Car Stereos: Speakers Arent Working, chevy malibu, internal amplifier

Question
Hi,
I have a 2002 Chevy Malibu with a JVC deck and aftermarket speakers. I've had them in for almost a year now and just this week they cut out when I started my car. When I turn my car on there is a pop sound like power is getting to the speakers and I know the deck is working, because my subwoofers are still working. One day it did work for about 2 minutes then it cut out again. Any advise?

Answer
Hi Brandon,

Can you tell if the pop is coming from any particular speaker, or from all of them at once?

From the sound of it, you have a speaker wire that's being shorted to chassis ground.  A short one one speaker can kill the sound to all the speakers, as the deck's internal amplifier shuts down for protection.  If the pop is coming from one particular speaker, then that's a clue where the problem may lie.  

I've seen this condition in a Malibu once, and it was related to the rear speakers.  As I recall, the factory speaker wires in the rear of the Malibu are located above the rear deck, but they have to be routed to the bottom of the rear deck to connect to the speaker terminals.  In the case I saw, the wires were pinched between the edge of the speaker opening and the speaker basket.  Eventually the metal edge wore through the wire insulation, creating a short circuit.  

I'd inspect the wiring from the inside of the trunk; see if the rear speaker wires are pinched against metal.  If you don't see anything obvious, the next step is to use a multimeter to test each of the speaker wires behind the deck for continuity with chassis ground.

Hope this helps!

Brian