[Jomeza001]

I purchased this 2010 EOS Lux but none of the speakers work. Only the Twitters up front have sound.

Does anybody have experienced this problem?

What should I check? How to test if its the Amplifier or the Stereo?

Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[voxmagna]

If it's a V.W OE system it can be tested with computer connected diagnostics which sequentially poles around each speaker with a test tone and confirms any faults or wire breaks. You can mess about removing door panels and trim then use a multimeter 'scope and test CD or mp3, but TBH that's why V.W include it as a diagnostics system check.

 

[2phast]

If it's a V.W OE system it can be tested with computer connected diagnostics which sequentially poles around each speaker with a test tone and confirms any faults or wire breaks. You can mess about removing door panels and trim then use a multimeter 'scope and test CD or mp3, but TBH that's why V.W include it as a diagnostics system check.

I am not sure that is a valid solution. The door mid bass speakers and tweeters are fed off of one pair of speaker wires and it splits inside the door panel. So diagnostics can not pole each speaker in the door. Unless the diagnostics is more sophisticated and is capable of reading a ohm's load, its not going to be of much use. Two four ohm speakers wired in parallel (in the case of the door speakers) would read at 2 ohms, if one speaker is dead, I would suspect the reading would be 4 ohms. With that said, its possible the door speakers are 8 ohm, I never really bothered to look when I removed mine, this is most likely the case, pushing the OEM head unit at 2 ohms would not be a logical design.

Of course I am assuming this is the base sound system. If equipped with the Dynaudio, then each speaker would be fed off of a single channel in the vehicles amplifier, but in this case, there would be three speakers in door, not two which seems to be what the OP has.

 

[voxmagna]

V.W diagnostics for OE in car entertainment is cleverer than you realise and DOES report a disconnected parallel tweeter. E.g EOS rear tweeters are fitted on the side trim panels with very short wires. These are easily pulled off and left off when panels are replaced. I spliced longer wire pairs to mine.

Diagnostics polls a sequence of tone bursts to each speaker in the V.W speaker system and measures the hf a.c current (not d.c as you suggest). The tone bursts used for the tweeter test are at a higher frequency than those used for the bass units. If a tweeter is connected in parallel it will take more ac current at the higher test frequency than the bass unit. That's how diagnostics knows which speaker is disconnected, open, or short circuit. It's the simplest (and cleverest) way to get a health check on a V.W OE multiple in-car speaker system without removing parts for access and testing. Diagnostics IS the best and fastest valid fault finding solution a dealer would use. However, it won't tell you if an overloaded speaker has a damaged or rattling cone or an amplifier is low power. Speaker diagnostics checks won't work for aftermarket head units that don't have the V.W CANbus control module inside. If you've ever run a Dolby 5* room speaker test setup, you get a similar sound experience inside the car when diagnostics runs the test sequence.

If equipped with the Dynaudio

The OP didn't say what system he had so I gave a generic reply. To which I would add if all bass units have no sound and tweeters do, I would look for an amplifer and a fuse on it, because bass units taking most of the power are more likely to overload and take out an amplifier fuse. This could occur either due to 1) An amplifier fault 2) All speakers being overloaded or 3) One (or 2) bass units or their wiring short circuit. Diagnostics will tell you most of these and possibly if an amplifier fuse has blown? The more speakers in the V.W OE car system (E.g Dynaudio), the more valid testing with V.W compatible (vcds) diagnostics becomes.

 

[2phast]

V.W diagnostics for OE in car entertainment is cleverer than you realise and DOES report a disconnected parallel tweeter. E.g EOS rear tweeters are fitted on the side trim panels with very short wires. These are easily pulled off and left off when panels are replaced. I spliced longer wire pairs to mine.

Diagnostics polls a sequence of tone bursts to each speaker in the V.W speaker system and measures the hf a.c current (not d.c as you suggest). The tone bursts used for the tweeter test are at a higher frequency than those used for the bass units. If a tweeter is connected in parallel it will take more ac current at the higher test frequency than the bass unit. That's how diagnostics knows which speaker is disconnected, open, or short circuit. It's the simplest (and cleverest) way to get a health check on a V.W OE multiple in-car speaker system without removing parts for access and testing. Diagnostics IS the best and fastest valid fault finding solution a dealer would use. However, it won't tell you if an overloaded speaker has a damaged or rattling cone or an amplifier is low power. Speaker diagnostics checks won't work for aftermarket head units that don't have the V.W CANbus control module inside. If you've ever run a Dolby 5* room speaker test setup, you get a similar sound experience inside the car when diagnostics runs the test sequence.

The OP didn't say what system he had so I gave a generic reply. To which I would add if all bass units have no sound and tweeters do, I would look for an amplifer and a fuse on it, because bass units taking most of the power are more likely to overload and take out an amplifier fuse. This could occur either due to 1) An amplifier fault 2) All speakers being overloaded or 3) One (or 2) bass units or their wiring short circuit. Diagnostics will tell you most of these and possibly if an amplifier fuse has blown? The more speakers in the V.W OE car system (E.g Dynaudio), the more valid testing with V.W compatible (vcds) diagnostics becomes.

Interesting. AC instead of DC. I have tried the internal diagnostics and always though to myself "Where is the microphone picking up these tones for analysis?" Since tuning a high end sound system via pink noise and a 1/3rd octave analyzer was a common process to tuning, setting gain levels and balancing of the sound stage, I figured the VW diagnostic system was something along these lines. Too much of an assumption to believe the factory sound system was that sophisticated, but newer high end head units have DSP and the fore mentioned tech built into them, so it wouldn't be too surprising to see it integrated into OEM systems.

 

[voxmagna]

If the head unit had built in BT for phone, true they may have used it but with considerable sound reflection and absorption inside the cabin it would be unreliable. The old RCD300 I removed and tested didn't have an internal mic. I miss not being able to use the V.W radio diagnostics check feature on my Android aftermarket. But that tells me something: If V.W diagnostics won't run the in car speaker tests on an aftermarket unit Rdaio module 56, it doesn't fully emulate a V.W radio as far as CANbus compatibility goes. That's why the aftermarkets use add on CANbus 'decoders'. They make most of their radios work with their own simple remote control system so they can be sold for any brand car? The brand specific CANbus decoder talks to an app. allowing some fine tuning (translation) of remote control codes for different decoders and car models. It's quite a clever open source approach which gets them around illegally infringing V.W copyright allowing them to manufacture high volumes of the same basic head unit.

To get diags calls to run V.Ws speaker test sequence, it would need to know the in car speaker system, connectivity and speaker impedances which could vary between brands. The vehicle/brand CANbus decoder addons only translate important CAN remote control features from the vehicle steering wheel etc, to its simpler protocol. I haven't tried active speaker tests yet with my latest head unit. Radio 56 does throws up a couple of persistent phantom fault codes, but these may arise because I'm still using the original 07 Gateway version.

 

[ecavuoto]

Given the age of the car, maybe now may be the time for head unit and speakers upgrades. You already have an amp in the car so you have an opportunity to put in a new system.

 

[voxmagna]

Logical, but if it's a top end Dynaudio system (We don't know?) I would want to find out what's wrong first and repair it? Most aftermarket head units will be 2 channel stereo front and rear with 8 wires for simple bass+capacitor coupled tweeters. Most head units would plug in, 'work' and play sounds, but not give the best from a V.W high end system. Aftermarkets sold as universal fitting will have a connector pin out diagram that combines multiple speakers if fitted as OE on to 2 wires per channel which is cheapest and less complex for them.

The OP needs to find out more about his existing system and why an external amp isn't working if fitted. A diagnostics scan test may give the V.W part numbers or look for amplifier hardware and parts label under a seat or elsewhere if a multi CD changer? Otherwise, removing a door card will show what speakers are fitted, how many and how they are wired.

 

[2phast]

Given the age of the car, maybe now may be the time for head unit and speakers upgrades. You already have an amp in the car so you have an opportunity to put in a new system.

Only if its the Dynaudio sound system. If not, their is no external amp, the speakers are powered by the head unit

 

[ecavuoto]

Only if its the Dynaudio sound system. If not, their is no external amp, the speakers are powered by the head unit

The Dynaudio was listed as an option for the LUX model for that year. If this car has it, the amp, I believe, is under the driver's seat (somebody double check me on that). If there is no amp, there is no Dynaaudio system and the car came with 8 speakers, not 10. It wouldn't hurt to go to a car stereo place locally to you and see what is available. If the speakers are shot, or the wiring can't get repaired, look into other options.

Mine came with 8 speakers on my 2015 Komfort with the RNS 315 head unit. I upgraded to the RNS 510 and added two additional tweeters (in lieu of mid-range speakers) to the front doors to get 10 speakers. No amp was needed and by adjusting the sound mix, I get excellent sound quality.

 

[cb391]

An easy way to tell if you have DynAudio is to look at the speaker grills on the doors. There would be an Emblem stating so. He also didn't mention where he bought the car. A reputable dealer would have made sure that the stereo worked. That notwithstanding, the speakers would be the first thing to check. If the previous owner played the stereo hard especially with the bass cranked, this could have caused speaker failure. There are other issues, though somewhat remote, ranging from the crossovers, to wiring, to even the head units fader controls. I would tend to rule most of these out and start with the speakers. If you are not comfortable with dissembling your car or not up with the electronics portion of things, make an appointment with a shop that specializes in car stereo and see what they would charge to diagnose the problem. If the speakers are blown, they can help you with proper replacements. If you are able and willing to DIY, you can replace your OEM with non-VW speakers of equal or better-quality speakers for less than VW will charge.

 

[2phast]

An easy way to tell if you have DynAudio is to look at the speaker grills on the doors. There would be an Emblem stating so. He also didn't mention where he bought the car. A reputable dealer would have made sure that the stereo worked. That notwithstanding, the speakers would be the first thing to check. If the previous owner played the stereo hard especially with the bass cranked, this could have caused speaker failure. There are other issues, though somewhat remote, ranging from the crossovers, to wiring, to even the head units fader controls. I would tend to rule most of these out and start with the speakers. If you are not comfortable with dissembling your car or not up with the electronics portion of things, make an appointment with a shop that specializes in car stereo and see what they would charge to diagnose the problem. If the speakers are blown, they can help you with proper replacements. If you are able and willing to DIY, you can replace your OEM with non-VW speakers of equal or better-quality speakers for less than VW will charge.

No crossovers on the door mid-bass speakers, they receive a full range signal. Also no fader adjustment for the front door mid-bass/tweeter arrangement. The fader would just adjust front/rear sound levels.

 

[voxmagna]

I can't believe 4 bass units would all be toast as well as the front and rear drive amps in the simple V.W radio system? I'd suspect an amplifer fuse? If one bass speaker was bad and short circuit (most likely scenario), that could take out an amp fuse or if there's overload protection, shut down all of them? The OP either has to do some work or get a shop to do it.

 

[2phast]

I can't believe 4 bass units would all be toast as well as the front and rear drive amps in the simple V.W radio system? I'd suspect an amplifer fuse? If one bass speaker was bad and short circuit (most likely scenario), that could take out an amp fuse or if there's overload protection, shut down all of them? The OP either has to do some work or get a shop to do it.

Well if we take the OP's post verbatim, then yes, six out of the eight speakers are not working. I commented concerning the fronts mainly, since they are on a single circuit. If the tweeters work and the midbass do not, then it is either a break in the wiring (after the Y split inside the door) or the midbass's are blown. No other cause for that, a break in the signal path before the Y would result in no sound at all from the front doors and the fader would not affect this condition (as previously mentioned).

Andy did bring up the fader issue, which could be the cause for no sound out of the rear speakers if its adjusted fully to the front only, so it's worth a check and could be the reason for no sound from the rear.

If the fuse is blown, there would be no sound, probably no head unit functions at all, as I don't think there is a separate fuse for just the audio section of the head unit.

A short to ground could trigger overload protection, have seen that happen on amplifiers if equipped with that kind of circuit. Normally factory wiring isn't prone to this issue, mainly its aftermarket wiring which gets pinched when being routed inside the passenger compartment. Not knowing the exact makeup of the head unit, the front and rear amplifier sections could be separate from each other and possess independent overload circuits. Your suggested VCDS audio test might be helpful in providing a diagnosis. If that isn't available, I would pop out the head unit and independently check for speaker function by unplugging the speaker harness, locating the rear speaker left/right pairs and give them a pop with a 9v battery to see if any sound comes out of the rears. If we hear a pop from the midbass and tweeters, then there is an issue with the head unit. No pops from any of the rear speakers would lead me to believe they are either unplugged or are all dead, so next step would be to pull the rear panels and inspect the wiring and perform a speaker pop on each speaker.

 

[voxmagna]

A short to ground could trigger overload protection, have seen that happen on amplifiers if equipped with that kind of circuit

I wasn't thinking about the wiring. When a bass unit gets overloaded, the cone can go off center causing the speech coil to rub against the magnet in the narrow circular gap. With these car amps, neither speaker wire is usually a ground and a short of either to a speaker chassis will fault the amp.

 

[Ellin07]

Incase it helps anyone I have a 2008 2.0T FSI no DynAudio in FL the stereo only worked when hot. The two twitters would work faintly if I cranked it loud then it would scare the crap out of me because it would come on when it was warm enough. I replaced the head unit with a cheap aftermarket one and all the speakers work fine now. The original base stereo’s amp was toast.