Popping Subwoofers

[kcruiz]

I just got my Bose head unit refurbished, due to the CD changer not working and a continued battery drain. The CD changer works now and the battery drain has been reduced significantly. The problem is that my rear deck subwoofers are no longer working. Sometimes when I start the car the subwoofers start popping, even with the radio turned off. The company in Florida that rebuilt my head unit says that it could either be the radio or the amp. I am curious if there would be a way to check the amp, because pulling that head unit is a bear.

[pfarmer]

Originally Posted by kcruiz

I just got my Bose head unit refurbished, due to the CD changer not working and a continued battery drain. The CD changer works now and the battery drain has been reduced significantly. The problem is that my rear deck subwoofers are no longer working. Sometimes when I start the car the subwoofers start popping, even with the radio turned off. The company in Florida that rebuilt my head unit says that it could either be the radio or the amp. I am curious if there would be a way to check the amp, because pulling that head unit is a bear.

Sounds like your sub amp doesn't have the amp on signal attached or it is not available. Some amps can be set up to sense this off of the speaker level outputs. If not you can put a switch on this input and keep the amp off until the head unit is turned on.

[lancer]

You'd either need to
1 : swap out your existing amp for a different amp (even aftermarket would work) and power the same speakers, take the same signal from the headunit
(i.e. take the current amp out of the equation)

or

2 : feed a different signal into the amp itself (i.e. take the stock headunit out of the equation) which might be a bit trickier.


I'd suggest getting hold of an aftermarket amp and feeding it the signal from your stock system. If you search for the thread (might even be a sticky) you can find the wire codes that you need to splice into.

I mean, you could tear out the headunit and swap it out, but you wouldn't be sure that it was the problem. It probably is, but at least with option 1 or 2 above, you can rule out the amp as the culprit.

Good luck.

[lancer]

This is of course assuming that by 'rear deck subwoofers' you are referring to the stock 6x9s that are used for bass, and not an aftermarket setup which you have added.

[kcruiz]

This is a totally stock Bose system. And I was having no problems with any of the speakers output prior to the head unit being refurbished. The company that refurbished the head unit wants me to return it to them to see if this is a warranty claim, but I dread pulling that dashboard apart again if it may be the amplifier in the trunk.

[lancer]

Originally Posted by kcruiz

This is a totally stock Bose system. And I was having no problems with any of the speakers output prior to the head unit being refurbished. The company that refurbished the head unit wants me to return it to them to see if this is a warranty claim, but I dread pulling that dashboard apart again if it may be the amplifier in the trunk.

Yeah. Probably the headunit still, that would make the most sense.
Call their customer support and raise hell, see if you can get them to pay for a professional installer to remove/replace it for you, since they fubar'd it the first time. I agree it is a pain to remove.

[kcruiz]

Would it not be the Amp that separates the left, right, front and rear channels from the head unit and sends the appropriate signal to all of the speakers/subwoofers? I do not see any subwoofer signals from the head unit to the Amp on the schematic. Since all of the other speakers are outputing correctly, I would think the head unit is sending the correct signals to the Amp. I am going to put a meter on the inputs to the Amp and confirm that no signals are being sent from the head unit while the radio is in the off position, since the popping happened with and without the radio being turned on.