Speakers just randomly went out. Fuse, power amp or worse?

[jbyrd78]

Never had this happen in a vehicle before, so I thought I'd ask here before I got to an audio specialist store.
Yesterday, I was doing some baseling and I turned off the volume on my infotainment. When I turned the volume back on about 5 mins later, the only speaker that now works is the speaker on the top center dash. I went into the audio menu and everything is setup right where I left it. Is it possible I blew a fuse, the amp crapped out on me, or the speakers were possibly on the fritz? Can you guys recommend where to start and the best way to start troubleshooting so I can find the solution to my problem?

 

[PDoyle]

How old is your battery?
Also there is a thread where someone found a box inside the kick panel on the pass. side which connects to the stereo with mildew around the cables. Cleaned them and the problem went away.

 

[Sandroad]

Never had this happen in a vehicle before, so I thought I'd ask here before I got to an audio specialist store.
Yesterday, I was doing some baseling and I turned off the volume on my infotainment. When I turned the volume back on about 5 mins later, the only speaker that now works is the speaker on the top center dash. I went into the audio menu and everything is setup right where I left it. Is it possible I blew a fuse, the amp crapped out on me, or the speakers were possibly on the fritz? Can you guys recommend where to start and the best way to start troubleshooting so I can find the solution to my problem?

What year and what sound system? What were you doing for baselining at the time of the failure ? What was the audio source?

 

[jbyrd78]

How old is your battery?
Also there is a thread where someone found a box inside the kick panel on the pass. side which connects to the stereo with mildew around the cables. Cleaned them and the problem went away.

I don't know how the old the battery is. I had a multi point inspection done last week at Toyota when I got my brake fluid flushed and the checked the battery and said it's still strong.

Do you by any chance have the link to that thread you mentioned?

 

[jbyrd78]

What year and what sound system? What were you doing for baselining at the time of the failure ? What was the audio source?

2011 Land Cruiser, and it's the JBL Synthesis sound system. I was cleaning and wiping the dash and console. I shut the volume off for a moment while I was wiping the infotainment so I wouldn't have to deal with white noise if I accidentally changed the channel and all that jazz. As far as audio source, I had it on FM.

 

[bronc076]

What’s “baseline” Does it involve wire cutters?
just Curious!


And on a more helpful note, check fuses in the fuse box near the battery. This is from 2013 LC manual but probably close. Check 37 and 46.

 

[jbyrd78]

What’s “baseline” Does it involve wire cutters?
just Curious!


And on a more helpful note, check fuses in the fuse box near the battery. This is from 2013 LC manual but probably close. Check 37 and 46.




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Haha no...this baselining didn't involve wire cutters. Thanks for the fuse box layout. I'll check it out this weekend.

 

[PDoyle]

I don't know how the old the battery is. I had a multi point inspection done last week at Toyota when I got my brake fluid flushed and the checked the battery and said it's still strong.

Do you by any chance have the link to that thread you mentioned?

I don't know how the old the battery is. I had a multi point inspection done last week at Toyota when I got my brake fluid flushed and the checked the battery and said it's still strong.

Do you by any chance have the link to that thread you mentioned?

Cleaning battery connections might help. If the battery is more then 4 years old chuck it.

Maybe this-

Stereo sound died

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[jbyrd78]

Cleaning battery connections might help. If the battery is more then 4 years old chuck it.

Maybe this-

Stereo sound died

forum.ih8mud.com

How do I go about finding out how old the battery is? Is the date stamped on it somewhere?

 

[Sandroad]

How do I go about finding out how old the battery is? Is the date stamped on it somewhere?

There will be a date code either stamped on the battery or on a sticker. It will have a letter and a number. The letter is the month (A-L) and the number is the last digit of the year.

 

[jbyrd78]

There will be a date code either stamped on the battery or on a sticker. It will have a letter and a number. The letter is the month (A-L) and the number is the last digit of the year.

I just wanted to tell you & PDoyle thanks. I inspected the battery yesterday, it was stamped 07/17. I ended up pulling it out and installing a Duralast Gold battery. The local dealership had some battery terminals instock, and they price matched toyotapartsdeal.com on the sale as well. I cleaned everything up and slopped on some dielectric grease, unfortunately it didn't solve my speaker issue...back to troubleshooting.

 

[PDoyle]

That's too bad sorry it's not working yet. Have you checked connections around the pass side door / glove box area yet?

 

[jbyrd78]

That's too bad sorry it's not working yet. Have you checked connections around the pass side door / glove box area yet?

No, I haven't opened those areas up to inspect yet. I forgot to mention. Supposedly a Passport Radar Laser was factory installed at the dealership sometime ago. It looks like one of the PO's cut the wires to that b/c the are hanging on the drivers side where it was installed. Is it possible that could be some of the problem?

 

[Sandroad]

No, I haven't opened those areas up to inspect yet. I forgot to mention. Supposedly a Passport Radar Laser was factory installed at the dealership sometime ago. It looks like one of the PO's cut the wires to that b/c the are hanging on the drivers side where it was installed. Is it possible that could be some of the problem?

Seems likely! Especially since you were cleaning around the dash and console area when the sound went out. Wires hanging around are never good. Can you trace those back to where their connected? If one is a power wire and not fused correctly, be careful. The power won’t hurt you, but shorting out a hot wire can be sparky.

 

[jbyrd78]

Seems likely! Especially since you were cleaning around the dash and console area when the sound went out. Wires hanging around are never good. Can you trace those back to where their connected? If one is a power wire and not fused correctly, be careful. The power won’t hurt you, but shorting out a hot wire can be sparky.

I'm going to have to look. Supposedly it was installed by a Toyota dealership, so I don't know how and what it was wired to. The manual for it, is in the glove box with the Land Cruiser manuals. I do know it stills works. I actually touched all 4 wires together and it came on. Honestly, it sucks and I want it gone lol. It kept giving false readings every 5 minutes. Luckily, when I held all 4 wires together again, it eventually shut off. I think next up I'm going to check the fuses, then work my way over to the passenger side and try and find these connections that were mentioned. If I ultimately can't find the problem, then I'm going to have to take it to a car audio place.

 

[bronc076]

Those wires hanging out of the dash would drive me nuts! I look at door panels on eBay every few days as I’m looking for a new rear door panel, PO had a dog that marked it up. I bet you could get some dash pieces to replace the drilled ones from a junkyard, there are a few sellers on eBay. If you are not comfortable pulling a dash apart a car audio place like you mentioned may be a good place to go to as they install alarms and other stuff that requires dash disassembly. I’d get some new/used dash parts and have all that stuff removed.

Did you check your fuses yet to see if thats why the radio quit?

 

[jbyrd78]

Those wires hanging out of the dash would drive me nuts! I look at door panels on eBay every few days as I’m looking for a new rear door panel, PO had a dog that marked it up. I bet you could get some dash pieces to replace the drilled ones from a junkyard, there are a few sellers on eBay. If you are not comfortable pulling a dash apart a car audio place like you mentioned may be a good place to go to as they install alarms and other stuff that requires dash disassembly. I’d get some new/used dash parts and have all that stuff removed.

Did you check your fuses yet to see if thats why the radio quit?

Yeah, I'm going to see if those wires can be squared away when whatever audio place I end up going to looks over everything. I have a small black cap to pop in that hole when I get those wires taken care of. I actually ended up swinging by a car audio store yesterday on my way home from work. They are backed up until the last week of September. When I explained to the guy at the audio store what happened, he told me to check my fuses, which I did. He mentioned that the reason the speaker on the dash didn't go out is because, it's wired directly to the radio in the 200 series. He said more than likely, it's the power amp, or the way that passport radar laser was wired in. I did some digging yesterday and found out my amp is under the driver's seat. I thought about removing it and taking it to Best Buy, and seeing if one of the audio specialists there can test the amp to tell me if that's the problem. If it is, the next hurdle I run into is where to get a replacement amp from? I was reading on here that since the speakers are 2ohm, that it's difficult to find an aftermarket amp.

 

[bronc076]

I'd look at the fuse panel in the driver's foot well and see if there is anything going on that looks non OEM. Maybe when they installed the radar detector they used one of those deals you stick in where the fuse goes to tap off of it, and it wiggled out or something. The fact that you were cleaning when the problem started leads me to believe it is a bad connection somewhere instead of the Amp coincidentally going bad while you were cleaning. Actually I'd do a visual inspection of the one in the passengar footwell too. And just look things over for something that does not look right. My 2015 has an aftermarket remote starter and it works well but one of these days I'm going to trace down all the wires and see what the guys that installed it have done. Sometimes those stereo guys are good, and sometimes they are not. It's really a roll of the dice.
I take it you don't feel comfortable pulling off plastic dash pieces? I have not pulled my 200 dash apart but I've had other toyotas apart and most of that stuff just sticks on. With some plastic trim tools, blue tape, care, and youtube you should be able to see what's going on back there without damaging anything.

 

[bronc076]

That will give you a feel for how easy it is.

 

[jbyrd78]

That will give you a feel for how easy it is.

Thanks, I was just getting ready to reply back when I saw you posted that. I'll take a look at it on my lunch break. I may have to postpone working on the audio b/c now my damn LX470 is acting up...smh!