Touring Speakers/Sub issue

[WBAD530i]

looked around and didn't find a clear resolution, but I think my Nokia sub is the root cause here.

Car has been down for months, battery unplugged and recently plugged back in to get it running again. Have also not properly secured the sub in its place with the bolt on the housing when driving it a couple times. Since then my speakers on passenger side don't work at all. The rear hatch speakers sound like they are working. I get sound on the drivers side, but its terrible quality. Also have DSP/Business CD, and I can cycle through the different DSP options, but it makes no difference to the sound quality.

I had a DSP amp go out in an older car which resulted in no sound at all. I just want to confirm if this issue is my sub based on others experience.

Is it possible to open up the sub and do any DIY soldering repairs to restore functionality, or do these generally just die completely. Car has 110k, and everything worked fine when I first got the car at 105k but its been through hell with failing auto trans and manual swap over the past year.

Also did the coding myself for the swap, and wondering if theres anyway that could have bricked it. Went through all the modules after changing ZCS, but wondering if theres one I can focus on and try to recode to see if it helps. Only thing that was modified was disabling the clutch interlock for starting the car.

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

If you *must* keep the OEM audio system and thus all the modules/speakers/amp/monitor etc, then you'll need to keep each module working. Currently it sounds as though your DSP amp is failing/failed, so I'd say replace with a known working one which is the same type/revision number to the one you have and test. You can open up the "subwoofer" enclosure and change out to another driver to see if that's the cause or part of the problem. You could also check each of the DSP speakers and replace where required as they'll be past their best at 16 to 23 years old. There's a couple places that repair DSP amps now, but not in the USA as far as I know, one being in Europe and the other in Australia.

'Might' be a coding issue but I doubt it.

Personally, I'd say to remove the old OEM modules and put in a modern head unit and setup so that you have all the latest features and functionality and significantly improved audio performance and sound quality too. If you sell the car, just put the oem stuff back in and let the next owner decide on spending on it or putting in their own aftermarket setup.

If you decide to stick with oem, I have a spare oem 'sub' driver knocking around here somewhere, it was working when removed some years back.

Cheers, Dennis!

[geargrinder]

Unsurprisingly I'll concur with Dennis.

First about the factory sub. No, there's zero way the sub bouncing around would affect the other channels. It's driven from 2 channels directly out of the DSP amp, has 4 wires going to it, if bouncing around took the sub channels out that'd be a wiring thing to look at sure but there's zero way it could take out something else. I mean you could suppose that it could yank on its cables and maybe disturb the rest of the connectors on the DSP, however, those wires run all around underneath the cargo floor and around to the DSP and are strapped in and from pure friction there's no way in heck that sub could pull any significant tension all the way back to the DSP...

So... While I'll second the vote that the DSP amp pooping the boudoir is the most likely scenario, you could check these things just for the heck of it:
- Remove examine and reseat all DSP amp connectors.
- Do same for HU (not the MID, the HU - the part behind the hidey-door)

Just doing that will cut power to the DSP so if its gotten logically hung up somehow maybe that could help (but again, not optimistic).

To get really gnarly on the test you could pull the connectors from the DSP, find the Front Right and Front Left pairs that come to the rear from the HU, then temporarily connect them each directly to some speakers (any kind of rattling around the house unpowered speakers would be fine - I have a few little bookshelf jobbers I use for testing) and see if you get good left/right sound from the head unit. If that works, then you know its the DSP that's pooched it.

Re: coding... well... shift interlock (EWS) wasn't the only thing changed, you also would have had to code the cluster, but, either way that still should be immaterial to the DSP.
There aren't a lot of coding options for the radio or the DSP units but you could always scan them and see what turns up however I really doubt its related there.

[WBAD530i]

Unsurprisingly I'll concur with Dennis.

First about the factory sub. No, there's zero way the sub bouncing around would affect the other channels. It's driven from 2 channels directly out of the DSP amp, has 4 wires going to it, if bouncing around took the sub channels out that'd be a wiring thing to look at sure but there's zero way it could take out something else. I mean you could suppose that it could yank on its cables and maybe disturb the rest of the connectors on the DSP, however, those wires run all around underneath the cargo floor and around to the DSP and are strapped in and from pure friction there's no way in heck that sub could pull any significant tension all the way back to the DSP...

So... While I'll second the vote that the DSP amp pooping the boudoir is the most likely scenario, you could check these things just for the heck of it:
- Remove examine and reseat all DSP amp connectors.
- Do same for HU (not the MID, the HU - the part behind the hidey-door)

Just doing that will cut power to the DSP so if its gotten logically hung up somehow maybe that could help (but again, not optimistic).

To get really gnarly on the test you could pull the connectors from the DSP, find the Front Right and Front Left pairs that come to the rear from the HU, then temporarily connect them each directly to some speakers (any kind of rattling around the house unpowered speakers would be fine - I have a few little bookshelf jobbers I use for testing) and see if you get good left/right sound from the head unit. If that works, then you know its the DSP that's pooched it.

Re: coding... well... shift interlock (EWS) wasn't the only thing changed, you also would have had to code the cluster, but, either way that still should be immaterial to the DSP.
There aren't a lot of coding options for the radio or the DSP units but you could always scan them and see what turns up however I really doubt its related there.

Thanks for this, I forgot about checking the connection to the HU. It is actually throwing a CD error everytime I cycle through to the CD option and it doesnt accept a CD at all. Though even with this error the passenger speakers/DSP worked fine prior to garaging for an extended period. Right next to the DSP amp is where I found a mice nest so...yeah, may be chewed wires that send the signal to passenger side. I have also noticed my DSP options will intermittently become unusable. It still shows the last setting it was in (concert), but pushing DSP button doesnt do anything. Restart the car and then DSP button works, but this makes no change to the lack of sound on passenger side as well as no sound quality improvement from different DSP options.

Im not really in the market to upgrade at this time, but would like to at some point. I just want the factory system to work for now.

[geargrinder]

DSP worked fine prior to garaging for an extended period. Right next to the DSP amp is where I found a mice nest so...

LOL. Dude, clearly look no further.

We have a winner. Or loser really (your DSP wires!).

I'll eat my hat if there's not a chomped up set of wires someplace in there.

(Luckily I have a hat made out of meat, so that won't be particularly unpleasant)