Woofer/Tweeter Wiring Weirdness - 2002 Toyota RAV4

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Jonathan_Q

CarAudio.com Newbie
I decided to install a new sound system in my 2002 RAV4, bought the Alpine iLX-W650 and Skar Audio component speakers for the front, replacing the really old really tired factory speakers, which were separate woofers and tweeters. The new speakers came with the woofers, the tweeters, and a crossover. I disconnected the old speakers, and connected the two wires from the woofer connector to the input on the crossover, then connected the woofer and tweeter to their respective output. Powered it up...nothing. Dead air. No sound at all.

After a couple of hours trying to figure out what I'd done wrong, I discovered that if I plugged the old tweeter back into it's factory connection, the new speakers started working... But, I don't think I really want the old tired tweeter connected, I imagine it could be affecting the sound quality of the new speakers. And I'm not sure if I want to run the new speakers through the factory wiring without using the new crossover that came with them, as I don't imagine the factory setup included any sort of crossover... I've attached a wiring diagram I found that shows how the factory speakers are wired.

Is there a way to remove the old tweeter and have all of the output from the head unit go direct to the crossover? Could I cut out the factory tweeter from it's wiring harness and solder the two positive wires direct to the negative wires, or would that overload and damage the new speakers? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!


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It sounds like maybe a short occurs with the new tweeter that isn't present on the old one. Measure the resistance with a multimeter or voltmeter between the the speaker connections. If it's under 1 ohm then you've got a short and the system is protecting itself by producing no sound.

The head unit should be seeing nothing lower than 3ohms of impedance, so it should be measure between 1.98 and 3 ohms when it's all hooked up at the crossover.
 
Well, when the old tweeter is connected, I get plenty of volume out of the new tweeter, the new speakers sound good. It's just when I disconnect the old tweeter from the factory connector, leaving that circuit open, that I get no sound at all from the new speakers, either the tweeter or the woofer...
 
Well, when the old tweeter is connected, I get plenty of volume out of the new tweeter, the new speakers sound good. It's just when I disconnect the old tweeter from the factory connector, leaving that circuit open, that I get no sound at all from the new speakers, either the tweeter or the woofer...
That makes a lot of sense if the speakers are wired in series. You should definitely get a multimeter if you don't have one already. You don't need anything special for resistance checks, but if you're looking into more diagnostics later you may want to get one with min/max.

So it seems like your problem is that your vehicle wires them separately between the tweeter and the head unit and the mid to the head unit. Your component set wants the one connection, so you'll be effectively losing your tweeter wiring. I guess it's possible that the vehicle has a series connection from door to tweeter and that's why it's dependent on plugging in the tweeter. You should really get a multimeter though, because you don't want to just go shorting connections in your car if it in fact is not series. You'll also want to know what resistance you're dealing with to match what the car has by default. I've never seen a setup like that default from a car so without measurements I don't want to recommend anything.
 
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I guess the other option would be to run new wires from the head unit to the new crossover, and completely bypass the factory wiring to the front doors. That way I'd be sure I'm getting a completely clean signal to the crossover...
 
I guess the other option would be to run new wires from the head unit to the new crossover, and completely bypass the factory wiring to the front doors. That way I'd be sure I'm getting a completely clean signal to the crossover...
While it's strange that disconnecting the factory tweeter disconnects the mid, if you're going to run new wires it should be from the crossover to the tweeter. They're meant to go together on the same speaker circuit. So I guess in the interim between getting a multimeter you can just keep the car tweeter connected but not in place and use the new speaker with wires from the crossover in the place of the old tweeter.

You may be able to find the impedance rating on the back of the factory speakers themselves, I'm curious what the tweeter is rated at.
 
The new tweeter is only connected to the tweeter output on the new crossover. As is the new woofer.
That's how it should be. Under that configuration are you saying that they don't work? Or only when the old tweeter is disconnected from its car wiring? Do both tweeters play at the same time if they're plugged into their correct locations?

Your issue is confusing because the wiring diagram says it's parallel (like I would expect) but you said if you disconnect the tweeter then the mid stops working which shouldn't be the case. It's at this point I would stop goofing around with it and get a multimeter before I make a mistake.
 
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That's how it should be. Under that configuration are you saying that they don't work? Or only when the old tweeter is disconnected from its car wiring? Do both tweeters play at the same time if they're plugged into their correct locations?

Your issue is confusing because the wiring diagram says it's parallel (like I would expect) but you said if you disconnect the tweeter then the mid stops working which shouldn't be the case. It's at this point I would stop goofing around with it and get a multimeter before I make a mistake.
Yeah, it is confusing... :)

If I have the old tweeter plugged into it's factory connector, I get power to the crossover, which is plugged into the factory woofer harness, and the new woofer and tweeter work fine running off the crossover. I think I get sound out of the old tweeter when it's plugged in, but so little sound came out of it before, I can't be sure... But I'm definitely getting sound out of the new tweeter.

If I unplug the old tweeter, I get no power at all to the woofer connector ---> crossover input.

I'll dig out my multi-tester and see what I can figure out as far as what connects to what...

Thanks for your help, much appreciated!
 
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Jonathan_Q

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