Crutchfield is pretty good because they give you the speaker mounts to fit the doors. They are not the cheapest but you can't really go wrong with them.

 

I had both rear speakers go bad and then the driver side front died.

Normally I wouldn't buy the OEM speakers, but GM sent me an E-mail that said I could use up to $100 of my GM Card earnings for parts or service at a dealership. Since I won't be buying a new car soon I won't need the earnings. For the $100 I got the three speakers and only had to pay 47 cents extra!

I checked the speakers and it looks like all three have a break in the wiring on the speaker coil (showed high resistance across the terminals).

Steve

 

Fried Voice Coils...

 

Live in the desert of Arizona, drive in the desert of Arizona, park in the desert of Arizona. ALWAYS have the radio on, when car is in use. NEVER had any speaker problems in my .06, HHR. In fact, can't think of ANY vehicle that I had speaker problems with......sans, a '79 El Camino that I did a total customize including a custom Bose installation.

JMO

Blacknight....how does one "fry" the voice coils??

 

Interesting Snoopy. You are in a low humidity area, I'm in a very high humidity area w/ those 100 degree summers. Maybe my experience with blown speakers could also be related to humidity.(lived here 50+ years)

 

Don't know "fireman". It is interesting. That's why I was wondering about the "fry the coil" statement.

Can someone provide to much volume and 'blow out" the speakers (heard that term)?

If someone is doing electrical work on the vehicle can they provide a "short" to cause such problems?

Or the opposite.....to much voltage, amperage, watts?

On some occasions I DO play my radios very loud....all the windows down, sunroof open (the upgraded Pioneer). Even in the Vette when I take the top off (yesterday and today for instance)

When it comes to vehicle radios, etc., I'm basically a plug and play guy. Buy it as an entire kit and then install, or have someone do it for me. The Bose, mentioned above, for instance, I purchased the entire system from a GM employee auction (when they did such things) for about $30.00. It was complete from a Cadillac, I believe.......6 speakers and the head unit. I had to extend the wires to reach the areas of mounting, but it came with the connectors intact with about 3-4 inches of wiring to each (cut out of a proto car). I had a little help from a friend that was the Manager of the local Delco radio program at my facility.

 

Fried voice coils happen usually because there are too many highs in our stock OEM speakers and because of this it overheats the voice coil and then "burns out". Sometimes too much bass in a cheap OEM speaker destroys the recoiling material and the voice coil becomes misaligned and short against the outer magnet. If you press the speaker cone down on one of those you will hear the scraping & feel the voice coil touching the magnet. I went to Grumman Data Tech eons ago and there is a better explanation but this was the easiest. Below is just a quick goggled picture of a speaker in action.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/speaker5.htm

Mike

 

Thanks for that, BlackknighT

 

I just replaced my speakers in my 2006, they were all working but the sound was too muddy for me so out they went. What I noticed in particular as opposed to other cars I have changed speakers on was that there seemed to be a lot of moisture on the speakers themselves and it hasn't rained here in a couple of days and actually the car hadn't been driven for three days and was sitting in the garage the whole time so I was surprised at this. Also, looking at where the two power leads go into the speaker, the metal was starting to corrode, it was only a matter of time before they all went out. I almost think investing in marine grade speakers may have been the way to go due to these findings.By the way, the 4 Kenwood speakers I put in sound great and the music is much more detailed now.

 

sooooo...I decided to check my speakers after reading this (and having a 2006 1LT) and sure enough...passenger rear speaker is dead. I'm gonna check it out and see. If it "shorts out" is it a gonner?