My door speakers on the passenger side cut out the other day and won't come back on. It is only the speakers in the doors. All if the wiring looks good. I pulled out the stereo and the connection is good. I pulled the door off of the dashboard on the passenger side and tested those connections. However the line for the speakers barely lit my test bulb. Does this mean my stereo crapped out or does this truck have a stock amplifier which could be giving me the headache?

 

no stock amp.. are you running the stock radio.. if power barely lit up. .most likely the amp in the radio took a dump.... you can replace or add aftermarket amp...this is my business website..

 

Yes it is the stock radio, which I would like to stick with because I think the after market radios would make it look cheesy.

 

yea, maybe but aftermarket radios are of higher quality and durability. and less expensive to repair or replace.

 

Aftermarket stereos are also stolen more often than stock stereos.

Your claim of them being more durable and of higher quality is false, to say the least. Using the stock head unit as the base, much can be added on to increase the sound quality...items such as aftermartek amps, subs, speakers, tweeters, etc...the list goes on and on.

As for cost, once you find a decent aftermarket unit, add the special harnesses to allow use of the steering wheel controls, as well as other vehicle options, the cost can easily reach into the $1k range, if not more.

It sounds as if the OP needs a new unit, and Ebay is a good starting point to look for them.

 

Strongly disagree they are more durable, OEM radio rarely last more than 10 years. Aftermarket radios like Alpine, JVC, Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic are better quality than OEM radios and can be purchased for less than any stock unit WITH more features and adaptability. I dont know where you are shopping for $1,000 radios but you can go to Crutchfield and they have DVD/GPS+ radios you can get for $400 AND they give you all the wiring harnesses and adapter plates for free. And if you dont want that kind of radio Walmart has name brand Sony, Pioneer, etc., CD/MP3/HD Radio/SiriusXM radios for $100.

I dont know anyone who wastes time replacing a OEM radio with another OEM radio if the car is no longer under warranty. It is not worth it. I dont even understand why you would keep your set-up. Factory radio but aftermarket speakers?? That is odd to me. If everything was designed as a set why not scrap the whole low quality set and improve the system all together(Unless you have the factory Bose, Infinity, or JBL speakers).

 

Where does your figure of 10 years come from? I have 8 vehicles, all but one over 10 years old. All but one still has the stock system that still sounds great and works like it should. My 92 Lincoln still has the original system in it, same for my 87 Mercedes, my 96 Explorer, etc...

Stock speakers don't sound well with aftermarket head units. In vehicle amplifiers need bypassed, because they generally won't work with after market head units. Single din units don't look right in when replacing a double din unit. Once you add all parts and pieces up to make a system work and sound as it should, you'll have over a grand in it, easily.

You don't want to buy ANY electronics from Walmart...they are dumbed down versions of quality units. Walmart can offer them cheaply because they contract with the manufacturer to put subpar electronics in them to control the cost...that's why they are so inexpensive.

A stock unit can be picked up at a junkyard and tested. Many places have them already tested and sell it with a short warranty, usually 90 days. Unless it's the nav system, it can be had for right around $100.

 

You can often times identify the units made for Walmart as they include WM in the part number or model number...
Its also so you can't price compare at another store as its an exclusive item....

 

Personal experience. I put a $100 EXtacy Sounds(or some ****) CD player in my mothers 2000 Honda CR-V in 2003 and it still worked when I pulled it out last year and put a JVC in her dash. I bought the Exctasy thing from Walmart and I still have it sitting on the floor here, but it still works. In my Suburban I have a Panasonic cassette player that I bought in 2000 or 2001 when I had a 1988 Lincoln Town Car with the JBL Premium Audio. Took it out the Town Car and put it in the Grand Marquis cop car I used to have. It still works(I lost the remote though). I found out that it doesnt drive the Suburban that well without an external amp though. It says 40w per channel but it is actually 18w per channel. I will use it until it bites and then I will put a JVC in that I also have sitting on the floor here. I just changed the amp yesterday, I dont know...It thumped but I couldnt control the bass(it has a gain dial and a bass boost switch, which is automatically +6 decibels. Hard to control with the Panasonic head.

In my Cadillac I have another JVC, 200w CD player with Sirius(although I subscribe to XM, I got the radio before they merged). The Cadillac has BOSE speakers so it delivers real good sound without an amp. Another JVC Kameleon in my G20 that I had in 2004 I put in my Grand Marquis station wagon. For the van I use Blaupunkt 6.5" in the front(I wrote a thread on how to do this install in the Van section), Walmart knock-off of Rockford Fosgate, Lightning Audio in the D pillars and an 12" dual voice over coil in the rear cargo area(behind the last row of seats) and another 8" dual voice over coil speaker under the 1st row of seats. I have the head unit running to a 7 band EQ and then to a 400w(Yea, right!!) BOSS 4 channel amp.

Mind you, all these receivers are old and were not plugged for HD Radio, nor MP3 and except for the Cadillac, neither satellite radio. But they still work and when they stop I will dump them. Besides they all have external CD switches in the back the makers made a 3.5mm plug for to accomodate mp3s and my XM setups.

In my opinion any speaker with a magnet that weighs less than 1 pound will sound like trash in the door or dash. In my Sub, I have Panasonic 6x8 in the rear deck and Lightning Audio in the front deck. Weak! But with the amp and those 8" Cerwin Vega dual voice over speakers, it compensates for the rest. The amp is BS also. Boss 200w 2 channel. It dont do 200w more like 50-75w RMS. I hate false advertising.

Yea I try to stay away from Walmart stuff, 8 years later and I still cant tell if these Lightning Audio speakers are good or not. Those Blaupunkt and Panasonic speakers I got off Ebay and they are dynamite!

I dont know, I ordered a used Chrysler stereo from a junkyard and half of it worked(oddly the half that didnt work on the one I had). The junkyard sent me one where the tape deck worked but the CD didnt. The one I had had a working CD but not tape deck. I took them both apart and built one where both functions worked.

I got a refurbished Pyramid CD/cassette off EBay to put in the Chrysler but it was double DIN and these year Chryslers were 1.5 so I put in back in the box...thats right on the floor, for like 4 years. Now I wanted to put it in my mom's CR-V because Hondas are Double DIN and when I powered it up it didnt work. DOGBALLS! Good and bad news: Good news is I bought it directly from Pyramid Electronics AND they are HQ'd in my town. Bad news is it had a 60 day warranty(4 years ago) but I never used it because it didnt fit in the Chrysler so I put it back in the box waiting for something to use it in. I m going to explain to them just like that and hope they can fix it for less than the $60 I paid for it. The radio works but ALL the features illuminate on the screen.