Hi all,
I've encountered a very odd problem with my 1.4 Sport front speakers and I'm in need of some help.

So, I decided to upgrade just the front door speakers, as I thought this would be a simple way to improve the cars audio, without having to remove too much interior trim, etc. When I finished fitting them, I tested the radio out and noticed that they were the wrong way around (left is right and right is left). All I had done was swap out the factory fitted ones for new Sony ones, so I couldn't see how I could have caused this. So, first question is, are they supposed to be like this for some reason???

I assumed that somehow they had been wired wrong in the factory and I'd never noticed, so I took the radio out and swapped the the front speaker wires over where they entered the plug on the back of the radio. Now the door speakers are fine and the tweeters in the a-panels are wrong. I assume this means that somewhere there is a splitter.

So my main question is, does anyone know where this splitter is and how easy it is to get to? I stared this whole thing thinking I was doing something simple and straightforward, so I don't really want to take half the car to pieces, but now I know about it, it's really annoying me! In case it helps, everything else on the car is standard - it has the base level stock radio, no sub or Bose or anything.

Sorry for the essay, any help would be greatly appreciated

First question how many wires went to the original speakers? 4 or 2 ?
Do the rear speakers follow the fronts energy though they seem to be swapped round?

There are only two wires on the back of the radio for the front, that's why I assumed that they split somewhere after leaving the head unit. I checked them all by using the balance and front to back fader on the radio and they are very obviously wrong. I've always thought the sound in the car wasn't great, hence why I thought I'd change the speakers, but this makes me think that it was the swapped channels all along

It's confusing ,when you swapped the wires round you did do +/- not just the +? Generally the tweeter feed is taken straight from the wire to the door speakers through a capacitor to cut the bass so I would expect like you it splits near where it goes through to the door. You're not saying the tweeters are still swapped over ie fade left you get left door and right tweeter are you? Can you tell if the head unit has been exchanged? At some point, it's really strange the loom seem wrong

The more I think about it the more I think it would be easier to rewire the fronts rather than lots of messing with the original wires?
If you do use quality cable, not over the top, but ordinary 79 strand

I cut the + and - for each channel and soldered them to the + and - from the other side. So the tweeters are now the ones that are wrong and the door speakers are correct. It's definitely all original, I bought the car new in 2008 and haven't done anything to it until now.

I'm happy to run a new wire and it would be nice to know the quality isn't being degraded by my soldering, but I'm not really sure where to route it and what panels would need to be removed.

Out tweeter s follow the door speakers just checked so yours is definitely wrong

That's a shame, I was hoping I was wrong. I think I'm just going to have to run a new wire, as you say. Cheers for all your help!

New wire from head unit along to each tweeter then down to doors, a long stiff wire coat hanger straightened out is good for routing cables. Note you need to find the crossover/splitter it could be just a small capacitor on the rear of the tweeter and it's very important to keep all the +/- the right/same way round do you get high notes from your new door speakers or are the high notes filtered out?

The tweeters do seem to be ok apart from being swapped. If I'm going to have to take the a pillar off anyway I may replace the tweeters as well - I'll have to think about that one...

Well,,, you could put your "new" ones in the rear, and get component mid/tweeter set up for the fronts?

Not sure what the standard size is so took a guess( 5.25 and 6.5 are the same price), these, http://caraudiosecurity.com/gt7-5c-13cm-5-25-component-speakers-135-watts
are likely to sound more bassy than normal the ones as JBL are known for bass heavy speakers and have a high sensitivity figure so more volume, tweeters can sound a bit shrill though, all my serious car audio stuff is in a box in the garage, such a shame front speakers alone were £250.

Sorry to revive this thread guys. I have a 2008 1.4 sport, i have replaced the HU with a Sony HU. Since the new install though the tweeters are working fine but the bass drivers in both the doors dont work properly, in fact it seems that they only emit the high frequencies, no bass at all. The rears are fine. Reading above i wonder if its possible that the capacitor on the tweeters (both) have failed and only the higher frequencies are being sent to the doors - i may be on the wrong path hear, but any advice would be amazing.
thanks....

The Cats Meewow said:

Sorry to revive this thread guys. I have a 2008 1.4 sport, i have replaced the HU with a Sony HU. Since the new install though the tweeters are working fine but the bass drivers in both the doors dont work properly, in fact it seems that they only emit the high frequencies, no bass at all. The rears are fine. Reading above i wonder if its possible that the capacitor on the tweeters (both) have failed and only the higher frequencies are being sent to the doors - i may be on the wrong path hear, but any advice would be amazing.
thanks....

Click to expand...

The capacitors filter out the low frequencies, the door speakers are directly wired so should work check your wiring make sure non to earth.

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go

The Cats Meewow said:

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go

Click to expand...

The way it works is the bigger speakers are wired directly to the radio the tweeters are connected across the same speaker feed but include a capacitor to remove the bass frequencies(large current) to prevent the tweeters getting fried. On a more expensive set up the bass speakers also have (generally) a inductor to cut the high frequencies or a proper crossover with dedicated cross over points with defined slope

thanks for the advice, it is really bugging me how or why this is occurring. The sound system was just the 'MP3' without any additional subs or amps etc.

If i put my ear to the door speakers i can faintly hear sound but obviously nothing like it should be. The tweeters are fine and the rears are fine. Is it going to be the best option to replace and rewire the door speakers? It just seems weird that both have failed.

thanks again

Scott

Following!this seems like a very interesting thread

So, a couple of weeks in and the new speakers finally arrived (17cm Alpine G series). I took off the door panel - lots easier than anticipated.
Speaker looked in tact and connected so i gave the wires a wiggle, no change. Then i set about getting the old speakers out, that was a bit of a trial but managed it. I connected the new speaker to the old wiring, both wires were coloured purple and black which i thought was odd, i couldnt make out from this which was +/-, a quick look online didnt offer any solutions so i had a quick guess (not clever i know) and i got lucky, the wire going into No2 on the speaker plug seems to be the +, the new speaker came to life with full sound not muted or anything. Followed the same process for the drivers side, except speaker cables here were yellow and yellow & black again opted for No2 wire (yellow & black) for a positive, put the speaker balance to fronts, they sound amazing - proper bass and very clear, moved the balance towards the rear fully expecting the smile to come off my face when the sound went wonky but no, i had got lucky and connected everything the right way, bass remained good and no sounds associated with + & - being crossed. However, of course i was never going to be THAT lucky, before i put the doors back together i moved the balance to the left - well, the left tweeter and left rear stayed on, the left door speaker faded out and the right door speaker came to life... I recall the chap earlier in this thread having this issue too, i wonder then if the left door speaker cables are the same colour for a reason? I dont know - not wanting to push my luck i put it all back together, it all works fine, i've added my sub and it sounds amazing with the new alpines in there too. next job is the rears, but i believe this isnt for the faint hearted as there is lots to remove etc. So I am still in the dark as to why or how both left and right door speakers had failed, that isnt a common thing - as soon as the new speakers were connected it just came to life!
Ive not had a FIAT since my old W reg (1980) 128 and then a 1977 Strada, roughly 30yrs ago - nice to see they are still as quirky.

So, a couple of weeks in and the new speakers finally arrived (17cm Alpine G series). I took off the door panel - lots easier than anticipated.
Speaker looked in tact and connected so i gave the wires a wiggle, no change. Then i set about getting the old speakers out, that was a bit of a trial but managed it. I connected the new speaker to the old wiring, both wires were coloured purple and black which i thought was odd, i couldnt make out from this which was +/-, a quick look online didnt offer any solutions so i had a quick guess (not clever i know) and i got lucky, the wire going into No2 on the speaker plug seems to be the +, the new speaker came to life with full sound not muted or anything. Followed the same process for the drivers side, except speaker cables here were yellow and yellow & black again opted for No2 wire (yellow & black) for a positive, put the speaker balance to fronts, they sound amazing - proper bass and very clear, moved the balance towards the rear fully expecting the smile to come off my face when the sound went wonky but no, i had got lucky and connected everything the right way, bass remained good and no sounds associated with + & - being crossed. However, of course i was never going to be THAT lucky, before i put the doors back together i moved the balance to the left - well, the left tweeter and left rear stayed on, the left door speaker faded out and the right door speaker came to life... I recall the chap earlier in this thread having this issue too, i wonder then if the left door speaker cables are the same colour for a reason? I dont know - not wanting to push my luck i put it all back together, it all works fine, i've added my sub and it sounds amazing with the new alpines in there too. next job is the rears, but i believe this isnt for the faint hearted as there is lots to remove etc. So I am still in the dark as to why or how both left and right door speakers had failed, that isnt a common thing - as soon as the new speakers were connected it just came to life!
Ive not had a FIAT since my old W reg (1980) 128 and then a 1977 Strada, roughly 30yrs ago - nice to see they are still as quirky.

Those modern radios have all sorts of filters and equalizers, so maybe the one for the front speakers is programmed wrongly?