Hi all,
I have a 2012 Camaro with a very unique and frustrating audio problem and came here for some help, but please bear with me it may be a little long…
I first changed out my stock amp to a PPI 900.4 using a harness made by a small company called subthump. This allowed me to Plug N Play into the stock amp harness and have the necessary outputs to hook up the new amp without cutting wires. I also required a LOC for my RCA cables. I retained the stock HU and speakers at this time, and the only speakers in the setup were two front 6.5 w/tweeters and two rear 6x9. This worked fine with no issues for 3 years. Last February I decided to disconnect my rear speakers and bridge the channel on the amp and add a 10” sub. Shortly after this is when I started noticing problems.
In about May of last year my driver’s side (stock) speaker began to exhibit some odd symptoms. It would crackle a lot (like a loose connection), it would completely stop working momentarily, cut in and out if I hit bumps, and if I turned the radio off entirely you could hear engine whine through the speakers. Actually at first as the car warmed up and I drove longer, the problem would dissipate. After 1-2 months symptoms got worse and the speaker died.
I then replaced it with a Pioneer component, and it worked fine until January of this year. Same symptoms ensue, speaker dies (I checked speaker on the passenger side channel and it was definitely dead). This is now happening again on my third speaker—so far the speaker is still working, but it is getting worse. This is only happening to the driver’s side speaker.
As for personal diagnosis...at first I thought clipping, but asked myself if there is only one gain knob for two front speakers then how come one would clip and the other wouldn’t? I also thought bad ground from engine whine, but I haven’t changed my ground since I installed the amp, and it worked fine for 3 years? But clipping is the only of those two problems that would kill the speaker I think? Perhaps the sub install was a coincidence, or it has something to do with this (although not sure how since it is on a different channel)? My only other ideas go towards a) the amp is malfunctioning and sending a clipped signal to one speaker, or b) somehow the LOC is a culprit and possibly doing the same, or c) the subthump harness I bought is somehow at fault.
Otherwise, I’m completely clueless! Sorry for the winded post, but if anyone has a guess or ideas, please let me know. Thank you so much.
I have a 2012 Camaro with a very unique and frustrating audio problem and came here for some help, but please bear with me it may be a little long…
I first changed out my stock amp to a PPI 900.4 using a harness made by a small company called subthump. This allowed me to Plug N Play into the stock amp harness and have the necessary outputs to hook up the new amp without cutting wires. I also required a LOC for my RCA cables. I retained the stock HU and speakers at this time, and the only speakers in the setup were two front 6.5 w/tweeters and two rear 6x9. This worked fine with no issues for 3 years. Last February I decided to disconnect my rear speakers and bridge the channel on the amp and add a 10” sub. Shortly after this is when I started noticing problems.
In about May of last year my driver’s side (stock) speaker began to exhibit some odd symptoms. It would crackle a lot (like a loose connection), it would completely stop working momentarily, cut in and out if I hit bumps, and if I turned the radio off entirely you could hear engine whine through the speakers. Actually at first as the car warmed up and I drove longer, the problem would dissipate. After 1-2 months symptoms got worse and the speaker died.
I then replaced it with a Pioneer component, and it worked fine until January of this year. Same symptoms ensue, speaker dies (I checked speaker on the passenger side channel and it was definitely dead). This is now happening again on my third speaker—so far the speaker is still working, but it is getting worse. This is only happening to the driver’s side speaker.
As for personal diagnosis...at first I thought clipping, but asked myself if there is only one gain knob for two front speakers then how come one would clip and the other wouldn’t? I also thought bad ground from engine whine, but I haven’t changed my ground since I installed the amp, and it worked fine for 3 years? But clipping is the only of those two problems that would kill the speaker I think? Perhaps the sub install was a coincidence, or it has something to do with this (although not sure how since it is on a different channel)? My only other ideas go towards a) the amp is malfunctioning and sending a clipped signal to one speaker, or b) somehow the LOC is a culprit and possibly doing the same, or c) the subthump harness I bought is somehow at fault.
Otherwise, I’m completely clueless! Sorry for the winded post, but if anyone has a guess or ideas, please let me know. Thank you so much.
