Paul Distefano

Hi...... I am new here, and am hoping that someone can provide some advice, as this situation has me a bit confused I own a 1999 Cherokee Sport. She's about to turn 400,000 miles and still drives great. For the past 4 years, I have kind of semi-retired her because the AC went and I could only use her when the weather wasn't too hot. Anyway, I was able to get the AC fixed for a reasonable price, so I plan to use her more because in my new position, I need to demo some pretty big lights and my little sedan wasn't appropriate for this kind of cargo. Now, a few years ago, the left speakers, both front and rear, stopped working. I thought for sure that it had to be the radio. For both tho go out simultaneously, I did not even consider the wiring....... I thought it had to be the left channel was gone. So, I decided to put an inexpensive radio with bluetooth interface in her. Well...... apparently, it was not the radio. Same thing...... no left channel audio from the speakers. I decided to do a little testing by checking continuity with an ohm meter. I popped the door panel off and got to the speaker wires. I put one lead from the meter into the corresponding connector of the harness and the other to the speaker wire. Turns out that my + lead was good and my - was not. Did the same for the rear speaker........ both leads seemed fine. I could not figure out why i was getting no audio from the left rear.

I started poking around on the internet and found several posts and YouTube videos all pointing to a possible break in the wiring that goes from the cabin to the driver side door. I decided to check it out and the hot lead was broken...... right where one of the videos said it would be. I did a temporary splice and got sound out of the speaker. Since the door panel was off and I had access, I decided to change out the speakers with something a little better. Again, I temporarily wired it up........ and got nothing! I use the multi-tester again, and both leads are fine. I just get no sound. Getting frustrated, I decided to walk away for a bit and start playing with the rear speakers. I hook up a speaker on the left and, miraculously, I get sound. I did nothing to the wiring. It just started working. I replaced both rear speakers and, for the first time in years, I can hear a full stereo signal.

I cannot understand why I am not getting any sound from the front rear speaker now. I have tried it with three different speakers with no success. It is just very strange that I found the break in the hot lead, repaired it, got sound, and then lost it. I have tested the wiring from the wiring harness to the speaker connector several times and I have continuity and no short. There is no reason that I should not hear music out of the speaker.

If anyone here has any ideas, suggestions, advice, etc., I would love to hear it.

Thanks,

PD

investinwaffles

Definitely an intermittent wiring issue. Maybe just a break in the insulation that is shorting to ground most of the time, but not all of the time.
Honestly, its probably more time efficient to run your own wires like I did. Plus that way you can justify wiring up a cheap 4-channel amplifier and have a banging stereo

Paul Distefano

I know....... you are probably right, and I will probably do that for the left front, since I have everything taken apart and just need to remove the kick panel to get a clear path from the stereo to the door. For now, I am going to cross my fingers and hope the left rear speaker gives me no problem because I have no idea where (or how) to run the wire to rear speaker location! If you don't mind my asking....... wher

Paul Distefano

Well........ you won't believe it, but it was just intermittent contact in a couple of pins in the wiring harness, on the Cherokee side! Made sense, as every time I used a multi tester, it was between the input side of the harness and the speaker terminals. Those were always fin..... Then I would plug in the stereo, and there was no sound. Every time I tested out the back of the harness when the stereo was attached, I got continuity on the tester, but no sound. Every time I would disconnect the stereo, I would turn the ignition switch off. Then, once I forgot to do this, and as I was unplugging the harness, I would hear audio! That was when it hit me that the intermittent contact was in the harness. Felt like a putz. All I needed to do was to use a small screwdriver to push the two offending blades in the harness slightly downward to make better contact with the pins in the harness on the stereo side. Now everything is great! I should have known better and tested the connection point in the harness and not assumed that it was ok. On the positive side, I didn't have to figure out how to route new wiring to the rear speaker locations. Thanks for trying to help, regardless. Cheers.