Questionhello, I have a 2001 Monte Carlo SS which I replaced the factory head unit w a Kenwood excelon, and also replaced all the factory speaker (which were totally fried).
I used the wiring harness/adapter GMOS-04 (from Crutchfield0, in order to maintain all the factory chimes and warnings etc.
there are were no Bose markings anywhere in this car, but it does have a factory Amp under the rear deck.
After carefully following all directions for wiring, and harness installation, the new stereo works, the chimes work, and the system sounds pretty good.... except the right front speaker doesn't work. I tried the following:
1. -- switched the speaker in question to the other side to see if it worked -- and it did.
2. -- switched the outputs in the back of the head unit, r --> l, and L -- R the left speaker came one, and the right did not.
3. hooked up a different speaker, that went elsewhere in the car and it did not work.
I called Crutchfield, who'd been extremely helpful, but they were unable to tell me anything except that the amp might be bad? what's your thoughts on that, and where would I get a replacement factory amp in a 10yr old car? how would I test the current amp to make sure that it's actually the problem? and what else could be causing this problem?
thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.
AnswerHi Don,
There's a few things that can be your issue. Start with the cheapest ones first.
It could simply be the wiring going from the deck to the amp or from the amp to the speaker.
To test this, you'll need to match the colours going from the speaker to the amplifier for the right front. Once you've isolated them, strip a little bit of the shielding off of the two wires at the amp, attach some speaker wire to them, and connect that wire to a speaker. If you get sound, you know it's the wiring somewhere. If you don't, then you know it's the wiring going from the deck to the amp or the amp itself. Tape where you stripped off with electrical tape and make sure the bare wires don't touch.
Testing the wire going from the deck to the amp is a little tougher because it's probably just going into a harness on the factory amp, so you can't (easily) test it.
For this, I would suggest stripping back a little wire at the amplifier like you did before to test the speaker wire, and use a multimeter set to resistance (ohms) to check the impedance across the wire. The reading should be 1ohm or less on both wires (one will be the outside part of the rca that goes into the deck, and the other will be the centre part of the plug.) If either of them read greater than ~1 ohm, then it's the wiring you need to replace.
It is entirely possible it's your amp, but amps don't usually just go out one channel at a time -- of course it's possible, just not as common.
And for finding a replacement amp, I'd suggest eBay and a wrecking yard.
Good luck,
Justin.
