Premium Sound Problems - Amp?
 

Hi All,

I have just found my 2008 V70 P3 with Premium Sound is only playing out of the front speaker on the top of the dash. If I move the fade to the rear, I can hear faint sound from the rear speakers and the same I move the balance to left or right.

My feeling suggests that this could be a problem with the Amp. Does anyone know how I can test it? Where is it located? Has anyone had this issue before and how was it resolved.

Thanks in advance from a first timer.

I had exactly the same issue.

What I did was...

Contacted Volvo Diagnostic who told me he COULD test my amp, but that the biggest cause of failure in these is water/damp ingress. Water pools underneath the seat, amp sits here and then gets wet and then packs up.

He said it was much more likely that speakers had blown. He said especially for the DynAudio - VERY common.

I wasn't convinced that multiple speakers could blow so....

Using the AUX input I played a youtube sound generator, I used this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k

I then played this over and over and in turn listened to each speaker in each door. I then discovered that all four of my woofers were blown.

So - Amp was fine, some speakers were fine - tweeters and mids but one mid was disconnected?! but all woofers had blown. I heard a little bass from the rear doors but very little and muffled and nothing from the front door woofers.


I rang FRF Swansea for pricing and although they offered me a great deal Ii think it was over 600 to replace six speakers (I quoted to include the mids but then discovered 1 unplugged). Dynaudio are crazy expensive - in all honesty probably worth it but I couldn't justify that. I also have the optional sub fitted, so it was going a lot of the low end bass and I didn't need such good door speakers.

I took the door cards off, drilled out the rivets holding in each woofer and then sourced the closest impedance rated same sized speaker I could from Amazon. I bought half decent for the front and cheaper for the rear as chids don't appreciate my music anyway!

Soldered fly leads onto the new speakers so I could use the old sockets and connections and fitted these back into the mount (5 or six screws) and took about 30 mins each one and then rivetted the mounted speaker back in. Tested and all works well - and still does over two years later. Cost (I think??) me about £150 to 200 all in.

I know have an excellent sounding system again - no other issues and now have parking sensors I can hear too!!

Sorry for the essay but I hope this helps a little?

I

To add - Volvo speakers are colour coded, often with a coloured label on the rear

Yellow and blue stickers - I can't recall which is the better but a quick Google should confirm. EBay and breakers often sell sets too for not too much money. My issue with that was that it's often something that isn't tested before dismantling the car - at least not well enough. You don't want the hassle of fitting a whole set to then discover they're not much better or worse. I think best to source second hand speakers if you know the source or some sort of warranty they will work?

Got the audio system checked by a Volvo specialist.
The amp has failed, the speakers are OK.
I'm now on the look out for a replacement amp.
The Volvo specialist is also on the lookout for me.

If you have difficulty in finding a cheap replacement, you could try having an audio electronics outfit repair the amp. The failed component is not likely to be that expensive and if it hasn't burned out the whole innards, a good electronics engineer should be able to replace the failed component. Prior to owning my XC70, I ran Peugeot 406 V6 Coupes for 15 years and their Clarion player heads and amps did fail occasionally and were not replaceable with new units, so make do and mend demanded the replacements of burned out components and the re-soldering of dry joints etc.

Thanks Tatsfield,

I haven't been able to source another AMP yet. It seems that they are rare and come on the market only very occasionally.

I took the Amp out of the car and opened it up to see if there was anything obvious like a poor connections or any components with scorch marks around them. That has exhausted all my electronics knowhow. The inside of the Amp looks great with no evidence of water ingress or anything else untoward.

I am now going to find an electronics expert in the local area to see if they can help.

Volvo Diagnostic can test the amp if needed - as I mentioned in my post

https://volvodiagnostic.com/

Hi Oak,

Yes, thanks for the link. I did email them last week but never got a response.

I'll call them tomorrow and see what they can do.

Ta.

Hi Oak,

I gave https://volvodiagnostic.com a call this morning. They can't take the job on.

So, I am now on the lookout for a second hand one while also trying to find an electronics engineer that may be able to repair the one I have.

That's disappointing - too much work or they don't offer that service anymore?

http://revivecaraudio.co.uk/contact-us/ might be worth a shout. They offer Volvo Amp repairs too.