When car speakers fail, it is often said that they are burned out. This is usually characterized by a sudden and drastic reduction in sound quality, and is usually caused by a mechanical or thermal defect in the speaker that prevents it from working properly.
Mechanical speaker failure usually occurs when the cone in a speaker is forced to move further than it was designed to, and thermal failure occurs when a speaker is hit with too much force and delicate internal components melt or burn.
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In most cases, car speakers blow out due to accidents or carelessness, such as turning the volume too high and leaving it at that for too long. However, it is possible for car speakers to fail with age, and speakers that are made of poor materials to begin with are more likely to fail with normal use as they age.
How do you know if your car speakers are burned out?
When someone says a speaker has blown, it has suffered a catastrophic failure. The speaker may not work at all, or it may sound terrible.
In a situation where a car speaker is completely broken, you usually hear no sound from it. In other cases, you may hear a buzzing sound instead of the music you are trying to listen to. Since there are manyreasons why car speakers may stop working, it's important to make sure your speakers are actually inflated before replacing them, even if they don't make any sound at all.
When a car speaker is only partially broken, you usually still get sound from it, but the sound is distorted. You may hear hissing or crackling, static or faint distortion that is prevalent in a certain sound range depending ontype of speakerthey failed.
Car speakers usually fail due to mechanical and thermal problems, but anything that damages a speaker to the point where it no longer functions properly will essentially blow it out. Since most faults are mechanical or thermal in nature, the best way to avoid blowing out your speakers is to avoid turning your car radio up to too high a volume.
These are the main signs that car speakers have failed:
Distorted sound, hissing and blurry.
If you suspect speakers are blown, set the volume to a low to medium level and listen for distortion. Listen to a CD or connect an MP3 player to avoid the normal static associated with FM radio.
If you hear someone hissing or making blurry noises, and turning up the volume makes the distortion worse, use fade and balance to isolate the problem speaker. In most cases, you will find that one or more of your speakers have loose or damaged voice coils.
A story that pops or rattles instead of music.
If you can't hear your music at all and instead hear unpleasant noises like popping or rattling, that's a big red flag. Your speakers are almost certainly blown.
Lack of bass, treble or midrange.
A sudden and drastic reduction in bass response is usually a good indication that your speakers have partially failed. Try using the equalizer buttons on your car stereo and if you notice a complete lack of bass, treble or midrange, you probably need new speakers.
Lack of vibration from the speakers.
This can sometimes be a sign of completely burned out speakers, but can also be caused by a wiring problem. Feel the front of your speakers when the system is in operation. If you don't feel any vibration at all, check if your speaker cable connections are broken.
Check the speakers for impedance.
If you have a multimeter and can remove the speaker grilles, you can check the impedance of each speaker. Loudspeakers in good condition usually had an impedance of 4 or 8 ohms. If you notice that your speakers have extremely high or even infinite impedance, they are broken.
What Causes Car Speakers to Blow Out?
Mechanical car speaker failures occur when a part called a cone is forced to move in a way it was not designed for. What happens is that the cone moves further than it should, putting pressure on the material. This can cause parts of a speaker to collide with each other or with the speaker frame, causing parts to crack, break, or loosen, which can cause permanent damage.
Car speaker thermal failure occurs when a speaker receives more power than it can handle. The excess current causes a build-up of heat that can soften the glue that holds some components together. This essentially blows up the speaker, as it no longer produces sound like it used to.
The other danger of applying too much current to a car speaker is that the excess current can literally burn or melt the delicate wires in a component called a voice coil. This is one of the most catastrophic failures that a blown speaker can suffer from, as no sound will usually come from a speaker whose voice coil has been damaged in this way.
For both mechanical and thermal failures, the most common causes are unintentional or careless operation of a system outside the safety margins. For example, you turn up the volume of acar radioIf the system is so loud that you start to hear a grainy tone, it means the voice coils in your woofers may be becoming separated from the spiders that hold them in place, and leaving the volume at that level could cause permanent damage .
Volume isn't the only thing that makes speakers blow
Although quite simpleset the volume too high, and leaving it there for a long time is the most common cause of blown speakers, there are also many more technical causes. If a sound system is not properly designed, it can also make the speakers more likely to explode at some point.
Amplifier failure, physical damage to a speaker, and a number of other reasons can also cause a blowout.
Clipping is a problem that sometimes occurs with car audio systems with aspecial amplifier. This problem occurs when the amplifier is overdriven and the top and bottom of the audio waveform are literally cut off. If clipping occurs, it is actually possible to damage speakers that are designed to handle more power than the amplifier can even deliver, because the clipped waveform results in too much current being delivered to the speaker over time.
Physical damage usually occurs when a speaker is installed carelessly or when the protective grille becomes loose and is not replaced immediately. Without some form of protective cover it is very easy to damage a speaker by puncturing or tearing the cone as they are relatively fragile. If one of your car speakers is missing its cover and the speakers are not yet damaged, it is a good idea to have them covered right away.
It is also entirely possible for car speakers to simply fail due to age and normal use. This is especially trueOEM speakers that are usually made of inferior materialscompared to more expensive aftermarket speakers.
How do you know if your car speakers are burned out?
Sometimes it's easy to tell that your speakers are blown, and sometimes it's much harder, and a lot depends on exactly how they're blown. For example, if your blown speakers have failed because the voice coils have burned out, this is fairly easy to diagnose.
If you're getting no sound at all from a speaker that you suspect is burned out, you can know for sure by checking for continuity. You do this by removing the speaker grille, door panel, or any other components that you need to pull out to access the speaker. Disconnect the speaker wires, then check continuity between the two speaker terminals. If your multimeter shows no continuity, this indicates that the speaker is burned out.
In most other cases, the only way to find out if a car speaker is burned out is by listening and listeningtherefore rule out other possibilities. This can be difficult if you don't have a trained ear, so start with full-range music that you are quite familiar with. Anything that goes heavy on the bass or treble and leaves out one end of the spectrum or the other can make it harder to figure out what's going on.
While playing familiar music at a reasonable volume, it is wise to check the equalizer controls, if you have them. For this type of diagnosis, they should all be set to a neutral level, even if you don't normally enjoy listening to your music. For example, if your main unit has bass and treble controls, these should normally be turned at 12 o'clock.
The reason you want to use music you know and use default equalizer settings is that a big part of listening to a blown speaker is recognizing if your speakers are suffering from a lack of range. This can be difficult if your ears aren't really trained to identify missing stops, and it's easier if you know a song inside and out. If you feel like something is missing, it could be a blown speaker.
In addition to listening for lack of range, you can also listen for distortion, static, noise, and other sounds. While distortion isn't a sure sign of a blown speaker, it usually indicates that something is wrong somewhere along the way.
If you feel like you've heard something unusual, you may be able to isolate the blown speaker by playing with the balance and fade settings on your main unit. By adjusting the balance and fade so that the focus is specifically on the speaker or speakers in each of the four corners of your car, you can usually narrow things down a bit.
What to do with blown car speakers
While it is certainly possible to fix a broken car speaker, it is usually not worth the effort. Repairs are typically expensive compared to simply buying a new speaker, although there are some exceptions, especially if you prefer to do the repairs yourself.
For example, a dented speaker cone can often be repaired if you're careful, and small cracks can even be repaired with a little work. The sound quality may not be what you're used to getting from the speaker, but this type of DIY repair is cheaper than replacing the broken device.
Blown coils are more difficult and expensive to deal with, especially if you choose to pay someone to make the repairs. If you don't mind doing it yourself, you can get rebuild kits for some speakers, which include a new cone, voice coil, spider, dust cover, and gasket.
If you choose to replace your broken equipment, it is important to do sochoose the right new car speakersand also look at what may have blown them away in the first place. For example, if your car has an aftermarket sound system, you can rest assured that the main unit, amplifier, and speakers will all work well together.
If you have a stock sound system, be sure to upgrade the blown speakers with direct-fit aftermarket replacements. The new speakers should work fine if you keep the volume low enough to avoid distortion.
