The driver's door speaker on my 2003 Cavalier is inop. Otherwise, this base AM/FM Stereo CD radio seems fine, all the other features work and there's no distortion or loss of sound on the other 3 speakers. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Play with the balance and fader controls. If no go, remove door panel and check wiring to speaker. If it is OK, replace speaker. Keep in mind, the wires pass through the door inside of a plastic protector. A lot of times these wires break from the stress of the door opening and closing. Ring wires out with a multimeter, visual tests aren't always good because the insulation stays intact, but the strands break inside.

Steve

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Thanks Steve. I just bought this car, but from the wear and tear on the driver's door -- the loose sounding clunk when you close the door -- I'd bet it's a broken electrical connection somewhere. Maybe even a wire broke off from the speaker. I don't want to rack up a repair bill if it's an easy fix. I can get a multimeter, shouldn't be tough to figure that out. But if I find a dead wire coming into the door, any advice on where and how to splice it? Are these wires soudered onto the speaker or is there a slide-on type connector? Thanks again Steve. Mark

Hi Mark. If everything is factory, chances are they are soldered. You can pick up a cheap soldering iron at Home Depot for $15. When you get a multimeter, make sure it has the continuity beeper. That makes life a lot easier.

I would start at pulling the driver's side door panel. Then there are only 4 screws that hold the speaker in. Pull the speaker, and now you have one end of the wires in your hand. Now for the hard part, getting to the connector at the back of the radio. Look up under the dash to see if it's accessible from underneath. If not, you will need to remove the radio from the dash. Unplug the connector and now you have the other end of the wire. At this point, it is easy to ring out the wires to check them. If the wire checks out no good, leave the meter connected to both ends as you wiggle and bend the plastic protector. If the beeper starts to intermittently beep, the wire is broken inside and needs to be replaced. Desolder it from the speaker. Tie a new piece of 18 guage wire tightly to the end of the bad wire. Pull the bad wire from the inside of the car and as the old one comes out, you are pulling a new one in. Find an accessible place under the dash and cut the old wire and solder the new wire. Make sure you slide a piece of shrink wrap tubing over the new wire before you connect them so you can get a nice weatherproof and insulated solder joint when you are done.

Steve

Steve's right about the wiring in the driver's door jam. It's tricky to get in there and try to test another speaker with jumper wire and keep pos and neg which should be marked on the speaker. Driver's door almost always get used and abused the most, T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
http://www.acsource.com/

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http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/

Looks like I lucked out! The door panel came off easy, the wire connectors for the power mirrors, door lock and window unsnapped with no fuss, and the speaker came off without a hitch. I didn't even break any plastic parts! When I checked the leads to the speaker, the multimeter showed 5 ohms. So the speaker must be bad. After work on Tuesday I'm swapping both factory front speakers for a pair of $100 Pioneer TS-A4670Rs recommended by the car stereo guy at the electronics store. That's a little more than I wanted to spend, but maybe the results I get will make it worth it. Anyway guys, thanks for your help!

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i'd stick with pioneer through out. they are some good speakers when used with an aftermarket radio. also prefreable pioneer. but that would be your call cuz that can get alittle expensive there now them ones you put in the front should be 5 1/4's i belive and they are some good speakers. your distortion might be comming from your radio. i'd check that out too.