Sound System works when it wants too!
 

Hey guys, I have a 2006 Chevy HHR LT with both Onstar and the pioneer sound system upgrade, my radio itself is the 6 disk MP3 player with aux out output and XM radio.

My problem is this, when I was driving to work last night out of nowhere my front speakers went out and I only had sound coming from the rear speakers and my subwoofer and it stayed like when I parked my car. When I went out to my car for my break, all of my speakers were working again. I would like to add that when this was going on, I could hear static in the speakers from time to time however I do no know which speaker was making the noise. After about 2-3 mins of me playing my music all of my speakers stopped working. I still had full function of my radio controls but I just didnt have sound coming out of any of my speakers. I also checked to see if my warning chimes would make any noise and it did not make any sounds. When I went out to go home, I speakers had heavy static but was playing my music, however about 2 mins into the trip, my speakers stopped working again. When I got home, I turned off the car and took the keys out of the ignition and turned on my headlights, I still didn't hear the warning chime HOWEVER I started to bang on the door panel were the speaker was located and the chime would sound. I did this a few times and with every hit, the speaker would go off and on.

A little more background, before this start to happen, I would sometimes get static in my speakers (once again, cant tell you if it was one speaker or all of the speakers doing this). Also, sometimes when I start the car, there would be a pop in the speakers OR a sound that you would normally hear when you unplug your iPod from a home sound system with the sound system still on (if you guys know what I am talking about).

I have searched the internet and have found a number of people with somewhat the same problems but non of them had my exact problem. I'm thinking its the driver side speaker however do our cars have a failsafe build in to them that if one speaker is bad, all of the other speakers will shut down? Or is all of my speakers bad due to some type of surge that went into the system?

Sorry for any typos, I am on my Ipad and had a longish day at work.

The only speaker on my car that works 100% of the time is the Drivers side. The other 3 have been gone for a while. Rather annoying listening to things in Mono, if you will....

Am planning on getting a new H/U and Pioneer speakers put in at some point in the future.

I took my car to the dealership. They said that the amp is blown on it and I need a new one. Dealer cost for it is $260..... I found one on ebay for $75 with a 6 month warranty.

The "pop" you experienced is probably from the amp. GM did have some problems with this in the early models. I had it and in to the dealer about 3 times.....only because it was intermittent.....and they were not able to locate. The radio finally started to play/not play and they determined the amp was the problem. Installed a new amp (maybe entire radio,,,,but I was told an amp). Everything has been fine for 8 years.

Your intermittent speakers could be the amp, but sounds more like a connection problem. Since you pounded on the dash and had some success, I would think this is the problem. Not sure how the speakers are connected to the head unit....it could be associated.

I pounded on the drivers side door, not the dash. The dealership ran a test and told me that the amp is bad. I've had cars with upgraded sound systems, this is my 1st time having to deal with this. However, with 260K miles on her, part of the system had to go at some point lol.

I got the amp in the mail and had the dealership install it. Everything was fine until I got out to the main road and the front speakers went out on me again. I turned back around, came back to the dealership and when I opened up my driver side door, the front speakers turned back on (of course). My service writer came out to my car and as we were talking about it she had to get inside my car to move it out of the way. Lucky for me, when she put the car in drive, the front speakers went out again. She then went back to the guy that worked on the car and the tech told her that since I bought a used amp, I may have gotten a bad amp.

I'm starting to think that the tech is wrong about this one, although my amp was used, the person that I bought (car part co) it from tested it out and insured that it worked. Plus I find it hard to believe that I now have two broken amps causing the same problems.

I feel that they are just throwing parts at my car on my dime (which I told her that I WILL NOT be doing) and that this is going to end badly. I hope..... I really hope that I just have a bad amp.

Any thoughts?

I'm thinking wire harness and connectors, in the door and then up to the head unit need to be verified to be good and tight. these cars seem to have a water issue that can take out a speaker which can pop the amp! so if the connectors have been loose and water has gotten to them in the door, then that may have shorted out the amp.
You mentioned you banged on the door and the speakers quit, so vibration from the door banging would point to the connectors in the door and even the speakers themselves.

That was my thought, however the dealership wont do anything unless I bring them another amp to make sure that the amp isn't the problem.

My car will be down for another week sigh.....

Why are you paying dealership to do this stuff? You do know that anybody that knows how to use a screwdriver can do it. right?

I wasn't sure what was the problem. I normally go to a non dealership repair shop but due to it being apart of the sound system, I thought that it would be better for the dealership to handle it. :skull1: