Speakers suddenly not working on one side

[GDAWG10]

Purchased a used approved C Class Coupe (2012) in April 16 from MB Stevenage. Went away for 10 days recently and dad drove the car to work and back once, got a tyre changed and got it valeted. As soon as I get in it, I notice that the sound/music is only playing on the passenger side. I checked the settings and everything was fine i.e speakers were set as normal.

Had a laugh with dad that he pumped up the volume like a boyracer. He's adamant he didn't and I don't think otherwise. Just a weird scenario.

Anyway, called MB, covered under warranty apart from if it's a wire issue apparently. Booked it in for the 11th Jan. They want to give me a smart car as a courtesy car (£15 insurance per day), ideally I would want something similar to my car or different i.e E Coupe to play around with for the day. Anyway not too much of a problem.

Does anyone have any experience of this happening? Or any quick fixes or checks I can do to save booking the car in for at least a day of diagnostics? Ideally without taking the panels off or doing anything too complicated.

Thanks!

 

[TheFoX]

Definitely a break in the circuit, but where?

It could be coincidence that it happened while your Dad was using it, or while it was being valeted, or while it was having it's wheel changed.

Symptons. You say one side. Are all the speakers on the dead side silent, or just the one in the front cabin area? If you get in the back and music is coming from both sides, then the fault is more speaker specific, whereas if all the speakers on one side of the car aren't working, it is much more likely to be linked to the head unit.

Try playing something that has distinct left and right stereo output, and seeing how that sounds with the working speakers. It might be that both channels are being fed through one side only.

If you can identify a possible cause, the garage should spend less time diagnosing and more time repairing, hopefully with a smaller bill for repair.

Speakers are normally connected in parallel, so if one connection fails, the other speakers on that side should still work, which is why if all speakers on one side have failed, then it is most likely the source/amplifier/head unit which has the issue, such as a loose connection or a minifit that has popped out of the socket.

Hope this helps.

 

[GDAWG10]

fail:fail

My fault. iPhone for some reason was set to only play on left side. Realised when I changed to radio and the speakers all worked.