I bought two sets of Pioneer 6 x 8's for my truck, they don't sound too bad except I'm having a bit of trouble with my rear driver's side speaker.

For some reason it doesn't seem like it works, the speaker is brand new out of the box, but I need some help.


My stepdad owned the truck before me and cut the stock harness for the rear speakers when he upgraded a couple years back with it, and when he got his 98 Ranger he put the old stock ones back in, before giving me this truck. Doesnt seem to have any ill effects on the passenger side rear speaker but now the drivers side is what annoys me.

When I first put the speaker in, the music sounded really distant, you could hear it but it was very low and now it doesn't come on at all. Same thing happened with the front passenger door speaker but I fixed that problem, as it was just a loose wire.

And from what I understand, since the truck comes with a premium system it's equipped with a factory amplifier, I was told it could be by-passing the input and output on the stereo and Im a little sketchy on cutting them.

I called a local Circuit City and BestBuy for some technical help, and they both charge around 48 an hour for any audio related job. Call me cheap but if it's something simple that I can fix, I'd rather 48 - 86 dollars. I maybe wrong, but isn't there supposed to be a constant voltage running from the headunit to the speaker when the stereo is turned on or am I wrong?


The Pioneers are a temporary fix until I can get myself a set of Boston Aocustics from Crutchfield. I just got really tired of the stock speakers because of the crackling noises from wear and tear.

And I had no idea the stock speakers were of JBL origin either.

Can anyone help?

 

The only thing I can suggest, is to bypass the factory amp altogether. If you can locate it, I'm not sure where it is. Or you can run new wires to each speaker.

 

ummm no ranger ever had a factory amp. Run new speaker wire and should solve your problem. Probably just a bad wire.

premium sound never came in rangers at that either.

 

I don't want to make anyone sound stupid but, why does on the back of my speakers say a couple sets of numbers then "PREMIUM"?

 

cuz they probably have an extra 5 watts that other speakers that were put in that model and charged 500 more for their premium crappy sound

 

I thought I saw a "factory amp" in one of these threads hidden behind the passenger kick panel. Or was that something else?

 

amps are built into the radio. Ive put hundreds of radios into ranger and have never had to bypass anything some ford harnesses dont even provide an amp turn on wire

 

then why does crutchfield have instructions and harnesses to bypass the factory amp in rangers with premium sound... you might wanna do you research before giving your input on a thread.

 

Yes they do, I know where the factory amp is on my mine, its on the passenger side kick panel behind and above the jumpseat.

So far now both rear speakers are out....ill figure it out somehow

 

I dunno if ive been working in this business for 5 years now and have worked on about every car out there and crutchfield isnt always right about everything. Ive installed radios in every year ranger and never came across a bypass harness ever

 

ok yes there is a "premium sound" available for the ranger...but let it be known that any type of aftermarket system will sound better than a dealership sound package, and will last 10 times longer... as far as your driverside speaker, it sounds to me as if its a wiring problem...you say the harnesses were at one time cut so im gonna go out on a limb and say that the problem may lie there...if all else fails just come to circuitcity...(we know what were doing)