The audio forum seems mostly about aftermarket and not sure if this problem is more of a 5th gen only issue.

I have the base level audio system, not the Bose.

Until my car sits in the sun for a few hours, the only speaker that works on the passenger side is the A pillar mounted tweeter. I figured that the problem was most likely something to do with the factory HU and since I was looking to upgrade anyway to something with a USB port for my iPod, I got a Pioneer DEH-5100UB head unit. Definitely sounds a lot better, but this morning when I got in my car, just like with the factory HU, only the tweeter was working on the passenger side. After sitting in the sun, all speakers were working again.

It seems odd that it would be a wiring issue since they tend to be on and off and not necessarily heat related like this is. I've looked through the wiring diagrams in the FSM and don't see any seperate amps so I am guessing I should be looking for something after the tweeter but before where the wiring goes through the doors perhaps? It doesn't appear that the front and rear speakers on each side use the same wiring either so that has me a bit stumped.

BTW, it appears the driver's side speakers are aftermarket but the passenger side are OEM. Go figure.

Anyone else have this problem and were able to correct it? I'd really like to avoid paying someone $$$ to chase down what might be a minor wiring issue.

 

Pop the door panel off - chances are good that the wire terminals might have come loose.

 

Turned out the speakers were bad.

Rained yesterday morning and my afternoon customer's truck was in the shop so I pulled up my FSM (factory service manual) on my computer and looked to see how to take the door panels off. Since it rained in the morning and the sky was hazy, the speakers on the passenger side weren't working. I pulled off the passenger front door panel and the driver's side rear to access both speakers. Interesting to find the driver's side speakers weren't stock. Anyway, I took the speaker out of the left rear and hooked it to the wiring on the right front and SOUND! I went ahead and put that speaker in the right front door so I'd at least have sound on both sides.

Went up to Best Buy (5-6 minutes from my house) and picked up a pair of Alpine SPS-600 6.5" speakers. Rear speakers are mostly for fill-in so I wasn't going to go nuts buying something really expensive. Besides, I've had Alpine speakers in the past and they are pretty decent.

I ripped out the old speakers and mounted the new ones in the factory speaker enclosure.

You can see the new speakers have much larger magnets-the old speaker is just a magnet because I tore it out of the enclosure and hacked it up a little for the new speakers to clear.



Crappy cellphone pics:







Huge improvement in sound, noticably more bass-of course, you can only get so much out of four 6.5" speakers. Also have the satisfaction of fingering it out for myself and not paying someone to tell me I need new speakers.

 

That's always the best, when you can figure it out on your own and then reward yourself like that! Alpine makes some pretty good audio stuff, I have Type-R's in my doors. Glad you found your problem!

 

New speakers are always nice, but figuring chit out for YOURSELF is the best!!