subwoofer

[BiXLL]

Brought my car home today and realized I have a bad subwoofer. After a little research I found that we have some very unique subwoofers in car, in fact, so unique that JBL made this speaker just for Toyota. It is a 3.7 ohm (4 ohm) 78 watt rms free air subwoofer. About the only thing I have found close to these specs is one made by Kicker, but using it requires redrilling the mounting bracket to make it fit!

Anybody got a used Avalon Sub I could get from them?

[BiXLL]

For anybody with a bad sub, I found a very resonably priced replacement that has almost identicle specs as the stock one.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=290-357

[steve99]

My parent's avalon has the same subwoofer issue. BiXLL, care to share how this speaker installs....does it take some adapting to the factory mount, different screw locations.......etc.??

the other option is to buy a refaom kit to replace the torn\worn speaker parts. below is just one example I found searching other threads here.

http://www.speakerex.com/refoam_kits.html

[BiXLL]

Originally Posted by steve99

My parent's avalon has the same subwoofer issue. BiXLL, care to share how this speaker installs....does it take some adapting to the factory mount, different screw locations.......etc.??

the other option is to buy a refaom kit to replace the tornworn speaker parts. below is just one example I found searching other threads here.

http://www.speakerex.com/refoam_kits.html

I looked into refoaming, but it was much more expensive then this speaker was. I will be glad to let you know how instal gos and what I think of the speaker. It will not be put in till next weekend though, as I am getting ready for a camping trip for this weekend.

[BiXLL]

I got home from camp earlier then expected, so I installed the speaker. I had to conect the 4 terminals together on the speaker + to +, - to - in order to get the 4 ohm rating. The new speaker also did not have the little hold down tabs on it the factory one does, but the speaker is sandwhiched between two plastic mounting brakets that screw together, so there is no way the speaker is moving even not having the tabs. It went together wam bam, and as far as I am concerned, sounds great, no more crackle/buzzing

[denmark]

For the most part the problem with the JBL 8” woofers/speakers/subwoofers is that the surround rots and starts to come loose. This is the flapping noise you hear when the radio is playing. In some cases the voice coil comes loose from the cone, making more of a scratching noise.

The surround on my speaker was coming loose. I had it repaired May, 2008 for $40 plus shipping by:

Simply Speakers
6625 35th Street
Pinellas Park, FL 33781
(727) 571-1245
simplyspeakers.com

It came back better than new. They have great customer service. Call them for specific instructions regarding shipping.

To remove the woofer:
Climb into the back seat. The speaker cover, which also houses the stop light assembly, is held in place with a couple of pop-in clips near the front of the cover. Using your fingers lift up firmly on the forward most portion of speaker cover enclosure, right where it touches the rear deck. The cover/enclosure should lift up about an inch as the pop-in clips come loose. If you can’t get it with your fingers, carefully use a flathead screwdriver to pry it up. Now carefully pull the cover forward, towards the front of the car, about an inch. This should free the fingers that hold the rear of the cover in place. Reach back and disconnect the stop light wiring harness plug. You have to press on the center of the plug to release the lock as you pull it out of the socket. The cover should now lift away easily.

You can now see the woofer/speaker mounted in a black plastic frame held to the rear deck using 4 x 10mm bolts. Do not remove the speaker from the black plastic frame. Remove the speaker and the black plastic frame together. Using a 10mm deep well socket remove the 4 bolts holding the speaker frame in place. Now comes the slightly difficult part. The sides of the plastic speaker frame are under the fiberboard rear deck. You have to push the speaker frame to one side about an inch, further up under the rear deck fiberboard panel, so the other side of the speaker frame will lift up clear of the deck panel. It takes some doing. Lift the panel and push the speaker at the same time, kind of working it back and forth to get it to move. Once you get one side free and clear, the other side comes out pretty easily. The speaker wire is still connected. Reach down and unplug the speaker using the same method. The speaker and frame will now lift clear.

You can use the radio while the woofer is removed. Change the fader all the way to the front speakers.

I had my speaker back less than a week after I shipped it.

Good luck.

[Killswitch_11]

Thanks for the "How To" on removing the woofer.

Worked perfectly. I couldn't figure it out until reading your instructions.

I'm trying to add the new foam ring myself. Hope it turns out ok.

I was amazed that the glue they used for the original foam ring was still soft and pliable. Too bad the foam was the weak link here or this speaker would have been almost indestructible.

I had to use acetone to get the rest of the old glue off of the metal frame after scraping with the razor knife. I got the old foam particles off of the cone but the acetone wouldn't get the remaining glue off of it. There was still a tacky ring of old glue left on it. I had to add the new glue on top of it.

Hoping for the best.

[pmesfun]

I replaced the factory sub with a Kicker 10c84, works fine.

[Killswitch_11]

Looks like the new foam ring did the trick. Nice to have the low end back.

I'll do a search for the kicker and check it out just in case the sub craps out again.

[pacman]

the woofer in my 04 doesnt even work much less sound bad. i looked at the back of the radio and found all kinds of cut cables from a hastily removed satellite radio b4 running the car at the auction where i got it from a few years ago. i thought it was the factory amp that was out but then the radio works so maybe not. any takers?

[OHC]

Have a mystery, here. I ordered the same speaker that BiXLL did (thanks for posting the link) and though I had to cut down the foam ring on the top of the speaker a little, was able to mount it in the factory frame. I wired up the speaker terminal to terminal since it's a dual coil, and tested it on my in-home stereo and it worked fine. Hooked it up in the car before bolting in the assembly, and I swear, unless my mind is playing tricks on me, it was working.

So I installed the frame, put everything back together, and tested it again--no sound. Tried it with the fader even between front and back, and the fader all rear, nothing, even though the other speakers are working fine. So, thinking it might have blown for some reason, took it out of the car and tried it on the home stereo again, and it works fine. Re-installed it in the car, no sound.

The wiring in the car looks fine, the connector is okay, and when I tested the speaker inside, I touched the wires to the connectors inside the terminal housing, so it's fine. The terminals on the speaker aren't shorting on the package shelf. I have no clue why this thing won't work. Is there some sort of anti-theft feature in the stereo that might do this? I'd really like to have one job I try on this car actually work out!

[denmark]

With the speaker mounted in the car, connect it to your home stereo instead of your car stereo. A long run of speaker wire will be fine for the purpose of this test. This will definitively tell you if the problem is the speaker or the wiring/radio in the car.

If it's the new speaker and you can't get it working properly and you have the original speaker, call Simply Speakers and talk to them about repairing it. I had mine done over a year ago. I play it pretty hard sometimes and it's holding up just fine.

Simply Speakers
6625 35th Street
Pinellas Park, FL 33781
(727) 571-1245
simplyspeakers.com