Speaker replacement - Front Left [Volvo XC70 2006 134k miles]

[fontoledo]

Hello Volvo experts

The front left speaker on my Volvo stopped working. You can tell it's blown by switching balance all way to the left (and not hearing a single thing). I wasn't able to find an OEM replacement on FCP Euro or even eBay. Do you guys have any advice on where to find an alternative?

Just FYI, I'm not planning on upgrading my audio. I just want to have that speaker working again, hopefully with an "original" part.

Thanks!

[chrism]

Try a wrecking yard.

[EngineeringBloke]

Volvo does offer replacement speakers. Try Tasca, or volvo parts online in a Google search. You need to specify the car model and year, and also will need to determine which level of audio option was provided in your car as there are multiple speakers to choose from and you want to match the right side (or upgrade).

Speaker may be fine

However, I note you mention not hearing anything from the speaker. This may be a sign that the speaker is actually fine! The reason is that there is a mid range (woofer) for low frequencies and a tweeter for high frequencies and these are wired in parallel in the door. If one were to fail, you would still hear the other frequencies from the remaining speaker. So instead of both the woofer and tweeter failing, it is more likely that the radio output, or amplifier (under passenger seat, an option) has a channel failure. This may be the wiring to the speaker, rather than the radio or amplifier.

If you take the left interior door cover off, you can apply 1 1/2 volts using a AA battery and some wire to the speaker (after disconnecting the speaker plug) and see if the woofer speaker moves or clicks (it so, then it is not open circuit). Or use a multimeter and check that the resistance is not 0 or infinity and is 4 or 8 ohms.

[Rattnalle]

Any 6,5" speaker with shallow mounting depth will fit using the original bracket. The old speaker is fitted with a twist fitting and glue that can be heated to loosen.

But I agree with checking it first to make sure it's actually the speaker.

[oragex]

Which audio unit is there ? I've heard the speakers on the HU-850 one can indeed fail. There is plenty of used genuine speakers on Ebay, you'll need to find out which one you have - but basically you should be able to install any of the models available. Now, drilling out the old speaker is another story, those are some tough steel rivets in there that on top of it will start spinning at some point. A good quality drill is needed, I tried to drill mines at a small angle to prevent them from spinning. New speaker can be secured with some plastic pins if you feel it's safe enough ( a side crash will make the speaker fly from there, that's why Volvo used steel rivets)

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... r&_sacat=0

[Rattnalle]

If you replace the speakers with aftermarket units you don't drill the bracket but rather just heat the glue and twist the old one out (probably ruining it completely while doing so, I did at least).

[EngineeringBloke]

The woofer is mounted in a plastic adapter that fits the uneven shape of the inner door sheet. The adapter is held to the sheet by hard metal rivets, as mentioned by oragex. The woofer itself is glued and fitted to the adapter with a twist.

The adapter also has a socket mounted on it, so the speaker can be disconnected. The socket has wires soldered to it and to the speaker.

I upgraded my speakers, and felt it better to remove the adapter from the car to work on it. I did use a drill at an angle to destroy the heads of the 4 retaining rivets. The adapter's plastic around the rivet holes took some minor damage when the drill slipped but was fine for reuse after.

Many people posting their audio installs on DIY mobile audio (diyma.com) use rivnuts and I did, too. A rivnut is a rivet that is threaded, so you can insert the rivnut through the inner door sheet, pull the rivnut into a rivet shape to hold to the inner door sheet, then insert a bolt through the adapter into the threaded middle of the rivnut and secure the adaptor. Very clean and secure.

Harbor Freight has a great kit with the tool and the rivnuts in 4 sizes at about $22. I used this one:
https://www.harborfreight.com/45-piece- ... -1210.html

Amazon has some, too.

Of course, you can just remove the speaker and work on the adapter in place, but you will need to solder the wires, and try to attach the speaker to adapter all from one side.

There is a Youtube video of speaker replacement on an S60 that is very helpful. It will let you know what you will encounter


The tweeter just snaps into its mounting and can be easily disconnected, too. Replacements for it are also available from the Volvo suppliers.

However, I do suspect that the speaker may be fine. Good luck and let us know what happens. The wires through the tube that connects the car body to the drivers door will have been flexed many times with the door opening and closing, so that is a possible point of failure, although I have not seen it reported here.

[Rattnalle]

I chose to fit crimp connectors to my speaker wires to make installation easy. It might not be considered ok in the car audio community but it's easy to work with and good enough for me personally.

[EngineeringBloke]

Crimps are fine, Rattanlle. I just soldered the wires as I had the adapter out of the car, and used the new wire that came with my replacement speaker.

[vtl]

I replaced one dead speaker with the new Volvo once, but later upgraded all of them to Focal midbasses (ISS165 - front, ICU165 - rear), what a difference! The car also got a central speaker that runs through TPA3116 amplifier and power/line noise suppressors. With the Kenwood head unit you can't tell the difference between my DIY setup and Harman-Kardon in wife's XC60. Well, besides the fact that DIY setup has a flat equalizer settings, while HK - not