Radio speaker cutting out

[aglsteven]

Just discovered this forum and it's great. Now to my question.

I have a 98 Boxster (my pride and joy) with a Becker CDR-22 (equiv. to US spec CDR-220 I think) with the Porsche Sound System (speakers in doors and dash). After about 1/2 hr of driving, the left hand speaker cuts out, and I get engine sounds buzzing through the speakers. Then (here's the mad bit), if I squirt the windscreen washer, the sound is restored and the buzzing disappears. Give it another 10 to 30 minutes and it happens again. I don't think it's the radio or amp, but might be related to the windscreen washer motor (interference suppressor somewhere in the wiring loom.

Does anyone else have any experience of the same thing or something similar?

Help, it's driving me nuts.
P.S. I've fitted 18mm spacers to standard 17" Boxster wheels and it looks ace. Much cheaper than fitting A$6000 18" wheels.

[JonnyBGood]

Okay, I have a theory, but I have to know some things first. How in the world did you find out that if you squirt the windshield washer that the buzzing would go away??? At what point while you're riding along with this buzz going on, do you think, "hey, I'll squirt the windshield wiper"?

Here is my thinking. The simple answer is that you have an amp in the front trunk and the trunk amp has a cold solder in it. Meaning that once it heats up, its sort of disconnecting a bit from the board. With that scenario, I don't know why the windshield wipers would cause the buzzing to stop.

The more complicated answer is that there is a buildup of charge and as you turn on the windshield wipers, its discharging. Its nothing more than a capacitor charging and discharging. This COULD be in the wiring harness, but since wire is nothing more than a conductor, I can't see it being in the wiring harness. Which to me means that it has to be in the amp.

It is possible that the problem is in the actual head unit. I think I've heard of this type of problems in either the amp or the CDR-220 before, but can't remember where I read it. You may want to do a search here or on ppbb.com

Sorry to be cryptic, but its hard to diagnose without doing some physical trouble shooting.

Good luck.

JBG

[aglsteven]

Thanks JBG,
FYI, I discovered it by pure accident, coming home from work one night. I took the long way home (which I frequently do just to enjoy the car) and replicated the problem/solution a few times. Crazy I know.

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I hadn't considered the amp before. i'll do some more digging around and will have a look at ppbb.com

cheers

[aglsteven]

On the way to work this morning, discovered I'd made an error. My radio is a Becker CDR21 not a CDR22 as first thought. Don't know if this makes a difference?

[JonnyBGood]

hmmm, I don't know much about the CDR210, but my thinking is merely troubleshooting not really based on any particular head unit. I still think its either a cold solder point or a bad connector on one of your connectors. Its not really going to be that easy to figure out which nor will it be that inexpensive to find.

I just can't really figure out how the windshield wiper interacts with the radio other than the same power source. If its a bad power source, then you would hear it everywhere. Not just one door speaker.

Sorry that I'm not more help.

JBG