Rear Speakers Keep Melting

[awsam]

2 weeks ago i put a pair of crappy 6x9 Dominators in my car, they sounded allright. Next day was 44degrees and they melted in the sun. AUtobarn refuse to replace them so I bought a pair of Fusion reactors 6x9s and put them in with a lot of trouble last night. Today was like 34degrees and I've come out to check them and found the plastic grills have warped and melted. I think the only reason the speaker itself didn't melt was the grill offered some protection.

But! Someone said to me a week ago that earthing directly to the battery can do the same thing? How is this done? Apparantly my CD player is not wired up properly, the person who did it is not sure which wire was earth but it all seems working. Previous speakers were paper cones lol.. so not much of a problem. Would this be causing the spacers/grill housing to melt aswell? I can't keep pulling my back seat out to replace the f**kin things.

This car has me exhausted, so many simple things are just turning into week long head f**ks and its costing money I dont have and is just sucking at my life. Sounds dramatic but it's true. I want to set it on fire so bad..

[nicr4wks]

I think you're referring to short circuiting the battery, which can lead to wires melting their insulation and setting fire to nearby items, not earthing to the battery. And no, that is not your problem with melting grills.

The head unit should be earthed to the chassis, the fact the earth "couldn't be found" shows that the installer isn't any good and has no skyline specific knowledge, perhaps take your head unit to somewhere reputable for installation.

I would guess that 44c+, direct sunlight and trapped in a closed up car is pretty damn hot, although I've never seen the grills melt before. You should also watch out for coil/spider/surround glue melting, might think about screwing in your speakers properly too, how can that not be vibrating and annoy the shit out of you?

Edited December 2, 2009 by nicr4wks

[Carbon 34]

Window tint , save your seats too

screw them down right

dont forget most speakers are made in china these days,,, the plastic doesnt like our heat at all.

and a 44c day outside = 80-90c at least in a closed up car , my tin shed hit 95c on a 33c day when the door was closed yesterday, broke the meter on the heat gauge .. and it has a tree protecting it some,,, not glass windows to make it worse.

I always wipe the speakers with plastic cones with proper dash treatment with UV built(not Armour all crap or kitten) in before I place grills on them,,, saves them for a few extra years anyway ?

[Shiraz200SX]

holy shit, i knew dominator + fusion were suck ass, but not that bad! i live in central qld, and we hit 35-37 degrees pretty regularly, but i've never seen melted speakers... i guess its that most cars up here have tint... maybe try a layer of grille cloth under the speaker grill to shield it from the sun a bit better..

[BundyBear]

gota say I've never seen the sun warp speakers that quick, maybe a year or 2 in lousy conditions, bloody cheap crap!!!

as mentioned above tint is great, cut UV (my grey 33 still gets frign hot)

you could also cove the grill in speaker grill cloth, provides shade while being designed to allow sound 2 pass freely

[awsam]

@Nicr4wks: The person who put the head unit in knows Holdens, and was very confident about putting mine in. It was apparant when she blew my tail/dash & interior light fuse that she was full of shit lol. I'm not to annoyed that the Dominators melted, 6+ hours in 44 degree temps, I'm not really surprised. But the Fusion plastics melted on a 30 degree day. Until I can afford window tint I've just got a window reflector for now, pain in the ass getting it in the back but eh

Screws come loose when the plastic warped. They weren't in tight though as I broke the shelf pulling it out, so the screws were only into the carpet lining heh. WTB in tact rear shelf in Adelaide

Haven't had time to notice any vibration as the terminals on one of the fusions was touching the body of the car and every bump in the road would create a static noise and the CD player would cut out. Coated the connecting parts in electrical tape for today and that's solved the problem. Will pull the seats out and re-sit everything in a couple of days.

@Shiraz200SX: I have to say though, for $30 the Dominators had some fkin orsum bass, and loved the bright green cones.

@Bundybear: I honestly thought Fusion was an allright brand? *shrugs. Guess the cyber-goth in me was just SOLD by the Biohazard & Radioactive grills haha!.... which melted :'(

[nicr4wks]

You can pick up some mdf pretty cheap from bunnings and make yourself a new parcel shelf, will also give a bit more wood for the screws to bite in to.

Maybe pickup some heat shrink from jaycar to put over the terminals, electrical tape will go soft and gooey in the heat. Depending on how much clearance you have between the terminals and the body, directly soldering the wires to the speaker terminals could possibly save enough space to prevent them from hitting the body at all.

[Shiraz200SX]

nah. fusion are cheap shit. even their expensive gear is crap. compared to other brands.

[awsam]

@ Nicer4wks: Yeh I'll be doing that tomorrow. Asked around to buy a new shelf, cheapest was $50 which I'm sure is a awesome price But a bit more than I wanted to spend this week as I'm yet to buy/make 6.5" spacers for my doors. Hoping that won't be to much trouble as I'm told i'll have to make the door trim holes bigger also ... eek!

I bought oval 6x9 spacers for the back like these ones for $18 from Repco

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/FIBREGLASS-SPEAKER-...=item2ea901885e

Hopefully they'l fit under the window alright.

Don't have access to a soldering iron so.. *shrugs lol! Wires have terminals, probably just use the crimper on them a bit more onces connected.

@Shiraz: Wow, how unlucky am I lol! Spose i'll just go cheap Pioneer next time hey? Like i said before though, the grill design and bright green colour (my fav ^_^ ) sold me pretty quik haha! I did find a 400w 12" fusion sub brand new for $40 though...

Edited December 8, 2009 by awsam

[awsam]

Done...

[Marcus89]

I also had the same issue with my fusions was able to get them replaced then reinstalled the new ones and the grill went to hell the day installed it learnt my lesson never again. In the 34 i'll probably only going better more expensive items like rockford fosgate although i agree the looks of the fusion stuff is pretty cool generally

[frx026]

The old fusion gear was quite good - the new fusion gear is cheap green garbage.

[Marcus89]

The old fusion gear was quite good - the new fusion gear is cheap green garbage.

That's what i thought as my brother in law had fusion splits in his car and they sounded very good and seemed to be of good build quality that's why i ended up going with a pair of fusions. Needless to say i was severely disappointed but i guess you get that sometimes

[Shiraz200SX]

old fusion = gay.

new fusion = also gay.

i've returned heaps of amplifiers for warranty when we used to sell that crap.

then we dumped it, for a decent brand never looked back. no warranty problems ever.

the only thing they ever mad were the Jonah Lomu series of subs and the old power plant 15" (paper cone).

but other than that, its all horrible sounding shit.