Hey All.

I have a 99 Dakota, 3.9L 4wd automatic. From the factory, it just had the basic Dodge AM/FM/Cassette Stereo in it, nothing fancy and not the Infinity system or anything like that. I installed an aftermarket Sony CD deck in it, and it worked flawlessly for 3 years.

About two months ago, 3 of my 4 speakers stopped working. I am only getting sound out of the passenger rear speaker. I swapped in the stock radio to see if it was the aftermarket head unit, and the same issue. I borrowed the radio from another buddy's Dodge, and same issue, just getting sound from the one speaker.

In the 3 years the Sony head unit was in there I didn't change anything, it never came out, I never added an amp or sub, etc. I'm just running the stock speakers. I'm wondering if anyone has any clue what is causing my problem? Did all 3 speakers just die at the same time? Is there a fuse or amp I don't know about? Is it a ground issue? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated because it is truly annoying to be able to hear my music through just ONE speaker.

 

pop your passenger side kick panel off. If you have the infinity system, that's where the amp would be. If I go over 40/50 on my HU, I'll start get a clicking noise out of the speakers from the amp going into protect mode.

 

Get some speaker wire and run it directly from the radio (or any radio), to the speakers. You will have to pull the door panels off to get to the speakers. This way, you will know if the problem is with the speakers or somewhere in between. If the speakers work, think about just running wires directly to them.

 

It is not uncommon for 3 speakers to go bad at the same time, especially 15 year old factory speakers. You can remove the door panel or rear panel and disconnect the speaker wire at the speaker itself and connect a known good speaker. If the test speaker works then you know you have a bad speaker and the radio and wiring is OK. You can also test the suspected bad speaker with an ohm meter or connect it temporarily to a different stereo and see if it plays. Chances are pretty good the 3 speakers that do not work are probably bad. The good news is you can get new speakers at pretty good prices nowadays and it is not hard at all to install the new ones.

Jimmy

 

Your truck is saying "OK with these stock POS speakers, it's time to step your game up and get some REAL ones!" *grins*

If you ask 20 people which speakers are the best ones to get, you'll probably get at least 100 different answers, so I'll just suggest finding what size speakers you have, locate some new ones that'll bolt in, and go from there.

While speakers are out, that'd be a good time to put some sound deadening such as the name brand Dynamat or some Fatmat or something similar to help dampen vibration and road noise.

That's not necessary, now, but it's a great time to do it.

RwP

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was hoping it was just some fluke that I didn't know about, but I guess I will start the diagnostic process and then subsequent speaker hunt my next day off work.