesy light ,which also turned off the radio and ac module untl I replaced the fuse....but I wasn;t trying to do anything with "lectic chit" at the time this happened..or at least I didn;t think I was ..all I did was peel back a little of the carpet that covers the sill were it overlaps the carpet that covers the rest of the floor to try and see if the speaker was indeed behind there, ..but apparently I did disturb something electrical..becasue the speaker stoped working and the radio and ac unit come on, but the displays flicker.. Interestingly though the, the courtesy lights still come on this time , so it's not the fuse I blew out the last time..

Are you saying I should remove the sill cover and the sill corpet to expose te speaker and see if I diconnected or broke a wire there, or remove that carpeted piece under the dash/steering wheel? (I wasn;t anywhere near that)

[secondchance]

Paul,

If I remember correct there are 3 philips head screws on the outside face of door sill that holds the sill in place. Also, you need to remove a verical plastic piece on the rear of the door opening to slip the sill off.
I will take a look at your radio/speakers when we get together next time.

[gbrtng]

Your speaker amplifiers have failed. There is one at each speaker location, 4 total.

Send to http://www.doctordons.com/ for repair - he used to charge $75 each to rebuild them.

[Paul Workman]

Hi Paul

Are you saying I should remove the sill cover and the sill corpet to expose te speaker and see if I diconnected or broke a wire there, or remove that carpeted piece under the dash/steering wheel? (I wasn;t anywhere near that)

To get to the speaker, the door sill piece has to come out.

Pretty easy, actually, and the carpet is glued to the sill. There is a row consisting of a couple or so philips head screws along the outside side of the sill - about an inch or two along and above the lower edge of the sill. Recalling from memory (always dangerous) one end is retained under the the B pillar molding - about the height of the door latch, and the other end is anchored near the upper door hinge. There is also a screw or two on top of the sill, and some real sticky chit that you'll have to overcome - just be careful not to break the plastic sill piece itself (rather thin, and a bit brittle, no doubt).

If you need to get into the wiring in the footwell, the hush panel is at your knees. There are two screws on the left side (accessible only with the door open), three screws along the bottom forward most edge, two screw at either end, just below the fold where it tucks back toward the footwell.

The metal support piece is anchored by two bolts on the left side, and two more on the far right edge of the panel.

Hope this helps.

P.

[WB9MCW]

Welcome to the Zoo (our forum) pablopicasso46.

Good luck with the tunes project.

[LGAFF]

Our cars have radios?

[mike100]

Our cars have radios?

it amazes me how much people will tolerate. Just so long as one speaker amp still works, I guess it is still ok?

The sticker shock on those amps is enough to make most people forget about it, but you can still get some newer used ones out of Infiniti I30's/ nissan maximas in the junkyard for peanuts. Pretty much tuned for similar front/rear speaker sizes. I have successfully repaired a couple, but grabbing much newer units from the junk nissans was just too easy.

[secondchance]

it amazes me how much people will tolerate. Just so long as one speaker amp still works, I guess it is still ok?

The sticker shock on those amps is enough to make most people forget about it, but you can still get some newer used ones out of Infiniti I30's/ nissan maximas in the junkyard for peanuts. Pretty much tuned for similar front/rear speaker sizes. I have successfully repaired a couple, but grabbing much newer units from the junk nissans was just too easy.

What year Infiniti and Maxima models had Bose amp that will work in our cars?

[mike100]

What year Infiniti and Maxima models had Bose amp that will work in our cars?

I looked it up- seems they are in the 96-99 model years. old enough to find in junkyards, but newer than the ones in our vettes.

[secondchance]

I looked it up- seems they are in the 96-99 model years. old enough to find in junkyards, but newer than the ones in our vettes.

Does connector needs to be replaced to work with our C4?

[tomcat]

What year Infiniti and Maxima models had Bose amp that will work in our cars?

I use to own a 1994 Infiniti Q45T, after I had my Bose Amps fixed I later found out that the same AMp's were in 1994-1996 Infiniti Q45's

Manfred E...........:proud:
91 ZR1 #906

[mike100]

Does connector needs to be replaced to work with our C4?

They plug right in. different p/n's than the C4 application, but the front/rear speaker size and bass/treble tuning was close enough for gov't work, especially after having one of my repaired units run for 3 month and then go tits up. After awhile, you just want to put anything in place to keep from having to pull the covers off.

[secondchance]

They plug right in. different p/n's than the C4 application, but the front/rear speaker size and bass/treble tuning was close enough for gov't work, especially after having one of my repaired units run for 3 month and then go tits up. After awhile, you just want to put anything in place to keep from having to pull the covers off.

Thanks for the info. I found a set and bought it off ebay - w/ all WAZOO cars around I am surethey will come in handy.

[ZZZZZR1]

I use to own a 1994 Infiniti Q45T, after I had my Bose Amps fixed I later found out that the same AMp's were in 1994-1996 Infiniti Q45's

Manfred E...........:proud:
91 ZR1 #906

I used to own an 1992 Infiniti Q45 and loved it!!! (another 32valve beast)

:cheers:

David

[WB9MCW]

"I used to own an 1992 Infiniti Q45 and loved it!!! (another 32valve beast)"

I remember going up against those back in the day with my Blue Oval 89 SC T-Bird
(Side note: This is the ride I had when ZR-1Pete "the Greek" had a sleeper Camaro - in the 90's when we used to bench race at the Gyro Stand in Wheeling, IL)

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p110/HAMMERHATE/1989FORDTHUNDERBIRDSC1.jpg

Too bad I did not own the ZR-1 then it would have been fun to wax the Q45 and leave them wondering what just happened. With only the V6 SC engine in the bird it was a good race with the 45. Do not see many Q45's on the road much these days.

[RHanselman]

Your speaker amplifiers have failed. There is one at each speaker location, 4 total.

Send to http://www.doctordons.com/ for repair - he used to charge $75 each to rebuild them.

He's up to $85 per AMP and gives a lifetime warrantee...

How much for the eBay items?

Cheers,
RH

[pablopicasso46]

Ok, so I figured out thatthe reason everything was flickring was thatthe battery was going dead form pplaying with everything. When I jkjump started the car everything was working right agin... Even had sound coming form all 4 speakrs mmentarily, but really weak form all but the fornt let.. Pulled them all and tried thefront left one in each location, and it worked there too albiet with some static,, so I guess the amps on theother 3 or shot.... I should probably get all 4 fixed, or else the one that is working will probably sound bad compared the the other 3 ,and saw in the audio section that 3 places re recommeneded.. bose, dr don;s and fcsc ..Anyone have personal experience with any of them?

Also. on my front right one the flange on the encolsure where the screws go is cracked, so if anyone has rf enclosure they are looking to get rid of let me know.I suppose I could also glue a pice of plastic onto mine to repair is since it's unseen anyway if I can;t find on.

Thanks