# 03 Passat GLS - Rear speakers not working.



## Caiosport (Jul 14, 2009)

Hello all...after a few years of being on the dark side (BMW) I am again a happy VW owner.
I picked up an 03 Passat GLS 1.8t this weekend, I love it but have a couple of gliches....the most annoying being the rear speakers not working. If I run the fader all the way to the back only the door tweeters SLIGHTLY make sound but the door speakers do absolutely nothing.
Is this a common problem?








I'm hoping there is an audio fuse panel somewhere that I can replace a fuse or something and have them come back to life....but will replace them all if need-be. I found what looks to be an amp hanging under the rear deck in the boot, but didn't take much time to inspect. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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## Caiosport (Jul 14, 2009)

*Re: 03 Passat GLS - Rear speakers not working. (Caiosport)*

Anyone have any ideas? Still no luck on this...would love some help.
Is there an secondary fuse panel for the monsoon stereo?


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## mekelbreg88 (Jul 13, 2009)

my passat has the monsoon system,
idk, but the speaker might just be blown.
a friend told me that there is only 1 set of wires to each speaker, the tweeter just has wires coming from the speaker (the speaker and the tweeter are wired together) 
hope this helps...


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## nastynavy (May 13, 2009)

*Re: (mekelbreg88)*

I just bought a few months back and it is the same way. There is very minimal sound coming from the tweeter only.


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## mekelbreg88 (Jul 13, 2009)

well i know the monsoon system has an amp in the trunk (upper part of the trunk on passenger side)
mabie that has something 2 do with it.


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## Caiosport (Jul 14, 2009)

*Re: (mekelbreg88)*

Yeah it does. I've seen it but haven't torn into it yet to see if there's a fuse on it somewhere of if it's bad...I suppose I will try that this weekend.


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## undeadsole (May 2, 2009)

Happy to hear that you came back to your roots but in all honesty I do beleive that if the fuse was the issue all the speakers would go out... now your problem lies with just the back speakers it seems and it is a BIACTH in the B5.5 but really all VW's because they use rivets to hold the speakers in..... That was the major problem for me, my front speaker went in the Passat and I wound up swapping all of the speakers in the car, to include the tweeters but afterward I had 8 working speakers again!!


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## VDubyaNewbie (Mar 24, 2009)

*Re: (undeadsole)*

Have the same issue in my (new to me) B5.5 variant. Part of my issue is at least some bad wiring. If I fiddle with the speaker wires at the right rear door opening I can get some sound. However, even when working the volume and quality is not comparable to the fronts. One the left rear, the tweeter is barely audible. Sometimes, I have no sound at all. I gotta think there is an issue with the Monsoon amp and/or the speakers. 
I dread the thought of replacing these speakers, so can anyone speak to solving this or similar problems with an amp replacement or with a new HU and bypass the Monsoon amp?


_Modified by VDubyaNewbie at 7:12 AM 8-21-2009_


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## nastynavy (May 13, 2009)

*Re: (VDubyaNewbie)*

I thought I would let you know that I put in my new head unit last night and the rear speakers work just fine now. It had a Pioneer in it and I took it out and took out the xm receiver they had in it and installed my Alpine and it all works great now. I don't know if they had something wired up wrong or what. If you have an aftermarket radio in it you may want to check that out.


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## VDubyaNewbie (Mar 24, 2009)

*Re: (nastynavy)*

Just getting back to this after a bit o' vaca.
I actually have the factory double din head unit. I'm strongly considering a iPod-ready aftermarket head but I'd like to know if that will solve this rear speaker problem too. I wonder if I can rewire the front speaker outs on the amp to the rear doors...anyone tried this as a diagnostic?


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## VDubyaNewbie (Mar 24, 2009)

*Re: (nastynavy)*


_Quote, originally posted by *nastynavy* »_I thought I would let you know that I put in my new head unit last night and the rear speakers work just fine now. It had a Pioneer in it and I took it out and took out the xm receiver they had in it and installed my Alpine and it all works great now. I don't know if they had something wired up wrong or what. If you have an aftermarket radio in it you may want to check that out. 

Glad you've achieved success. What Alpine unit did you get? Also, is it running to the Monsoon amp or did you yank that?


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## nastynavy (May 13, 2009)

*Re: (VDubyaNewbie)*


_Quote, originally posted by *VDubyaNewbie* »_
Glad you've achieved success. What Alpine unit did you get? Also, is it running to the Monsoon amp or did you yank that?

It did not have the factory Monsoon stuff when I started, instead it had a Pioneer head unit in it. I bought an Alpine CDA-9886 with the ipod adapter.It was relatively inexpensive and but has a lot of features including a USB adapter as well. I am getting ready to add my components and subs this weekend hopefully. I am going to run all new wires from my amps to my components so I don't have to worry about the factory wiring again. If there is anything else I can help with let me know.


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## undeadsole (May 2, 2009)

good luck with that project, I did the samething and it took a while but IMHO soooo worth it to run your own wires.


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