2000-04 Legacy radio wiring issue

[moosens]

These past couple of years I’ve become keen on this generation. Had two parts cars already , both of which show frustrations with the stock unit. One was a direct swap from a junk yard car I’d guess and the one I chose swap into my daily driver is a Sony unit. 
 

The Sony works great but I still have an issue where the right speaker cuts out. 
 

Ok now pay attention here. Regardless of which radio it takes a Fonzie style three whacks on the side to make the unit turn back on with the Old Stock Unit and now with the Sony at least it doesn’t seem to cut power like the last one but it still DOES cut out the Right speaker. 
 

Not to confuse ya more but the old stock unit as mentioned above would cut out power all together , and at times losing the station presets ,  but it would also cut out the Right speaker as the Sony is doing. 
 

I saw nothing from having the unit out during the swap that would give me any reason to think my Fonzie whacks actually cause a re-connection because I don’t see any wires over on that side. 
 

Is this common among this generation Legacy ? 

[heartless]

no, it is not common to need to whack it to get it to work. check the ground in the center dash area (behind the stereo unit)

speakers cutting out, yeah, that is kind of common.. and most likely the wiring where it goes thru to the door. the wires get brittle with age and start to break

I have had very good luck with Sony aftermarket units and the plug & play wiring kits (no cutting of stock wires)..  last one i had had blue tooth for hands free phone, CD player and a USB port - was nice, could load up a thumb drive with tunes, plug it in and just go for hours. was awesome for road trips.

[lmdew]

I have several stock and aftermarket units.  Your's for the shipping.

[1 Lucky Texan]

certainly never was an issue with the oem HU in our 03 OBW

but, the door speakers all went bad.

[laegion]

On 4/9/2022 at 5:22 PM, moosens said:

These past couple of years I’ve become keen on this generation. Had two parts cars already , both of which show frustrations with the stock unit. One was a direct swap from a junk yard car I’d guess and the one I chose swap into my daily driver is a Sony unit. 
 

The Sony works great but I still have an issue where the right speaker cuts out. 
 

Ok now pay attention here. Regardless of which radio it takes a Fonzie style three whacks on the side to make the unit turn back on with the Old Stock Unit and now with the Sony at least it doesn’t seem to cut power like the last one but it still DOES cut out the Right speaker. 
 

Not to confuse ya more but the old stock unit as mentioned above would cut out power all together , and at times losing the station presets ,  but it would also cut out the Right speaker as the Sony is doing. 
 

I saw nothing from having the unit out during the swap that would give me any reason to think my Fonzie whacks actually cause a re-connection because I don’t see any wires over on that side. 
 

Is this common among this generation Legacy ? 

There are two likely causes in my experience. #1 is a short in the speaker wire, usually in the dash behind the head unit from previous owner messing with wires, or in the door jam where the wires move around every time the door is opened, or at the speaker because a previous owner messed with that.

The one thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is a partially blown driver/speaker. Sometimes when the voice coil in the speaker gets partially fried, it will still sometimes work if you get the coil to move within the magnet. Then if it rubs on the magnet it stops working again. Usually due to a short where the coating on the coil wires is melted and then contacts with the permanent magnet. Really the only way to test that is to swap both the front speakers with each other and see if the issue changes sides. It's very common with stock speakers, people just crank the volume and the distortion from driving them so hard with a low power amp melts things.

Edited April 11, 2022 by laegion