Only 2 Speakers Working

[GasGuzler]

I have a 2004 Wrangler, had issues with the radio speakers since I got it. Only two out of the four are working, but what’s strange is the two that work are opposites, the left dash speaker and the right overhead speaker. I can very faintly hear a slight popping sound coming from the left overhead and I can just barely hear the music playing but extremely distorted and crunchy from the right dash, but it’s so faint on both that you have to fade and balance to just those speakers and put your ears up to them to hear it. I checked all wiring and nothing looks broken or anything, could this possibly be a radio issue? Radio is the factory one, nothing is touched.

 

[hear]

flip/flop the working & non-working speakers and see if the problem follows the speakers or stays with the wiring.

 

[cliffish]

If they are original they are probably shot and breaking down

 

[Cooper Smith]

I have a 2004 Wrangler, had issues with the radio speakers since I got it. Only two out of the four are working, but what’s strange is the two that work are opposites, the left dash speaker and the right overhead speaker. I can very faintly hear a slight popping sound coming from the left overhead and I can just barely hear the music playing but extremely distorted and crunchy from the right dash, but it’s so faint on both that you have to fade and balance to just those speakers and put your ears up to them to hear it. I checked all wiring and nothing looks broken or anything, could this possibly be a radio issue? Radio is the factory one, nothing is touched.

I would imagine everything being stock, the speakers are just simply blown. Head unit may be fried too. You can get head units and plug and play adapters cheap.

 

[ChasUGC]

If you have one speaker that makes good sound, then move that speaker to the other speaker locations to make sure the speaker wiring is correct. If you don't hear sound from the other speaker locations, then you know it is a wiring issue. If you know the speaker wiring is correct, then it is a radio issue. You likely will have polarity issues as well. The speaker wiring can easily be tracked down from a FSM wiring diagram for the radio, since it is factory radio. In the FSM you can verify the proper wires for the speakers based on color and stripes. The FSM wiring diagram will also give you polarity for each speaker.

 

[CreepinDeth]

flip/flop the working & non-working speakers and see if the problem follows the speakers or stays with the wiring.

This is troubleshooting 101
I would bet on bad speakers after 20 years

 

[Gunnersmate]

If you have one speaker that is good move it to the middle problem solved

 

[ChasUGC]

If you search the forum for the Factory Service Manual for your year(search FSM) and find the wiring diagram for the factory radio, then you will know exactly which wiring colors and stripes are used for each speaker. Then, you can use the wiring diagram on a good speaker to see if you have bad speakers, or maybe you have a bad radio. Just take the wires from a speaker giving good sound, and match them to a speaker location, using the FSM diagram, to a different speaker location. If this doesn't make sense to you, let me know. Maybe, I'm not explaining it well enough. I believe you have a wiring issue. You probably have crossed wires on the dead speakers, or bad speakers.

 

[ChasUGC]

Here's a good suggestion. Switch the speakers and see if the other two start working. Switch the good left dash speaker with the right dash speaker. Switch the right rear speaker with the left rear speaker. Then you'll know it's the speakers. If the dead side still doesn't work then likely it's crossed speaker wiring.

 

[hear]

Here's a good suggestion. Switch the speakers and see if the other two start working. Switch the good left dash speaker with the right dash speaker. Switch the right rear speaker with the left rear speaker. Then you'll know it's the speakers. If the dead side still doesn't work then likely it's crossed speaker wiring.

That was a pretty good idea when you suggested it Friday evening, and also when you did it again on Saturday. It was equally good when Gunnersmate suggested it on Friday afternoon.

I'm pretty sure somebody suggested doing that same thing Friday morning too, but there's no way anyone could possibly know that.

 

[GasGuzler]

I had already flip flopped the speakers and got nothing, ended up being a bad radio which I’ve never seen happen. Found one for $20 on marketplace, fixed the issue, now time to upgrade the god awful dash speakers haha

 

[hear]

I had already flip flopped the speakers and got nothing, ended up being a bad radio which I’ve never seen happen. Found one for $20 on marketplace, fixed the issue, now time to upgrade the god awful dash speakers haha

the factory speakers are oval, right? Somebody sells a pretty cheap adapter to allow you to mount in round speakers. Although I recently acquired a TJ that is using those 1/2" metal straps to mount in round speakers which seems to be working really well. Probably not audiophile-rated, but top down/doors off @ 60mph is probably not audiophile territory anyway.

 

[jwilkinson01]

I have a pair of MTX speaker brackets from eBay that wouldn’t work for me (my speakers were too deep for the angled brackets) someone can have them for the price of shipping.

My audio choices were all made with the knowledge that I take the top and doors off as much as possible. Not only loud so I can hear at highway speeds but also not obvious to thieves.