Intermittent Speaker Problems - 07 Avalanche

Pertinent information is in bold. I'm a very wordy SOB.


I've been reading these forums as a guest for about 2 months regarding various problems with my 07. I've been through all the emission system stuff and the slow drain problem that seems to happen to everyone else's 07. I think I've gotten most of that stuff resolved with the help of the dealer and these forums!

Lately, however, I've been having an issue where more often than not only the tweeters are operating when I crank the car. Sometimes I get one or 2 of the door speakers but I don't think any of them have worked 100% of the time ever. This is a standard factory radio with XM built in which I've pulled to check the cables going out to see if they weren't plugged in fully. I couldn't get any of the door speakers to come on by jiggling the cables there. I was hoping that the radio having a faulty ground was causing the drain on the battery, but it wasn't.

I've had the BCM repaired and replaced. I've also had the radio reprogrammed per some technical bulletin (I don't know the number... may have it on a receipt).

In any case, I took it to the dealer and explained what was going on. The dealer checked it out and called me back and said that all the speakers were blown. I thought to myself that didn't make sense because blown speakers make everything sound like The Kinks, so I declined the $550 repair.

To make a long story that much longer, I ran across a complaint on a consumer website that said the seatbelts could cause a wiring harness to wear out and one or more speakers to not work. Have any of you run across this before?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide!

Could be their definition of a blown speaker is different than yours and mine. To me a blown speaker is one where the diaphragm is torn or split causing distortion. Maybe to them it means a dead speaker, no sound at all. You would need to isolate the speaker by disconnecting it and doing a test. An easy way is to rig up a 1.5v battery with a couple of wires attached. Touch the wires to the speaker terminals. The speaker should give a crackle when you give the terminals a quick touch. Won't hurt the speaker to do that.  If you don't hear anything then the speaker is suspect. If you do get a crackle, then the speaker works (but could still be blown) and you would need to check continuity of the speaker wires all the way up to the radio connection.  As far as the seat belt theory, which doors are you talking about? No way that could affect the front doors. The rear doors? You would have to pull the front seat belt panels off and look in there to see if there are wires being rubbed on by the seat belt reel or something.

Had the exact same issue in my 07 Avalanche. Replacing the speakers corrected the issue

My 07 has this problem also. whatever it is also affects the key in ignition cause when it chimes at normal tone some of the speakers work.