Still won't work without matching.

 

Replace them with anything but the stock POS base speakers. Sure, moisture contributes to their demise, but they are self-destruct mechanisms. The coil leads rub and short and arc when played even a little loud, and quickly burn through the leads to an open, and I’m sure it would happen even if bone dry. Even the crappiest automotive speaker should tolerate a little moisture.

But also follow the advice give elsewhere to minimize the moisture problem.

 

Get polypropylene cones, not paper.

 

I know this is an old thread, but I had the same problem with an HHR that I recently purchased. None of my door speakers would work, only had sound from the tweeters in the A-pillars. I pulled off the door panel and checked the ohms on the speaker (un-pluged the connector of course). It was open. I expected to see around 8ohms (as printed on the back of the factory speaker). That told me the speaker was no good, but to test if the radio worked I got an old speaker I had laying around (a known good one) and connected it. BAM, I had sound. A quick trip to wal-M*** for a set of Pioneer TS-600M. They came with mounting brackets that fit the cutout in the door perfectly. The only problem I had was how to know what was positive and negative on the OEM wires (the speaker terminals are not labeled "+" or "-" and the speaker was shot). Here is a diagram.

Good luck with yours.

 

The polarity won’t matter as long as they’re all the same, so keep track of how each wire was connected. Well, unless you really care about matching the polarity on the A-pillar tweeters, probably not much of a difference, but you could just connect the new ones the same as the old, on the assumption that the polarity is the same. All the speakers I’ve seen have a narrow and a wide blade, and the polarity is standardized, but I don’t remember which is which.

My adaptors came with pigtails with connectors that could just be plugged in to the car’s connectors. Don’t use those. The old connectors are probably corroded. Just cut them off and solder in new leads.

If your really ambitious, run new speaker wires all the way to the radio. The OEM wires are little skinny in my estimation. I’ve never done this, but thinking about it.

 

I know the polarity doesn't mater as long as you are consistent. The problem is with the factory connector, is that you can't tell what is + or -. Thats why I posted the diagram.

Normally on aftermarket speakers, the Narrow blade is Negative.

Thanks

 

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Appreciate the diagram. Might get to use it. What year is it from? Or is it the same for every year? And thanks for narrow/neg info.

My point was, if you don’t have the diagram it’s no big deal. All the connectors are (likely) the same and even if they weren’t you could trace them back to the speakers for the sake of consistency. In my case it took very little effort, and although it was probably already correct, I could have checked the polarity to assure consistency with the A-pillar tweeters but I didn’t care that much.

 

I think that is from an 08. But they all are the same.

 

2006 model year
The "A" side of the speakers is the negative (-)
The "B" side is the positive (+)

 

I read all of the posts about the speakers not working, I first thought it was the radio itself, being that the air conditioning vents are right above the radio and when there is condensation on the vents it might drip into the radio, so I bought a new radio, after I installed it and paid dealership to program it to my car, I still have the same problem, only one tweeter speaker is working! I checked the rear door speaker on driver side looks brand new, my hhr panel wagon only has 70,000 miles, so I then checked the passenger side front speaker, it too looks brand new, no corrosion or any signs of damage or deterioration whatsoever, next I’m going to check the driver side front door but Im just curious how it could be a problem with the speakers???
please any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Need to add that this is my second hhr panel wagon and my first hhr panel wagon had the same problem, both of them are 2011
at first the speakers would not work when I first got in the car but they would come back on when they wanted to, then not work the next time I got in the car and would come back on at some point, that’s why I thought it was condensation dripping from the air vents.
This hhr doesn’t have an amplifier