What to do when one or more of your stock (Volvo) Speakers stop making sound.

(borrowed from a post of mine a year or so ago)

(first check the speaker with a small battery as mentioned below before you try this to avoid looking in the wrong direction for a solution...it could be wiring or your deck/amp setup)

Subject: Re: 850 Speakers problem

I found the same thing last night on my '94 850 Rear deck right (co-ax 6x9ish) speaker. Exact same thing. Tweeter magnet fell off and was (magnetically) glued the the woofer magnet. Simple (and very inexpensive to fix.)

Undo the four retainer nuts from inside the trunk (under the rear deck).

Lift out carefully the entire speaker enclosure (up towards the rear window.).

Carefully undo the wire clip (Male/female).

Undo from the bottom the grill retaining screws. Don't pull the mesh off as it it difficult to reshape the grill perfectly afterwards... (I did this wrong the first time :(

Undo the two tweeter (Actually it a small full range speaker with a Capacitor to limit frequency) retaining screws and GENTLY lift the unit away from the woofer enough to lift out the tweeter magnet sitting in the bottom of the woofer cone.

I have used 5 minute two part epoxy successfully on two different speakers. Be very careful to use it sparingly and DO NOT allow any of the mixture to get into the coil path. If it does you must remove it all and wait for it to dry before you clean the path. If this path is not clear the tweeter will not be able to move and it won't make any noise.  It will become apparent where the glue is supposed to be when you have the two separated components (the cone/basket part and the magnet part)

I used a clamp carefully covering the edges of the tweeter to hold the magnet to the cone unit overnight to ensure a snug reliable bond.

Note:

Before I did any of this, I tested with a 1.5v battery that both the woofer and the tweeter would make noise when connected to the positive and negative battery terminals. Don't use a big battery...nothing over 9 volts.

I suspect the reason my speakers separated was my testing of a new amplifier that moved the whole car (and speaker cones) more than it ever had before ;) (that and perhaps Dynaudio used inferior glue or I and a several others had a bad production run)

Hope this helps all those who experience no sound from a speaker.

This also happened to my dash tweeters. Same solution.

btw. Amazing difference when hooking up a separate amp to drive all 8 speakers.

Enjoy/

R

                  Has anyone try that?
                  what size is the speakers?
                  How to take out the old speakers?

                  I crammed Kappa 6x9s into mine. The speaker bolt out via four bolts. Once
                  thats done cut the OE harness and splice it onto the new speakers. The reinstall
                  in reverse order. You will most likely have to drill new holes though. In the
                  case of the kappas a little cutting was needed.

                  Have anyone tried to put a 5x7s on the rear deck. I know it's a rare size. But
                  Infinity does make speakers in 5 * 7. So I wonder if it will fit perfectly on the
                  rear deck instead of putting 6 * 9 there.

                  I believe the OE speakers are something like 6x8, and they are a very odd
                  shape compared to most speakers.

                  Gee, just did it last Friday, in a 95 too!

                  I used Infinity Kappa 6x9's, there is a photo and review (not by me) of these
                  speakers at http://www.volvospeed.com/Reviews/kappa.htm

                  There is no drop in replacement that I know of. I don't know exactly what size
                  the originals are but it is not a standard size.

                  Installation option 1:
                  Remove old speakers, held on by 4 screws sticking out the bottom of the
                  speaker enclosure into the trunk. Can't miss it. The speakers are kind of stuck in
                  place, probably have to bump them to get 'em to come loose. Hop in the back
                  seat and unplug the wires and the old ones are gone.

                  I chose to flush mount the speakers. That meant enlarging the holes in the metal
                  deck. I made them about 1/2 inch bigger on the front side of the hole (toward
                  the front of the car). That's a slow job. I used a dremel tool and cutting wheel,
                  still took me a couple hours lying in the trunk (I'm slow). On the first one I cut
                  it a little bigger and a little bigger to get the right size, but it was better than
                  going fast and cutting too big!

                  The infinity's come with a spacer ring that's around an inch tall, it goes between
                  the speaker and the rear deck if they don't sit all the way down (they don't). I
                  think if you choose not to use the spacer you have to cut the deck material (the
                  soft stuff). I didn't want to do that, there would be no way to undo it.

                  You have to drill new holes to screw in the speakers and you need to get longer
                  screws. I got 3" long bolts about the same diameter as the ones that come with
                  the speaker. To get the new screw holes in the right place, I
                  - put masking tape around where I thought the holes should be
                  - put the speakers in place
                  - used an ink pen refill to mark through the speaker's screw holes onto the tape.

                  It doesn't have to be exact but get as close as possible. I was only able to put in
                  3 new screws, the 4th (outboard front I think it was) ended up on a multilayer
                  metal part that I didn't feel like drilling through.

                  Details: There is a big round black thing glued/wire tied on the side of the
                  speakers. That prevented them from sitting down in the newly enlarged hole in
                  the deck. I cut the wire tie and moved that thing gently to the side. The new
                  speakers don't quite cover the hole left by the originals. You have to look
                  through the rear window to see that, but it is not a "perfect" fit. However it
                  looks ok and sounds great.

                  It took me the better part of a day to do this. I had to go buy a dremel tool and
                  make a couple trips for various wire connectors, and I wasn't in a hurry.

                  Installation option 2:
                  Have it done by a sound shop. They have the tools and experience, and if they
                  screw up it's their problem not yours. (I got this advice offline).

                  These new speakers and apparently all new ones are 4 ohm, the Volvo ones are
                  8 ohm. There was recently a discussion on this board about how you shouldn't
                  switch them. There may be an electrical reason why you shouldn't but it works
                  for me. Maybe at high volume the 4 ohm pull too many amps than 8 ohm. I don't
                  turn mine up all the way so hopefully not an issue.

                  The new ones sound much better than the factory stuff.

                  I think Prospero has a thread on swedespeed about installing 6x9's, he and a
                  couple other people gave me some clues offline.

                  Don't ask why, but for some reason 4ohm speakers work. I installed 4 ohm
                  Kappas all the way around after some coaxing from a friend with an EE. You
                  know what they say, you can't spell geek without EE. I have had them cranked
                  with no problem. They do however drain the battery very quick. Sound is also
                  great. As pointed out they do no completly fill the old space. But you can only
                  tell from the back, my windows are tinted anyways. But sound is 100% better.

                  Charles, can you please post your stereo system configuration? I have the
                  following theory on this whole 4/8 ohm thing.

                  Assuming that rear door speakers and rear deck speakers are wired in parallel
                  (I haven't checked this, but I assume they are), Volvo uses 8 ohm speakers in
                  both of those locations to create a 4 ohm load for the amp driving them. In case
                  of 6 speaker cars, like mine (no door speakers), the load on the amp driving the
                  rear speakers ends up being 8 ohms, which is a lighter load and provides the
                  amp with some breathing room. So, my theory is that in a 6 speaker setup 4
                  ohm rear deck speakers will be fine since they will not exceed the 4 ohms that
                  the system was designed for. In 8 speaker cars, however, the load of 4 ohm
                  speakers in the rear deck and 8 ohm speakers in the rear doors will add up to
                  about 2.67 ohms making it tough for the amp to deal with at high volumes. So,
                  if your system is a 6 speaker system you should not worry about the 4 ohm
                  speakers in the rear deck, but if you have door speakers, you need to either
                  unplug them or realize that you are over-taxing your amp by the resultant load.
                  Of course, this is all for the factory Volvo head unit. If you have a premium
                  system with external amp, things may be different.

                  Just a little rambling from the gEEk.
 

                  --
                  Vladimir. 1998 S70. Base, 5-speed manual.

                  That makes sense but I am using an SC 811 radio with 8 speakers. Actually 10
                  if you count the two tweeters wired in parallel in the rear. I don't know how but
                  it works fine and sounds fine, both everyday driving and cranked. I have
                  Kappas all the way around except the rear door speakers. I have checked
                  current draw and everything seems fine. On the BMW it did not work and I
                  have to play with adding new resistors when I added speakers. I am sure the
                  same can be done on Volvo if you want to unsolder the OE resistors. Oh well,
                  mine works/has worked for a year now so what can I say.
 

radio and speakers [850][93]... posted by josh liddell  on Monday, 12 March 2001, at 12:09 p.m.
 

We have only had my wifes 850 for a little over a month. It has the original radio and CD player. The
other night I was in the back seat and noticed the rear shelf speakers were not working, no matter wher
the fader switch is. I went to Bay 13 and it seems that the wiring that runs the rear door speakers also
runs the shelf speakers.( at least for a 95) The rear door spekers do work. I havent pulled out any of the
trunk lining material yet. Any suggestions ? Also do the later models have a balance left to right. Ours
does not ?

... posted by Matt W  on Monday, 12 March 2001, at 5:30 p.m. ...in response to "radio and
                       speakers" posted by josh liddell.
 

It is likely the magnets fell off the tweeters and locked the woofer cones to the basket. This happened to
mine and the woofer suspensions were shot because the cones were pushed in for so long.
Remedy: new speakers! Non Volvo speakers may require some retrofitting if you want to use them with
the volvo housings/grilles.

                       --
                       matt