Dead Speakers

Leaving work today, I unlocked my ‘06 Boxster and sat down. Immediately, the speakers starting making a loud sound like a lot of static. The key was still in my hand and not in the ignition. I almost jumped back out of the car. After a few seconds the sound stopped. I then started the car with no trouble. However, there was no sound coming out of the speakers. The radio was on and the sound was not muted. I tried turning it off and back on, and changing the balance, bass, treble, etc. Same result. The radio is working as I could use the buttons to change stations and also change from AM to FM. On FM stations, the display showed the songs playing. I haven’t checked fuses yet, mostly because I haven’t found anything showing which fuse is which. Any ideas?

You'll have to tell us what stereo you have - different versions have different setups. It could be a failing amp, or just that your speakers all gave out finally? Has there been any water damage on the car? I believe that may affect some amp setups.

Sounds like either a SPP or more likely a Bose system - with a flooded amp. The early SPP has the amp in the Frunk mounted to the front of the fuel tank, starting with the .2 cars - it was moved to under the passenger seat. I believe the Bose amp was always located under the passenger seat. The static when the car wakes up (door opened) to me indicates something has gone amiss with the amp, and on a Boxster that's typically due to flooding (plugged drains will do that.)

I'll take a stab at this... What's your head unit? Is it the original OEM? If it's Bose, that's a fiber-optic system. Perhaps there's a broken connection in the loop? (However, it does sound like something died here, unfortunately.) If the static was wicked loud, I'm guessing it's the amp. I don't know the BOSE circuitry, but I'm guessing that everything will go through that? If you have SPP (Sound Package Plus), I'm guessing that it may not be the amp that fried -- as you might still get sound from the other channels. SPP uses a crappy ASK amp under the seat (as @deilenberger posted), which only outputs to the two large woofers in the door, plus the center channel. In that case, I'd suspect that one would still hear sounds from the front left and right tweeters, plus the two door mids. I may certainly be wrong though...

I'll just comment that depends on the year of the 987. SPP changed with the intro of .2 cars in 2009. Original SSP cars have the amp in the frunk attached to the gas tank firewall behind the tire inflator pump and goop. As @foodbiker commented this one will only kill the large door speakers and the center dash speaker if the amp fails. EARLY SPP (987.1): LATE (2009+ 987.2) SPP: Starting in 2009, SSP has an amp mounted under the passenger seat, and it amplifies ALL the channels. Each speaker gets it's own output stage. That one will kill all the speakers if the amp fails. As far as I know - the BOSE system had the amp under the passenger's seat from the get-go (987.1) - which is why I guessed it might well be the amp killing all the speakers. BOSE 987 System (all 987): If the Bose amp fails - no sound is the result. You may want to check under the passenger seat if it feels damp around the amp. You can do that by feel with the seat all the way up (no dangerous voltages there to worry about..)

It’s the CDR24 unit. One thing I didn’t mention in the first post is yesterday was the first really cold day since last winter. The temps didn’t get much above 30. The car is my daily driver year round, so it’s been rained on and snowed on before, though we haven’t had much rain recently. No water damage that I know of and I’ve had the car since 2009. When I got in the car this morning, the speakers worked fine. That lets out a blown fuse as the culprit.

FWIW - @deilenberger really knows his audio stuff (he used to do that sort of thing once upon a time). I had opened my ASK amp and found some corrosion from previous water damage. Whatever you do, I strongly recommend that you do NOT replace it with another ASK amp unless it is the identical model/year as there are subtle differences.

Audio enthusiasts seem to be a dying breed. I'm holding out. Anyone need their amp tubes tested? I'm saving that schematic for future reference. Thanks!

my bose amp in my first 987 did this all the time. i was told by others that it was down to a bad amp. but there is a fix, albeit kind of a pain in the ***. just like a normal amp, power cycling it will reset errors, so turning the car off, removing the key, then restarting fixed it 90% of the time. it's a band-aid until you get a new amp.

I sold my last Marantz 8B about 10 years ago - to buy some motorcycle stuff. I'd bought it for $30 about 50 years before (worked in the repair department of an "Audio Shop" - they got 8B's on trade for hot stuff like Dynaco Solid State [awful stuff]).. they had increased in value by quite a bit over the 50 years. The only other thing I could have made real money on was a 67 275GTB (red of course) for $4,000 at a local used car dealer who specialized in Rolls Royces. It needed a clutch so I passed on it. Just add a bit less than 3 more zeros to where they got to at their peak.. and if it has been a Spyder (it wasn't) - well - $100mil isn't unheard of.

Just happened again to my Boxster. Like the first time, this was another day with temps below freezing. That’s got to be part of the problem. The amp is not under the passenger seat in my car. I’ll have to check some of the wiring from the diagrams above, though I’m the first to admit I’m not at all mechanically inclined, so might end up totally lost.

It's behind the tool kit cover in the front trunk.