I recently bought a 2004 mt Rx8 and when i bought the car the front speakers were not working at all. The back speakers work just fine but i get absolutely no sound from the front door speakers, tweeters, and center speaker. I have searched and searched and i am not sure what to do. I have replaced the door amps AND the amp wiring harnesses with new parts and i still get no sound from them. I have checked all fuses, connections, etc. Could the main amp mounted in the trunk be the culprit? Do the front speakers even run off the main amp at all? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

When buying a used car with problems like this, the first thing I'd do is check to see if the speakers are even installed. Next I'd uninstall them to see if their even connected. People do stupid things to car audio equipment. Maybe they had all aftermarket stuff in there, then either gutted it all out or just slapped the OEM stuff back in there carelessly before selling it.

To be completely honest, it's been too long since I've had my hands in an RX8 audio system....and I've sold mine. So I can really only recommend logical troubleshooting. This is a time when a tone generator comes in real handy. Follow the wires from the door woofer and tweeter to the door amp/crossover. Touch the tone generator to each pair of speaker wires from there. You should hear both the woofer and tweeter respond. Click the ignition on and then touch the tone generator to the input of the amp/crossover. If both speakers respond then you know the amp/crossover is good (it better be if you just replaced them lol). Follow those input wires back through the door boot, through the kick panel and on back. I'm not 100% sure if the front speakers run through the Bose amp. I'm almost positive they do, but never really messed with it much myself. I just gutted the whole system and went aftermarket. Regardless, just trace the wires to wherever they go and use the tone generator again and again.

Check the inputs on the Bose amp for these colors. Click the ignition on and allow music to play through the rear speakers. Touch the test leads from the tone generator into the pins for a front speaker (yes while the others are playing). If you still get no output from them, but yet got the test tone at the speakers and back, then the amp isn't outputting any signal for some reason. It's toast. If you get the front speakers to play using this method, then your headunit isn't outputting any signal. It's toast.

 

hello all,
newbie to 8's here. Just recently dug into my wife's less than a week old 2004 rx8. I removed the radio to install an auxmod adapter, and that was cake. Thanks for the help on how to remove the radio. But I removed the drivers door panel because the Bose subwoofer wasn't working. After searching this site and others I realized it must be the amp relay. So today I went to "the shack" and bought the new relay. Installed and still no sound. Thought maybe its because the tweet wasn't hooked up. Hooked up and still nothing. Anybody have any other ideas?? I'm headed back to the shack here in a bit to get the flush mount fuses i see on the amp board to see if that fixes it, but i would love to hear if there's any other knowledge on this. THanks 4 the Help!

o btw I did search for several hours. I'm not finding anybody else who has replaced the relay and it didn't fix the problem. Thanks.

 

Again, a tone generator is essential for troubleshooting car audio problems effectively, easily and quickly. Touch the generator to each speaker to make sure the speakers themselves work. Then touch it to the input on that amp/crossover, to simulate a signal in. If both speakers respond, everything in the door is fine. Start following the wires back and continue to test.