No Sound from Speakers in the Rain!!!

[bradleyjames518]

Hello Guys,

I've been lurking for a few months since I've purchased my 03tb. You all always seem helpful and supportive. Great to have an active community.

My 03tb, non-Bose, no on star or rear seat entertainment radio quit working. I replaced all 4 speakers, that seemed to be the resolve for a little while.

Shortly thereafter, in the rain there would be no sound coming from the speakers. I replaced the head unit with an alpine one, installed it using the metro adapter keeping the chimes and rap. All was well and good. I thought for sure that was it because I took the radio apart and saw a bad capacitor. Everything was great until the rain came this morning. No sound again.

Do you guys have any advise? I know that these vehicles have serial bus issues, but the head unit still has power and functions normally. It's as if the radio is muted. Very frustrating.

I should add that when installing the radio, I left the small black plug disconnected as the adaptor did not connect to it.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated and I will certainly reciprocate as time allows. I am a former technician and work for an OEM currently. I'll be a resource for whatever I can help with.

Thanks in advance!

 

[IllogicTC]

I've heard of cases where a particular speaker quit due to bad window seals, but everything at once... perhaps there's some wiring on the underbody that's affecting this?

 

[Sir ffeJ]

Are you absolutely certain it only happens during rain? Can u reproduce this problem by spraying the vehicle with a hose to simulate rain?

Is this while listening to radio stations or cd or both?
This indeed is a strange one.

 

[bradleyjames518]

Well this was a strange one...I did some diagnoses over the weekend. The window seals were faulty and letting water down the door, dripping directly on the speaker. The ingress would short out the speaker and trip circuit breaker in the amplifier of the radio.

To find this, I accessed the radio harness through the back of the glove box and checked the resistance across each speaker while the radio was inop from the rain. I found that the DS Rear was shorted out. Removed the panel, and saw water in the door. I cleaned out the dampness and ran a hose over the truck, saw the water trickling down from the window seal, directly on the speaker connections causing a short. Once the water dried, the short would disappear and the radio would function.

I replaced both rear window seals, further sealed with RTV and has been fine since. No ingress, the interior is much quieter on the highway. Sometimes the seemingly most complex problems are simple solutions. Hopefully this helps somebody else in the future and I think the issue can be linked to why we have so many issues with faulty head units!

Now if we can figure out why the only thing TB's consume of more than fuel is hub bearings!