DNick454
10+ year member
Honda + Subs = Rattles :(
So I was installing a system for yet another friend of mine (I need to stop doing it for free //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif) and he's got a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am (gay *** monsoon system).
He wanted for me to install a new headunit that he bought and an amp + subs he had laying around. I agreed so we went to the car audio store and started shopping.
Picked up a generic amp wiring kit, some nicer speaker wire, and a dash-install kit for a single DIN receiver. After that I asked for the wiring harness for that car and he said he had two different kinds. He had one that was just a regular plug and some wires which cost 10 bucks and the "deluxe" version which had these two modules attached to it and a bunch of extra shit and he wanted 70 bucks for it. Upon asking what was different, he said the 70 dollar one had a little computer in the little black box thing and that it kept the factory door chimes because GM uses the factory radio/speakers for the door-open sound with the keys in. That harness also is set so that the radio will play for like an hour or so after the keys are taken out unless the battery voltage drops too low so incase you get out of the car and a buddy stays in and wants to listen to some tunes (I couldn't care less about this feature) but my buddy wanted to get the nice one so that it would retain all "factory" features
Long story short, we finally get the dash apart, splice the wires together from the radio to the harness and plug the harness into the factory plug. Big surprise... it doesn't work. Radio won't turn on or anything and the little computer module isn't lighting up. We take it back and swap it out for the $10 one and of course there's a "restocking" fee for tearing the bag open:furious:
We take the new much more simple harness and plug it in and plug the radio into it. Sweet... it still doesn't work. I figure it's the power or the radio, so I just twist the red and yellow wires together to make sure the radio is getting those 12V and it's not the 12V switched that is the problem. The radio turned on but no sound. Anyways, after using my multimeter and poking around I noticed a bunch of issues. So I pulled out the harness and compared which is when I noticed something pretty stupid... the wires don't even match up in both plugs! The factory harness had wires going into specific pins and the harness we bought was all out of order. The only ones that matched were the 12V constant and ground (hence why the radio turned on when I combined yellow + red).
A bunch of swearing and smacking the dash later... I decided to remove each and every wire + pin from the harness we bought and match it to the factory harness (yes this took a long *** time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif) Anyways, it actually worked, radio turned on and we were getting sound (found out that the car had a factory amplifier and needed a 12V remote turn on). The problem is, the right front speaker is really quiet.
My first instinct was to check the wiring again. Nope same slots with + and - matched, not switched. The right front DOES play, it's just significantly quieter than the others. It's almost as if it isn't going through the amplifier. So I tested it. I turned the radio up and all speakers were playing loud except the right front. I then disconnected the remote turn on for the amp, all 4 speakers shut off entirely, so it IS going through the amp.
Here lies my problem, why is that speaker so quiet???
Anyone with expertise in this car specifically or any other GM vehicle with factory monsoon system or whatever the hell it is, please help. It would be greatly appreciated. I'm out of ideas.
He wanted for me to install a new headunit that he bought and an amp + subs he had laying around. I agreed so we went to the car audio store and started shopping.
Picked up a generic amp wiring kit, some nicer speaker wire, and a dash-install kit for a single DIN receiver. After that I asked for the wiring harness for that car and he said he had two different kinds. He had one that was just a regular plug and some wires which cost 10 bucks and the "deluxe" version which had these two modules attached to it and a bunch of extra shit and he wanted 70 bucks for it. Upon asking what was different, he said the 70 dollar one had a little computer in the little black box thing and that it kept the factory door chimes because GM uses the factory radio/speakers for the door-open sound with the keys in. That harness also is set so that the radio will play for like an hour or so after the keys are taken out unless the battery voltage drops too low so incase you get out of the car and a buddy stays in and wants to listen to some tunes (I couldn't care less about this feature) but my buddy wanted to get the nice one so that it would retain all "factory" features
Long story short, we finally get the dash apart, splice the wires together from the radio to the harness and plug the harness into the factory plug. Big surprise... it doesn't work. Radio won't turn on or anything and the little computer module isn't lighting up. We take it back and swap it out for the $10 one and of course there's a "restocking" fee for tearing the bag open:furious:
We take the new much more simple harness and plug it in and plug the radio into it. Sweet... it still doesn't work. I figure it's the power or the radio, so I just twist the red and yellow wires together to make sure the radio is getting those 12V and it's not the 12V switched that is the problem. The radio turned on but no sound. Anyways, after using my multimeter and poking around I noticed a bunch of issues. So I pulled out the harness and compared which is when I noticed something pretty stupid... the wires don't even match up in both plugs! The factory harness had wires going into specific pins and the harness we bought was all out of order. The only ones that matched were the 12V constant and ground (hence why the radio turned on when I combined yellow + red).
A bunch of swearing and smacking the dash later... I decided to remove each and every wire + pin from the harness we bought and match it to the factory harness (yes this took a long *** time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif) Anyways, it actually worked, radio turned on and we were getting sound (found out that the car had a factory amplifier and needed a 12V remote turn on). The problem is, the right front speaker is really quiet.
My first instinct was to check the wiring again. Nope same slots with + and - matched, not switched. The right front DOES play, it's just significantly quieter than the others. It's almost as if it isn't going through the amplifier. So I tested it. I turned the radio up and all speakers were playing loud except the right front. I then disconnected the remote turn on for the amp, all 4 speakers shut off entirely, so it IS going through the amp.
Here lies my problem, why is that speaker so quiet???
Anyone with expertise in this car specifically or any other GM vehicle with factory monsoon system or whatever the hell it is, please help. It would be greatly appreciated. I'm out of ideas.
