98 Original Radio

On my 98 I have the original radio & speakers, lately I have heard a raspy rattle sound from my speakers, not all the time only sometimes & when it happens it is always from different ones never all speakers at the same time, could there be a loose wire somewhere or is there an amp that might be going, any ideas?

steve1173 wrote:

On my 98 I have the original radio & speakers, lately I have heard a raspy rattle sound from my speakers, not all the time only sometimes & when it happens it is always from different ones never all speakers at the same time, could there be a loose wire somewhere or is there an amp that might be going, any ideas?

For the rear speakers, pull the rear seat and the rear shelf, and look at the speakers. It could be there is dirt in the speaker cone. Vacuum it out gently. Then push the cone GENTLY with your fingers. If you feel any scraping or grittiness, you have a burned speaker coil and need to replace that speaker (well, for all intents and purposes, that pair of speakers).

For the front speakers, you should be able to pry off the speaker grille using a trim tool (CarQuest has them, they look like oversize 2-tine lemon forks or mini-crowbars sort of). Check to see there's nothing rattling around in the speaker cone, then do the same push test.

Next,with the grilles off the speakers turn the radio on to a CD or tape that has the raspiness. (don't want to have the raspies just be FM multipath distortion, which you can't really do anything about). Using the balance and fader controls, identify which speaker(s) are raspy. If the cones did not scrape but you can consistently get the raspiness, you have a problem in that channel of the radio's power amplifier and you need to either fix it (disassemble radio and replace the finals) or get a reconditioned radio (these can be very good). Or a good used "pull" radio from Ed Morad.

Albertj

On the wife's 99 Riv each of the front speakers had to be replaced because they were causing a very faint "rattle" noise at certain frequencies. At first the right one went bad and then a few months later the left one failed as well.

If you decide to replace the front speakers, its not hard at all.
I used some Pioneer replacement speakers from Wal Mart.
They cost around $35.00. There is a thread on here with some helpful info. Just let me know if you dont find it and I will locate it for you.

Bert

ibmoses wrote:

On the wife's 99 Riv each of the front speakers had to be replaced because they were causing a very faint "rattle" noise at certain frequencies. At first the right one went bad and then a few months later the left one failed as well.

If you decide to replace the front speakers, its not hard at all.
I used some Pioneer replacement speakers from Wal Mart.
They cost around $35.00. There is a thread on here with some helpful info. Just let me know if you dont find it and I will locate it for you.

Bert

Rear speakers are not hard to do either, just takes more time because you need to pull the seat to make sure it's right. Which interestingly enough makes it easier once seat is out of the way.

By the way, you might want to use a soldering iron to take the factory connectors off the OE speakers and move them to whatever speakers you buy. Just make sure the polarity is the same on both when you are done. You can check polarity by connecting a 9V battery to the speaker and see if the cone moves in or out. It should move the same way on both speakers if you connect the same wires to each connector the same way. If not, reverse one.

Albertj

Albert,
The rear speakers are replaced from the trunk.
At least that's how I did mine. With a bad back it only took 10 - 15 minutes.

Rickw wrote:

Albert,
The rear speakers are replaced from the trunk.
At least that's how I did mine. With a bad back it only took 10 - 15 minutes.

This is true - I've replaced mine twice, once from trunk (first time) and once pulling rear seat.
SO you are right, of course! Point is pulling the seat is not a requirement, and yes it does not take much time to R&R them in the trunk - it's just that I'd recommend pulling the seat in this case - on the chance there is some junk in the speakercone.

Albertj