Car Speaker Repair: How to Prevent Car Speaker Popping

When you approach a car speaker repair, you have to take into account that the sound moving through your vehicle’s sound system is carried on an electrical circuit. A break in this circuit or a loose connection will cause the system to pop or make popping noises that can be annoying and dangerous to the health of your speakers. This popping is a surge of electrical current jumping over a broken or bad wire connection, or a surge in your output settings from the amplifier.

Step 1 - Locate the Origin of your Popping Noises

Before making a decision on the type of car speaker repair that you will need, determine which speaker or speakers that are causing the problem. If the error is coming from more than one speaker, the issue will generally be in your harness wires or speaker wires or issues in your amp or equalizer. If it is only coming from one location, then you will want to check the wires and hardware on that specific one first and ignore step 2.

Step 2 - Adjust the Amplifier and Equalizer

During your car speaker repair inspection, you should have located the problem speakers in the vehicle. If it is just an error coming from one speaker, then it is likely not an issue with the amp or channel outputs on your stereo. If the noises are coming from multiple speakers, than you will want to check your amp outputs and channel settings as they could be pushing too much current through the speakers causing the popping noise.

If you have tried manual setting adjustments and you are still getting the noise, you will want to check the wiring of your speakers to the stereo to make sure they are not getting grounded out somewhere. If it is in multiple speakers, you will want to check the wires coming from those speakers, or the connection where those speakers hook into your sound system.

Step 3 - Check Wires and Hardware

If during your car speaker repair you notice that the popping noise is only coming from one location, it is likely that this one speaker has a broken wire or connection. Simply use your tools to take the speaker out and then check the connecting wires on the bottom for mechanical defects. Double check the connecting clamps, and the sound equalizer and amp settings to ensure that this is not sending feedback over the channel.

If you have checked all these things, repaired all wires and connections, but the popping noise simply will not go away, try connecting a different speaker of the same grade to that channel. If this alternate speaker doesn't show the same sound error, than your speaker needs to be replaced. If the speaker you’re testing also makes popping noises, then your issue is in the wire harnessing for that speaker channel, or a deeper problem with either your amplifier or stereo system itself. In this situation, you will likely want to have a professional look at your system.