Speakers randomly go in and out, in groups
 

In my 2008 LS, the sound seemed to be getting crummy. I'm no audiophile so no biggie - I did nothing but start to pay attention. One day all the sound disappeared except from those teensy front door pillar tweeters. Using the balance and fade controls to verify, any of the four main speakers seem to come and go randomly, but sometimes in groups, it seems, which makes me question the obvious suspects, damaged wires or loose connectors, and wondered if there could be something funky with the radio itself, but (1) I understand the pillar tweeter and front door speaker are on the same channel fed by the same pair and (2) I understand there are some connections in the stock speakers that are notorious for coming loose. (For now I'll assume a bunch of loose connections.)

MY QUESTIONS:

(1) I figure if I'm going to open things up I might as well plan on putting some decent speakers in there but I've hear there are funny "teardrop" mounts in the doors. What do I need to buy and what are the issues?

(2) I have what seems to be a nice used circa 2008 Pioneer unit (radio/CD/video/GPS) with Chevy/GM pickup adapter module. Wonder if I should dive into that? Maybe for another thread, though?

Your four speakers are kaput! Most likely from water damage or just age, have a look at this link


https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/audi...d-radio-53944/


Look at post 17 for speaker adapters , speakers and post 18 for wire harness adapters

As for the Pioneer you should be able to adapt it to the HHR but the truck brackets may not work

You will lose all the chimes if you replace the stock stereo. You can get a gizmo to replace the chimes if you want to though.

When I had the Clarion in my HHR for a while the stereo worked fine but the wife really missed the chimes. I can see her side of it tho, I mean how would she ever know she needed to get more gas if the warning chime did not go off when the low fuel light comes on,...

Thanks for the great tips!

The Pioneer AVIC-F700BT was pulled working from a GM vehicle (presumably the owner sold the car and hoped to reuse it or sell separately) and everything's there, clean and neatly packaged,including the interface to keep the chimes/turn signals and Onstar which the car doesn't have anyway, so I'm optimistic and I'll seek advice on a separate post with all the details.

Either way, first order of business - I'll plan on four new speakers; maybe I can find some that are a little more weather resistant.

Or just install those speaker shrouds to keep them dry, like these

in my 08 HHR I had a similar issue, but in all my years of messing with car audio, I've never seen all 4 door speakers die at the same time, mine did, I was convinced it had to be the head unit so I replaced it but still no sound except from the tweeters mounted in the pillars, I did a similar speaker hack as in the link I posted below

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/audi...ck-pics-49867/

by the way, those speakers in that post are from Scosche (<--spelling) and sold at wally world, same as I used in my HHR :) those actually sound better, look better, and are built better than the Pioneers in my truck and the Kenwoods in my sons truck