speaker fuse blowing

[pastordave]

I have an 06. About 2 weeks ago the speakers stopped working. Radio light was on, etc, but no sound from the speakers. Found the fuse under the hood and replaced it. Three days later, same thing. On my third fuse. Any help or anyone with same problem and hopefully the cure. Thanks for any help.

Pastordave

[Ritz]

I have an 06. About 2 weeks ago the speakers stopped working. Radio light was on, etc, but no sound from the speakers. Found the fuse under the hood and replaced it. Three days later, same thing. On my third fuse. Any help or anyone with same problem and hopefully the cure. Thanks for any help.


It could be a couple of things:

a bad amplifier
a blown speaker with a shorted voice coil
a short in the wiring to any one of the speakers

Given that it takes a couple of days to blow a fuse, I'd suspect it to be the last choice. One of the speaker's wiring is rubbing somewhere and occasionally shorting to ground. Good luck.

[pastordave]

It could be a couple of things:

a bad amplifier
a blown speaker with a shorted voice coil
a short in the wiring to any one of the speakers

Given that it takes a couple of days to blow a fuse, I'd suspect it to be the last choice. One of the speaker's wiring is rubbing somewhere and occasionally shorting to ground. Good luck.


Thanks for the reply. If you are right on #3 it looks like I'll just have to live with it and carry around spare fuses. I do have an amp under the back seat. Not sure if it is after market or not so I may check that just in case. Much appreciated.

Pastordave

[VTchemist]

I have an 06. About 2 weeks ago the speakers stopped working. Radio light was on, etc, but no sound from the speakers. Found the fuse under the hood and replaced it. Three days later, same thing. On my third fuse. Any help or anyone with same problem and hopefully the cure. Thanks for any help.

Pastordave

Is this a factory system or was it an aftermarket? If aftermarket, was the correct amperage fuse used?

Here is a easy way to test your speakers. Remove the door panel and gain access to the speaker. Unclip the harness. If you or a friend have an ohm meter, measure the resistance of the speaker. It should be around 8 ohms.

If you don't have a ohm meter, take a good D cell flashlight battery and two pieces of wire. Strip both ends of the wire and cram one end in the speaker harness (that runs to the speaker) do the same for the other. Now, attach each end of the wires to the battery: one to the + and the other to the -. When attached, you should see the speaker move. Flip the leads and it will move the other way.

If you see no movement (or read an infinite resistance) your speakers are bad.

[guitar_stitch]

Wait... a separate fuse for the speakers than the radio fuse? Is that what I'm reading?

[far2grumpy]

I was also baffled by the under-hood speaker fuse.

I checked my 05 Vue schematics and found a premium audio system with separate amplifier.

The amp is powered by a 20 amp circuit from the under-hood fuse box.

I've attached the drawings if interested.

[FGCA_XRL]

There is no fuse for the speakers, speakers run off of AC, not DC. While it is possible to fuse a speaker, and not necessarily a bad idea, it only protects against a bad amp. An amp that is clipping will send DC and eventually destroy the speaker. A small LED or light bulb can do the same thing, except it won't blow the fuse and will harmlessly dissipate the DC current(if the DC current is small enough). Many higher end component systems include a light in the crossover for this reason.

A bad speaker can cause this as well. From what I understand, the factory radio is working correctly, but no sound is coming out? Does your vehicle have a sub in the passenger side of the hatch area? Do you have the AAC with the 6CD MP3 player?

Not being able to test it out, I'd say that your most likely problem is that you have a bad speaker that is shorting out, and the factory stereo or amp isn't smart enough to shut off and go into protect mode, and is blowing the fuse instead.

Get yourself a multimeter and you can narrow down your problems pretty quickly, especially if you're willing to take the door panels off to test the speakers.

[guitar_stitch]

Fuses can function on AC as well. (Remember the old houses.) Likewise, I have personally blown fuses in my PA speakers by sending too much power through the speakers, even though the amp never clipped. (Bridged mode is dangerous!) However, in this case, I think far2grumpy is right... a separate power amp for the speakers.

[happy_go_lucky]

I am having the same problem as Pastor Dave on my 06 Vue which I bought used just a few months ago. Audio system on but no sound coming out all of a sudden.
Of course the dealership wants to charge me over $100 just to check it out but I am on a really limited budget and a single mom, is there ANYTHING I can do to fix this myself? Please keep in mind I have no tools or the instruments mentioned previously in this thread.:no:

THANKS!

[far2grumpy]

H_G_L ... do you have a fancy radio? Like with XM, MP3 and such? Another member - Ritz - brought his system back to life ... at least temporarily ... by reseating a fuse (I assume in the under-hood fuse box).

You can open the hood, remove cover from fuse-block (to rear of battery) and check for a 20 amp fuse ... labeled PREM AUD (check underside of fuse block cover for fuse location). Grab the fuse by the indentations on the side and extract from the fuse block. Give it a good visual to make sure the metal element is in one piece and then reinstall. If fuse is defective you can replace at any auto parts house or department store with auto supply section.

There's another radio fuse in the instrument panel fuse block (see little door on passenger's side of the lower part of center console). You can also check or replace this fuse if the one under the hood made no difference.

Let us know if reseating or replacing either fuse restores the radio.