Car audio acting weird since battery drain & jump
January 8, 2015 7:31 PM   Subscribe

Hi MeFi, My lights were left running on my Honda Civic 2008 and the battery drained. After a jump from AAA, the car audio hasn't been the same. To clarify.. it sounds much much louder. For example, I used to be able to turn it up to Level 30, right now if I go over Level 5 it sounds extremely loud and bass is very distorted. What could it be? Did battery jump somehow fry my speakers/receiver? Thanks for your help!
posted by bostonhill to Technology (6 answers total)
 
Have you checked the head's EQ settings? Presumably they've all been reset. Are they in anything like a sensible config?
posted by pompomtom at 7:37 PM on January 8, 2015


Response by poster: @pompomtom -- Checked all the basic EQ settings. Everything seems proper on that end.
posted by bostonhill at 7:47 PM on January 8, 2015


i just had the opposite problem with my car stereo--it was dead as a doornail when i got it back from the shop. underneath the faceplate was a 'reset' button. perhaps your stereo has this option? If so it wouldn't hurt to try it.
posted by lester at 8:07 PM on January 8, 2015


Best answer: ... it sounds extremely loud and bass is very distorted. What could it be? Did battery jump somehow fry my speakers/receiver? ...

My guess is that during the jump a big spike (aka a square wave) came through your amp and caused a huge excursion of the cones of your bass speakers, which tore the cone or cone surround of at least one of them.

If you can manage to get a look at the cones while they're playing you should be able to see obviously irregular and defective motion if this is true.
posted by jamjam at 10:59 PM on January 8, 2015


Definitely sounds like a blown speaker or two. How many speakers do you have? Front and back? Can you fiddle with the fader and/or balance and isolate the problem?
posted by MrMoonPie at 5:15 AM on January 9, 2015


Some cars have an audio setting that automatically changes the volume depending on car speed (higher background noise.) If you lost that setting when your battery died, then it may be louder at all the times by default. Check your audio manual.
posted by JackFlash at 6:59 PM on January 9, 2015


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