Need help with dash speakers (tweeter and mid)

[mrhayes1]

Hi,

I am trying to get some help on the tweeter and mid speakers in our cars. I have browsed some threads and see no clear solution here. As you may know, the 3.5 inch mid and tweeter up on the dash are wired together. My understanding is that the factory amp provides power to the tweeter which then goes out to the mid (or visa versa...).

Well a while back I replaced all 4 of my dash speakers; both tweeters and both mids. I did this by cutting the stock wiring and removing the old speakers. I then installed the new speakers by sort of repurposing the stock connector. So, essentially everything is still wired up the same as stock, I just upgraded the speakers.

Anyway, now about a year later I am having issues where I occasionally hear distortion/static coming from the dash when playing music. I refuse to believe that it is a speaker issue as the aftermarket speakers were replaced a year ago and are good quality.

My question is, can anyone help troubleshoot this? Is that stock connector that I repurposed just a connector or is it a type of crossover? Is there anyway to bypass that? Basically I am trying to figure out if my issue is the speakers are crapping out or if perhaps it is due to the wiring and that stock connector.

[soundman98]

what speakers where used?
how did you connect everything?
what crossovers were used?

pictures?

[Mr.ac]

How did you splice the connections?
Did you just twist them and wrapped black tape on them? If so re check the connection.

Next time spend a bit more money for oem to aftermarket connections

[mrhayes1]

I replaced all 4 dash speakers with normal 2-way speakers. The mids are 3.5 kickers. The tweeters are 1 inch Rockford Fosgate I think. Connections were crimped. You are mentioning OEM to aftermarket connections, however, I am not aware of any that exist or I would have bought them. All I did was add the 4 speakers. I did not add crossovers, but I did reuse the white factory connector that is attached to the tweeter (that may be a factory crossover, I don't know).

I believe the FRS has ONLY 2 wires running from the factory amp to the dash (one + and one -). That powers tweeter and then there are 2 wires that then run from the tweeter and power the mid. There are not 4 wires (2+ and 2-) running up to the dash....Essentailly you have only 2 speaker wires (+ and -) that are powering 2 speakers.

I am not trying to sound ungrateful or smartass, but if you have not replaced the dash speakers in this car like this you probably wont understand what I am talking about as the OEM speakers are wired like crap. If you replaced your dash speakers with the factory Toyota upgraded system you will probably not know what I am talking about because it would have come with connections for everything.

[soundman98]

mr ac and i both have extensive knowledge of car audio. i believe he's got a few years on me, and i've been involved in car audio for the last 17 years. i have replaced all the speakers in every car i've owned, but i learned 3 cars ago that maintaining the factory wiring is a fools errand, and it is always best to run new wire to a new amplifier, and gut the oem system as much as possible. otherwise there's always obscure issues that pop up at the worst of times.

the questions we asked are specifically for how you installed your setup. as the saying goes, "there is more than one way to skin a cat."

i've seen people 'connect' wires with everything from scotch tape to bubble gum, and claim it can't be their installation methods and MUST be the speakers causing the problems.

we can't properly diagnose the issue's you're having without a better understanding of the processes and materials you used to perform the installation



my 2 suspicions are that either your wiring methods are resulting in a poor connection that is creating static in the signal, or that the tweeters don't have a crossover, and are distorting due to trying to play frequencies well below their designed limits. my first recommendation would be to remove the rockford fosgate tweeters, and use only the 2-way kickers as they are going to have the proper crossovers built into the speaker itself. it's also very odd to have 2 tweeters by 2 very different companies. it's like wearing 2 different colognes-- all it does is highlight the worst attributes of each brands, while masking the better attributes.

that said, if you're starting to push the system extremely hard, i have had major issues in the past with speaker companies crossing their tweeters over too low, resulting in tweeter distortion at high output levels. the only solution to that is to either re-build the passive crossovers for a frequency better matched to the vehicle or install an amp and actively crossover all of the speakers to get more fine-tuning capabilities to correct for the distortion.

[mrhayes1]

Alright thx for the input that helps a lot. Regarding the distortion, it is very random and minor and only at low volumes (or at least that I hear). It commonly seems to occur with the radio, more than on my phone, etc., so it makes sense that perhaps the speakers cannot handle the certain frequencies that are coming through.

Running new wires is not something I am willing/interested in doing for a variety of reasons. I think my next steps will be to:

1. Check wiring connections to ensure they are good (but I am sure they are).
2. If that doesn't fix it then I will consider removing the Rockford tweeters and just keep the 3.5 inch kickers.

Lastly, I was reading a post online about a FRS guy that wired in bass blockers. Therefore, I was considering buying these. Have you used anything like that? Apparently, they are a sort of crossover to minimize low frequencies going to the speaker.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_007BB6...z-cut-off.html