RoninEng

Hello all,
After weeks of research and pulling my hair and car apart I am seeking the advice of the experts. I have an 03 gs300 with ml sound and nav. A year ago when I bought the car the rear sub was blown so I disconnected it and had no problems for 8 months. A couple of months ago the sound would cut in and out every once in a while, shortly after the right front speaker began to rattle. The problem began to get worse and worse. Then the sound would come on when I turned on the car then cut out completely. I have had no sound for about a month. In my opinion it would happen more frequently on hotter days until the point I am at now were there is no sound at all. The touch screen is always on and shows when i touch the radio buttons that the radio is receiving inputs. I also am unable to adjust the fade, base and treble. As in there is no bar that goes up and down or left and right to adjust. I pulled the amp and looked at it and pulled the nav/radio to look at connectors and all is ok. When I use my nav system the lady still comes in loud and clear on the front left speaker where I believe she is suppose to come in. I was an Audi tech and am now a vw tech and a md state inspector so I know my way around a car. Before I go spending big money I was hoping for some insight. I tried an amp and head unit out of an 01 gs300 to no avail. My amp part number ends in 02 and that amp matched plugs but not part numbers. Also when I tried the 01 head unit I had no touch screen so I believe those parts from the 01 are year specific and would not have worked anyway. Please help me if you can and thank you for your time,
Alberto

RoninEng

Anyone have any ideas

Jonb42

I'd be willing to bet that one of your speaker is blown and causing a short. If your luck the amp that a safety in it that turns it off when it senses a short. If you can get a wiring diagram of your stereo system I would either get a multi meter and unplug the speaker plug from the amp. Locate the 2 wires that go to the speaker that was rattling badly ( good place to start). Put the multimeter on the ohms setting and connect the leads to the terminals for the speaker. Honestly I'm not sure if the factory speaker are 2 ohms or 8 but when you connect the leads to the terminals and you get a reading that is not between 2 and 8 ohms the speaker is blown. One way to find out what your meter should read is to test the wires for the last known best sounding speaker (one that most likly isn't damaged in anyway). When or if you find a speaker that is blown try cutting the wires leaving yourself enough room to reconnect them when you need to. Turn our radio off and back on. And hopefully you have sound. Personally it sounds like your long overdue for speaker and a headunit. The reason I'm saying you have to do bath is cause if you replace your speakers your factor amp can only power factory speakers. I went to school for auto electronics. It's just difficult to explain by writing cause I'm trying to sum a chapter up in a paragraph. You can pm me if your want a better explanation or a Lil guidance by phone send me your number. Good luck.

RoninEng

Thanks for the input. I will try to disconnect the speaker and see if the sound comes back on. Also thank you for the knowledge, I did not realize amps had a fail safe of that nature.

RoninEng

So if it is seeing a short I would have to complete the circuit to that speaker that is blown, example put a paper clip in the connector to loop the circuit so it is not seeing too much resistance, turn the key off and on so the amp does not register the short. Sound good?

RoninEng

Also if that was true why did it not recognize when I disconnected the sub? It would be seeing too much resistance from the sub and should have shut off then?