car audio saga

about half a year ago i went to upgrade the car audio system at AE. Changed the component speakers and then added an amplifier in 2 stages.

then recently, the right front speaker started to sound coarse and static. Initially it was when turning a sharp or wide left, all the sound will 'flow' to the left. Now even bumps and holes on the road can reproduce the problem.

brought it to the shop, they were quite nice to look at the problem for free. But they couldn't isolate the problem, and told me it might be the HU. Maybe a possibility, or maybe a sales pitch to upgrade my HU?

looked for some resources on the net, such as the audio connector diagram and steps to dismantle the right dashboard. Today's weather was almost perfect for the task...

The bottom panel below steering wheel


Bottom and top panel out


HU/aircon control panel out


The audio connector

the connector is strange. It's the original connector from the old Alpine HU, but the new wires from the amplifier are spliced into the connector. So prepared the tools and redid the particular pair of wires that lead to the front right speaker.

pray...

... there were some small problems too:

- 1 screw that secures the HU rack to the dashboard chassis is missing

- 1 clip that does the above was lying around (didn't know that clip's purpose until today)

- the whole HU wasn't properly secured as a result. Quite poor workmanship...