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In my 2005 Chevy Cobalt front speakers went silent (ones in the back still work fine). What could be the reason and what's the best way to fix them?

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have you checked the fader/balance settings to make sure they didn't get inadvertently set faded all the way to the rear? –  mac Oct 22 '13 at 20:53
Everything seems to be in default positions. But I noticed if I knock on the speaker - it may work for a while. Does it mean bad connection ? If so anyway to get inside to fix it? –  Yuriy Galanter Oct 22 '13 at 23:18

2 Answers 2

Did you buy this car brand new? It is possible that someone traded it in and did a hack job putting the speakers back in. A previous owner could've potentially had an after-market stereo.

I assume your stereo is factory?

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No I bought it used, but I do believe sound system is factory. –  Yuriy Galanter Oct 23 '13 at 1:31
Try taking the door panel off youtube.com/watch?v=21bJEs-akhc After you get the door panel off, check the connections to the back of the speaker. –  Evan Parsons Oct 23 '13 at 11:51

If the connections to the speaker are ok then you may have dirt in the cones. I had a speaker stop working because of that. As soon as I started looking at it carefully there was a ball of dirt that stopped the cone from moving at all. Once I cleaned it up it worked again like new.

Since you say that the speakers will work if you jiggle them I imagine it's not for lack of a good connection to the radio, but if nothing else works this might also be worth checking...

Another quick check is to swap one of the front speakers with one of the back speakers and see what works and what doesn't. This will tell you if it's the speaker or a bad connection.

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Thanks for the suggestion. Any specifics on how to do the cleaning? –  Yuriy Galanter Oct 24 '13 at 16:58
In my case i took the speaker apart as much as possible (which is not much) and then I checked to see if the center of the speaker can move freely up and down (don't push or pull too hard, you might break it). In mine there was gunk in there. You might want to look at a working speaker for comparison. –  vlsd Oct 24 '13 at 20:52

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