Muffled sound from speakers

[az3579]

So on Sunday, I decided to pull my driver's side door panel and see why my mirrors wouldn't work. Fiddle around a bit, and then eventually reconnected everything (correctly) and reattached the door panel.

On the drive home (was at a friend's place), I noticed my sound from the speakers was off. It sounded a bit muted. I adjusted the treble and went on my way. It still sounded weird... it was mostly muted sounding on the front, though the rears were ever so slightly off. This happens with or without the HK mode turned on.

Today, I was with my friend, and the music was playing. I dropped him off, and when he opened his door, the sound quality was restored! This is the passenger door, which I didn't touch whatsoever. We tested it by numerously turning off the car and starting it again. Every time the car was restarted, the sound was muffled when the radio was turned on, but the second we opened the passenger door, the sound quality came back.


Has anyone ever heard of such a weird phenomenon?

[billschusteriv]

Does the sound quality diminish when you close the door?

[Johnmadd]

You must have gotten a grounding problem somehow, take the panel back off and make sure everything is tight an nothing is interfering with the speaker or wiring to it. Not much more advice I can think being possible here.

[az3579]

Does the sound quality diminish when you close the door?

No, but it does go back to being crap once the car is turned off and restarted.

You must have gotten a grounding problem somehow, take the panel back off and make sure everything is tight an nothing is interfering with the speaker or wiring to it. Not much more advice I can think being possible here.

Despite me not having touched that door panel? I'll try it, though I don't think I'll find anything. If anything, maybe the driver's side; I guess we'll find out.

[danewilson77]

He means the door panel you did touch.

[Oli77]

Yep, putting money on the driver's side connections. A pinched wire touching the ground somewhere?

[billschusteriv]

You only touched the drivers side door and the passenger side speaker isn't working properly? Any insight on the drivers side speaker? How does that sound? Normal?

Our stereo system uses ground wires - which is a little different from other car manufacturers... so if you bumped wires on the drivers side speaker, it is "theoretically" possible that it affected the passenger side. I don't honestly know, I still haven't done anything with my stereo/speakers and haven't taken the time to learn more about the system.

I can look later in the Bentley Publishers manual... that's where I'd start. They have some good wiring diagrams...

[az3579]

You only touched the drivers side door and the passenger side speaker isn't working properly? Any insight on the drivers side speaker? How does that sound? Normal?

Both sides sound bad.
Will investigate sometime this week. Didn't know it could affect both sides. One day after work...

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[billschusteriv]

Both sides sound bad.
Will investigate sometime this week. Didn't know it could affect both sides. One day after work...

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Don't sweat it BP... from time to time we all learn a little something here about something.

I didn't know that it could be different until I started poking around e30 forums awhile ago. Very different from my old Chevy.

Hope you can find the loose connection/connector/ground wire easily. Let us know if you can't find anything or need some help troubleshooting based on what we can find in the Bentley.

[az3579]

Don't sweat it BP... from time to time we all learn a little something here about something.

I didn't know that it could be different until I started poking around e30 forums awhile ago. Very different from my old Chevy.

Hope you can find the loose connection/connector/ground wire easily. Let us know if you can't find anything or need some help troubleshooting based on what we can find in the Bentley.

The weird thing is that nothing was loose when I was putting it back together. I made darn sure that all the connections were tight before put that panel back into place. I can't, however, promise there isn't some exposed/crimped wiring that I didn't see.

This morning, I started the car, and the sound was fine, oddly enough. Later in the day, it went back to being muffled, or at least it sounded like it.
I wonder what tomorrow brings.