Front Door Speaker Headache

[pshrop]

The speaker in my driver door is out. Was thinking it was blown, so bought an OEM replacement off Amazon, installed it last night and that one doesn’t work either. Is the next step to take out the console and check the amp? Are there any other quick checks I can do first? I hear getting to the amp is a pretty big project and don’t want to do it if there’s something else I should try first.

If the amp is the next step, I’m thinking I will tie it in with carpet replacement and driver seat leather/foam replacement. Hopefully I can find someone that can handle all those projects as I’m not sure I want to take them on myself. I just replaced the head unit with a Kenwood DNX994S (actually I’m waiting for a replacement after the first had issues). Between swapping that and the door speaker out, I’m feeling a little car repair fatigue.

2013 Denali with Bose and 125k miles

 

[Joseph Garcia]

If you had an industry standard connection wiring setup, you could reverse the front left and front right pre-amp RCA plug wires coming off the head unit/pre-amp, before the amp. If your driver passenger door speaker started to play, and your passenger door speaker became the dead speaker, then you would know that the power amp is most likely good, and that your problem is either in the head unit/pre-amp itself, or in the wiring between the head unit/pre-amp and the power amp. You should be able to remove the head unit/pre-amp from the dashboard without too much issue.

However, I believe that the Bose unit does not use industry standard connection wires, but instead uses proprietary multi-pin connectors. As such it would be more challenging to use the test method above, unless you were able to get a hold of a wiring and pin connector wiring diagram and some jumper test wires.

Since I am not a fan of the Bose audio system (it is a great system, but just not for my listening preferences), I removed the entire Bose system and replaced it with a system more to my liking, and using industry standard connection wires. Clearly, this is a much more involved project than simply replacing the head unit/pre-amp.

Hopefully, some folks on this forum who have solid expertise in Bose audio systems can provide you with some additional perspective and troubleshooting recommendations.

 

[pshrop]

CarToys finally got this figured out. Apparently there was a bad wire between the driver woofer and tweeter. It took a little extra time to diagnose b/c the assumption was it was module related b/c it was the driver door. I learned there is a module between the amp and the speakers that inserts the door chime. Sound was coming in/out of that fine, which is what led them to the bad wire. I now have an extra OEM front door woofer in case anyone is in need.

Also, I find it extremely odd that we had to flip the front/rear speaker connectors on my new Kenwood HU to make it work. If I hooked the greens/purples (rear) on the HU to greens/purples on the Maestro HRN-RR-GM2 wiring harness and the same for whites/blacks (front), I couldn’t get more than a faint whisper out of the right side of my car. Once I switched them so that greens/purples were paired with whites/blacks, all the speakers worked and the fade/balance is correct. This make sense to anyone? Certainly not to me or CarToys. Not sure if it matters, but I have the “premium” Bose system, which I think uses the amp for fade and maybe balance controls?

 

[Joseph Garcia]

I'm glad to read that you have the system running, and now can enjoy the sound.