[Jaystroh]

So 4 weeks ago I had my rear window tinted and when I picked up the car it looked like they had to remove some of the plastic pieces in the back to install the tint because one side was still hanging down which I put back in place no big deal. A couple days after I got the car back I noticed a little bit of distortion/blown speaker sound coming from the back. I checked my amp and sub just in case they knocked a wire loose or something and all was good. It was hard to tell unless the volume was super low then you could hear the vibration/blown sound. I had a custom audio shop look it over today and they said their pretty positive both Bose in rear deck are blown. so my question is would the soapy water from the tint install fry those speakers like that, or maybe they damaged them removing the plastic deck lid? for the record there was a lot of soap stains on everything including my seat edge and inside the trunk area. Gonna order new Bose replacements and swap them out but just wondered if anyone ever had anything like this happen to them. Thanks camaro crew!

[HCI2000SS]

I've never had any issues like this from getting my car tinted. Worst thing that ever happened was the guy tracked in a little mud and didn't clean it up. When I had my 2018 V6 tinted there was no soapy water mess and definitely nothing was taken apart or removed. This tinting shop sounds completely amateur and irresponsible

[Jaystroh]

Yea the tint is perfect which is great but the speaker thing pretty much sucks.. just couldn’t think of any other reason why both speakers would be blown. If it had just been one and not right after the tint install I would have just assumed I blew it or it just went bad but both blown at the same time was a little sketchy!

[HCI2000SS]

And of course they won't admit anything, so it leaves you kind of screwed.

[Jaystroh]

Yup pretty much. I just hope I don’t replace both of them and it still does it. Not sure what else could cause it though. the guys at the shop seemed pretty confident they were blown.

[JCunningham]

disconnect them and see if you want to bother replacing them.

[Petrol Head]

It’s more possible they physically damaged them than water damaging them. The electronics are in the amp, speakers don’t blow unless the amp overdrives them or the amp circuit is shorted.

I know it’s a lot of work to get to them but I’d look at the speakers from the top which would mean taking all the trim and back seat out to remove the rear package shelf. Look at the surrounds, cone, and dust cap in the center. Then lightly, gently press on them - you should not feel anything. If you feel rubbing or scraping the voice coil is damaged.

[Jaystroh]

Yea so that’s what I’ve been up to. Only because for 3 days they sounded fine? No distortion or anything then low and behold back to sounding like crap yesterday. From what I can tell the speakers are not blown. I did see that the sub/amp installer tied into the those speakers since there’s matching blue aftermarket wires (same as in amp) tied into them. I’m starting to think that they are intermittently messing up from the aftermarket wires some how. Especially since it sounded fine for those 3 days. Not sure if it’s a bad connection from tied in wires. They looked ok. Or if something else is going on somewhere else. It’s almost a sound like when a wire wiggles loose and it’s messing up the output. guess I’ll have the shop look at it again next week since they didn’t even mention the wires running into the speakers that are acting weird.

[Jaystroh]

That was my plan actually until I realized that the aftermarket sub and amp are tied into those speakers. Guess I could still unhook them and tie into the door 6x9s but I’m starting to think that it’s something with the sub install. Pretty sure the speakers are good after I checked them.

[Petrol Head]

Oh you didn’t mention there’s an aftermarket amp, and they connected it to the factory Bose speakers.

Big time red flags here.

The Bose system in our cars is impedance matched. All the speakers, crossovers, and factory Bose amp/processor (its all in one) in the trunk floor are designed to work only with each other, the way it comes from the factory. It’s an all or nothing approach if you want to go aftermarket. Meaning, if you want a different amp you need to replace all the speakers. If you want to replace a speaker you need to replace all of them and the amp. Messing with this system, even by “professional installers” can create all sorts of issues if it’s not done right and with a complete, comprehensive approach.

Tapping off the factory speakers with the Bose system for an added sub is not recommended unless something like the ZEN-AVB conversion processor is used. If you had the base stereo it could be done with no issues but the Bose system really complicates everything.

[Jaystroh]

Yea my bad. So they added a mono alpine amp to power the sub. I was under the impression from researching on here that it would be ok with the Bose as long as that all I did. No changing speakers or whatnot. so should I have just hooked the sub to the Bose amp and not the aftermarket one alpine? or? Just trying to understand what just adding a sub consist of? The system they installed has been fine since January and just starting to act weird with those rear 6x9s. Thanks for any help.

[Jaystroh]

Originally Posted by Petrol Head

Oh you didn’t mention there’s an aftermarket amp, and they connected it to the factory Bose speakers.

Big time red flags here.

The Bose system in our cars is impedance matched. All the speakers, crossovers, and factory Bose amp/processor (its all in one) in the trunk floor are designed to work only with each other, the way it comes from the factory. It’s an all or nothing approach if you want to go aftermarket. Meaning, if you want a different amp you need to replace all the speakers. If you want to replace a speaker you need to replace all of them and the amp. Messing with this system, even by “professional installers” can create all sorts of issues if it’s not done right and with a complete, comprehensive approach.

Tapping off the factory speakers with the Bose system for an added sub is not recommended unless something like the ZEN-AVB conversion processor is used. If you had the base stereo it could be done with no issues but the Bose system really complicates everything.

Or my next question would be how does one run a sub correctly with the Bose system and what shop in Michigan would know how to do so correctly? Lol. I know many people have shown sub installs on this forum with the Bose setup so it must be possible.

[Petrol Head]

Originally Posted by Jaystroh

Or my next question would be how does one run a sub correctly with the Bose system and what shop in Michigan would know how to do so correctly? Lol. I know many people have shown sub installs on this forum with the Bose setup so it must be possible.

I wouldn’t trust any of them. The Bose system is just different than a regular stereo. Like all high end cars now, it’s almost impossible to do anything aftermarket without completely gutting the entire thing and starting from scratch. They’re too closely matched between the amp and speakers, and then our system has built in bass crossover roll off as you turn up the volume to prevent blowing the factory speakers, lots of active crossovers going on, speed sensitive volume correction and active noise cancelling..... lots of stuff going on with the factory system from the car’s computers.

I’ve been an electronics technician for 25 years. I work on medical equipment now but started in home and car fi back in the 90s. My background is in repairing amps not just installing them. There’s too much processing with the Bose system to trust adding anything to it. It’s a matched system to start. The factory amp is designed to only run the speakers that are in the car.

Like I said if you had the base 4 speaker system without blind spot it would be fine. For the Bose system, as I will be doing in the spring, you really need to either leave it 100% stock or replace the Bose amp with AVB processor which takes GM’s digital data and converts it to 4 full bandwidth standard analog audio channels from which you can add any amp and speaker you want. But you do have to get rid of all the Bose speakers then. I think they’re something like 2.5 ohm or something weird. I haven’t gotten my meter out to check them yet.

It’s possible things work but there’s a risk things won’t, and I have no idea what installers are in Michigan.

[Jaystroh]

Cool well I appreciate all the info man! It was good for almost a year so it took awhile to start acting up. I’m gonna see if I can find a better sound shop and get their opinion and if it ends up being no good then I’ll just have them uninstall the amp and go back to stock. Not a huge deal.