hjb981 Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 When I sat in the backseat of my '97 DeVille today with the stereo on, I noticed that the rear left speaker was not working. Other than the one dead speaker, it works well. My plan of action is to: 1: Check with a different speaker if any signal is coming to the dead speaker. 2: Check if I can drive the dead rear speaker with an external stereo. 3: Pull out the radio to see if there are loose connections. It would help me with some tips and hints on how to pull out the radio (guess that is not to hard, but good to know of any hidden tabs to push etc). Any other thoughts of ideas on this in general would also be appreciated. Anyone had something similar? /Jonas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterset Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 I wouldn't pull the radio for something as simple as this. don't get me wrong, once you push the radio head in a bit, & push the tabs outwards on both sides, the radio pops right out - sometimes getting it back in correctly can be a challenge though as those tabs don't accept the radio correctly. Instead, I'd test the speaker with the other side, and have your $5.00 ready so you can go to a bone yard & pull the speaker out of a similiar car with a compatible system. Depending on your sound system, the rear shelf may be holding a subwoofer or a speaker. If you have speakers on your rear doors (grill on top & bottom of door), it's a subwoofer on the rear deck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjb981 Posted March 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Thanks for the info. Of course you are right, I will start with just switching the cables between left and right rear speaker. That will tell me if it is the speaker or something else. Pulling the head unit is only an option if it turns out that the speaker itself is not the problem. I have two normal speakers in the rear shelf, and none in the rear doors. The bone yard option is somewhat tricky for me - finding this kind of car in Sweden, where I live, is not very easy. Perhaps a speaker from an STS or SLS (more common over here, though still very uncommon) would fit, but I will start with checking what the problem is first. Only thing that has kept me so far is cold and dark - will try today on my lunch. Can anyone advise on how to remove the rear shelf? It is easy to see the back of the speakers by removing the lining in the trunk, but I guess that the rear shelf would have to be removed to get the speakers out(?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterset Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 from the trunk, unscrew the two bolts holding the back of the rear seat in place (on the electronics bay). unplug each speaker you will remove Go into the back seat. pull off the third brake light by pulling the cover forward. not sure if you need to unscrew the 3rd brake light pull the rear sear back forward pull the heavy deck lid forward & remove from the car you may be able to lift the speaker out or... go back to the trunk & push the speaker up & out of the holder (no screws required to remove the speaker) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjb981 Posted March 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2011 Thanks for the advice, Winterset. The culprit was indeed the speaker itself - the left rear channel on the stereo worked when connected to the right rear speaker, and the left speaker was dead no matter what channel I connected to it. I will remove the speaker to have a look this weekend, following your instructions. I always wondered how the 3rd break light was accessed (never had to change any bulbs there yet (yes, I do check it from time to time), so haven't ever tried it). Does anyone now if there are any chances of fixing a dead speaker? If I find a loose cable I can solder it back on, but are there any other possible fixes? /Jonas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHE Posted March 4, 2011 Report Share Posted March 4, 2011 Is this a Bose system? There is a procedure to rebuild the amplifiers somewhere on this site. If it is the non-Bose system, a new speaker shouldn't be that much money from one of the online sources. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterset Posted March 4, 2011 Report Share Posted March 4, 2011 Thanks for the advice, Winterset. The culprit was indeed the speaker itself - the left rear channel on the stereo worked when connected to the right rear speaker, and the left speaker was dead no matter what channel I connected to it. I will remove the speaker to have a look this weekend, following your instructions. I always wondered how the 3rd break light was accessed (never had to change any bulbs there yet (yes, I do check it from time to time), so haven't ever tried it). Does anyone now if there are any chances of fixing a dead speaker? If I find a loose cable I can solder it back on, but are there any other possible fixes? /Jonas Yep, I am still amazed at the life of the bulbs. to date I have only changed those really small bulbs on the rear brakelights twice. no other bulb has ever burned out (directionals, headlights, interior). although 3 on my HVAC are burned out, but I am not going to mess with that yet. BTW, almost every 93-99 Deville I see on the road has those bulbs burned out. they are at the bottom of that elongated taillight which is at the widest part. back to the topic - I believe that speaker is shared on many of the other Cadillac models of that vintage & it's the more common configuration and NON-BOSE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjb981 Posted March 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2011 Yep, I am still amazed at the life of the bulbs. to date I have only changed those really small bulbs on the rear brakelights twice. no other bulb has ever burned out (directionals, headlights, interior). although 3 on my HVAC are burned out, but I am not going to mess with that yet. BTW, almost every 93-99 Deville I see on the road has those bulbs burned out. they are at the bottom of that elongated taillight which is at the widest part. back to the topic - I believe that speaker is shared on many of the other Cadillac models of that vintage & it's the more common configuration and NON-BOSE. Correct, non-Bose, so no amplifiers. And yes, I have also replaced the lower tail light bulbs once, as well as one of the little red ones on the side of the rear fender (you do that from under the car, btw). My very first bulb to replace was for the license plate light - back in the summer of 2004, on the second day after buying this car, I was pulled over by police because of that bulb. Since I had just bought the car, of course I had checked all bulbs, but I had missed that one (didn't think about it, and it was easy to miss since there is only one, so no asymmetry when it goes out). I had to show an officer later that I had fixed it (to avoid having to pay a fine) and pay $10 as an "administrative fee". That is the only time I was ever pulled over. Can anyone suggest online places to find these? I checked Rockauto and GMpartsDirect with no luck. I did, however, find a pair for the not very low price of $70 on ebay. Other ideas are appreciated, as always! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjb981 Posted March 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2011 The pair on Ebay did not match mine. I have now pulled the dead one from the car, and also cut away the top cloth on it (to see if it was possible to fix anything inside). Mine looks like a normal (albeit oval) speaker with an extra cone protruding like a funnel from the middle. The ones on Ebay looked like they had a small mid-range and a small tweeter mounted inside/on top of the oval main speaker. Perhpaps it would work with such a pair also, but I prefer the originals, to not end up with unmatched sound between front and back. Another difference is that while my speakers are 10 Ohms, most speakers on Ebay are 4 Ohms. Both earlier and later models (according to the listings) are almost exclusively 4 Ohms. How come I have 10 Ohms then? Anyone knows anything about the available stereo/speaker combinations for the different stereos? Non-Bose in my case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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