# 2012 Speaker Sound Issue



## Al3e925 (Jul 27, 2016)

I would let the place you bought it from and say the speaker needs to be replaced or the money for a new one. I doubt its one of the amps or head unit being only in cold.... but im not an engineer 

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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

It needs to be troubleshot. Given that it starts working when warmed up makes me think that it could be the amp that's bad. I think the amp is more likely to warm up than a door speaker.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

For me I had this issue in year 3 of original ownership where it would intermittently sound blown or flat out not work. It turned out to be the door speaker, GMPP covered it. I'm also with Chevyguy on troubleshooting it before parts swapping.


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## DyneHaZ (Jul 26, 2013)

Merc6 said:


> For me I had this issue in year 3 of original ownership where it would intermittently sound blown or flat out not work. It turned out to be the door speaker, GMPP covered it. I'm also with Chevyguy on troubleshooting it before parts swapping.



I asked the Chevy dealer to look at it when I had it there for an oil change. They said they would have to replace it $42 for the speaker and $89 for installation.

I'm sure i could replace it myself, so i'm going to try that.
I live next to a huge U-Pull-It auto part junk yard. The inventory shows they have a 2014 Cruze there now. Would their speakers fit in my 2012? 

Thanks again everybody!


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

DyneHaZ said:


> I asked the Chevy dealer to look at it when I had it there for an oil change. They said they would have to replace it $42 for the speaker and $89 for installation.
> 
> I'm sure i could replace it myself, so i'm going to try that.
> I live next to a huge U-Pull-It auto part junk yard. The inventory shows they have a 2014 Cruze there now. Would their speakers fit in my 2012?
> ...


Yes, unknown if premium speakers can pair with non premium radio setup if that's what the parts car has. If you are lucky the parts are still there!


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## DyneHaZ (Jul 26, 2013)

Merc6 said:


> Yes, unknown if premium speakers can pair with non premium radio setup if that's what the parts car has. If you are lucky the parts are still there!


Thank you for your help. The car is already out of the junk yard (it was way to cold to go pull myself). Ill either order one online or wait and hope another one ends up there.


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## anthonysmith93 (Jul 15, 2015)

Cruze speakers are literally only like $21-$25. For pioneer audio or regular. It's possibly a moisture in the door issue. Nothing keeps water from getting to the rear of the speaker (if it makes it passed the window rubber trim) which it likely has.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

anthonysmith93 said:


> Cruze speakers are literally only like $21-$25. For pioneer audio or regular. It's possibly a moisture in the door issue. Nothing keeps water from getting to the rear of the speaker (if it makes it passed the window rubber trim) which it likely has.


Yes, the pioneer door speakers cost less than the standard speakers. Why that is, no clue.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Cobalts were prone to the same issue. It's a wet-design door panel, so the factory speakers with paper cones can/will eventually degrade enough from moisture to stop working. As far as I know, either system still has paper cones in the door speakers - the Cobalt's Pioneer system did. Only the Pioneer's 6x9s were non-paper.


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## anthonysmith93 (Jul 15, 2015)

MP81 said:


> Cobalts were prone to the same issue. It's a wet-design door panel, so the factory speakers with paper cones can/will eventually degrade enough from moisture to stop working. As far as I know, either system still has paper cones in the door speakers - the Cobalt's Pioneer system did. Only the Pioneer's 6x9s were non-paper.


Yes sir you are right, paper speakers. I wonder why car manufacturers still use paper. Is it a temp thing? (In winter non paper speakers sometimes need to warm up to sound best) or is it a sound quality thing?


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

anthonysmith93 said:


> Yes sir you are right, paper speakers. I wonder why car manufacturers still use paper. Is it a temp thing? (In winter non paper speakers sometimes need to warm up to sound best) or is it a sound quality thing?


More than likely a cost versus performance thing. They can still get decent performance out of a slightly better paper cone speaker without spending the extra couple bucks to move up to a composite cone.


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## KENSTV123 (Sep 21, 2014)

DyneHaZ said:


> I asked the Chevy dealer to look at it when I had it there for an oil change. They said they would have to replace it $42 for the speaker and $89 for installation.
> 
> I'm sure i could replace it myself, so i'm going to try that.
> I live next to a huge U-Pull-It auto part junk yard. The inventory shows they have a 2014 Cruze there now. Would their speakers fit in my 2012?
> ...


The original speakers are not that expensive on line and are not that bad, changing the door speakers is very easy with pry tools, the defective speaker could be a overheated voice coil from playing loud, when you replace it cut around the edge of the old speaker and remove the cone, if it looks darker at the coil winding that is the cause


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## joes74challenger (Jan 9, 2017)

So if water is an issue, is there a marine replacement available through crutchfield? Would be better quality and prevent the moisture from causing an issue again. Especially if you shrink wrap or use another method to keep moisture out. Just a thought. 


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

joes74challenger said:


> So if water is an issue, is there a marine replacement available through crutchfield? Would be better quality and prevent the moisture from causing an issue again. Especially if you shrink wrap or use another method to keep moisture out. Just a thought.


Any aftermarket speaker should do the trick - can't say I know of any that use a paper cone.


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## DyneHaZ (Jul 26, 2013)

Well I pulled one from a 2013 - non-pioneer. I will try and install it this week and let you guys know.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Contacts expand with temperature increase, if cold, sounds more like a connectivity problem. Would have to remove the door panel to get at the contacts to clean them,the females can be crimped closed a bit for better contact.

Door speakers are new problems since the airbags kicked them out, more exposure to cold and moisture, if the cones were bad, no difference in temperature, will always sound bad. Another problem is that lower outside window weather strip, gets hard with age where more water can seep in.

Your dealer sure has a solution for this, trade it in for a new one.


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## Blancmange (Jan 9, 2013)

NickD said:


> Contacts expand with temperature increase, if cold, sounds more like a connectivity problem. Would have to remove the door panel to get at the contacts to clean them,the females can be crimped closed a bit for better contact.
> 
> Door speakers are new problems since the airbags kicked them out, more exposure to cold and moisture, if the cones were bad, no difference in temperature, will always sound bad. Another problem is that lower outside window weather strip, gets hard with age where more water can seep in.
> 
> Your dealer sure has a solution for this, trade it in for a new one.


That's the dealer's answer to every problem!


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Another problem can be with the speaker itself, voice coil is glued to the cone, two wires also glued to the cone to eyelets, then two flexible wires to the input terminal. These are hand soldered, four of them, if the solder iron is not held a second longer, can get a flux connection that corrodes with age. Again temperature related, one touch with a hot soldering iron releases a puff of smoke. With this gone, good to go again.

Found these kinds of problems everywhere, particular in automotive. On say an ECU the connectors have a lot more mass than the other components, don't get hot enough to burn out the flux. Touching each pin with a ht iron gives off that puff of smoke, and good to go again, heck of a lot cheaper than laying out as much as 1,300 bucks for a new ECU.

One of the worst problems I ran into is insulation displacement terminal, a bean counter thing, save stripping the ends of the insulation off to get a good grip when crimping the terminal. With displacement, a small brass point cut through the insulation only making a point contact, then brass against bare copper that are dissimilar metals, corrosion!

When I ran into this, just had to cut some off the insulation that ran into the terminal and solder it, heck of a way to spend a weekend. 

If on the Cruze battery terminals, also crimped, if they just stuck the ends of that bare copper wire into a soldering pot before crimping, would never be a problem. Even a better solution is to use pretinned wire, does not corrode at all, but the bean counters do not like paying a few cents more. 

Last time I saw pretinned wire was in 40's vehicles, also the last time they used a bit of nickel in sheet metal.


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## katefrank4 (Oct 15, 2018)

I have this exact same issue. Passenger side speaker sounding like it's blown, but only during cold mornings and not when its had a chance to warm up. Did replacing the speaker work?


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