Two months ago I was in the market for an older luxury car around $3000. Found a 95 ES 300 on craiglist, and went for a test drive.

Upon operating the radio and cd player, I noticed that I was only hearing sound from the right speakers. No sound was coming from the left side speakers. Adjusting the fader and balance ***** didnt really do anything to change it. I just shrugged off the problem because I would be doing some custom audio work anyway.

When I picked up the car two days later, to my surprise I was hearing sound from all of the speakers. So I decided to put the audio work on hold. This continued for about three weeks, until the speaker problem came back.

Each day when I get in the car and turn on the radio, I'm never sure which combination of speakers are going to make sound. Sometimes only the front speakers work, other times only the front right speaker, only speakers on one side, etc. This is quite frustrating because at times I am experiencing decent audio, and then the speakers will cut in and out, or just go quiet all together.

Has anyone else had this problem, or have any ideas as to what is causing this? Would a new head unit or speakers correct this? Issue with wiring or factory amp? Responses would be much appreciated. The car has cd changer in the trunk.

 

maybe its some wiring that came lose? might want to check the wiring

 

the factory amp is probley shot, I had the same problem and just removed the amp and bypassed it and it all works perfect now.

 

I've been thinking lately it was the amp and not speaker wires or anything like that since switching between radio and cd would switch speaker output.

zppeacock, what do you mean by bypassing the amp? sorry I'm not too knowledgeable on car audio terms. Am I better off buying a new aftermarket amplifier, or getting a new head unit/ receiver? I think the stock look for the radio is very clean and I like it, but what is necessary to get functional sound back?

 

What zppeacock meant by bypassing the factory amp is to not use the factory amp and instead use an aftermarket amp to power your speakers. You state you have a 95 ES, Im not too familiar with that Gen Year of vehicle. I have a 98 ES300 and have the Nakamichi sound system, this same year also came out with the Pioneer sound system. Your year may have offered two different sound systems. Anyways, on my head unit, you cant completely bypass the stock amp, if you do, the OEM head unit wont work. I can only bypass the speaker connections to an aftermarket amp then to the speakers. If your happy with the sound coming out of the factory amp, then your better off buying a used factory amp off of ebay, just make sure you buy the correct factory amp for your car. My OEM amp happens to be behind the glove box and CD changer and is held on by two bolts and you unplug the wire harness' from the old amp and plug into the new used amp you bought. For your year, I dont know where the amp is located, could be behind the glove box or under the driver or passenger seat. Good luck on your repair.

 

your amp should be under the passenger seat. I had my local audio shop bypass it, they basically hooked the inputs for the speakers and the outputs together ( but there different colored wires), they also Installed a deck for my and my subs out of my old car.

I like doing some audio work but I was a little iffy on the factory amp. I brought it in and told them what it was doing and they knew the amp was bad.

 

Thank you angmedic91 and zppeacock for your insight.

I am planning on going to my local audio shop today and seeing what the owner can do for me. Looking at factory amps on ebay ranging from prices of 50 to 100 has me thinking I might as well go ahead and get a new head unit to improve overall sound and get some cool features.

I bought a pair of Infinity Reference Series 6032si speakers for the front doors and a pair of Kenwood 6982ie for the rear deck. I had very similar speakers in my last car powered off the factory unit and was impressed with sound quality. I'm sure they will sound excellent with an aftermarket receiver. Then I plan to add a subwoofer to fill out the bottom end. Cant wait for that.

Again, thanks for the ideas and solutions!