W203 - Speakers or Sound System fault?

[SAFC]

I've a 54 W203 C Class C270 and I'm starting to get the occasional failure of speaker channels. Mostly it's the driver’s side speaker but sometimes the passenger side. If I lift the volume I usually get the fault to go away. Alternatively I can adjust the Balance to put all power to the speaker not working and this clears it.
It's almost as if the speakers need a bit of a boost, as if they’re "sticking".
Anyone had this problem? Is this year and Model of MB prone to this kind of failure? I can’t find previous threads about this.

 

[noogieman]

I've a 54 W203 C Class C270 and I'm starting to get the occasional failure of speaker channels. Mostly it's the driver’s side speaker but sometimes the passenger side. If I lift the volume I usually get the fault to go away. Alternatively I can adjust the Balance to put all power to the speaker not working and this clears it.
It's almost as if the speakers need a bit of a boost, as if they’re "sticking".
Anyone had this problem? Is this year and Model of MB prone to this kind of failure? I can’t find previous threads about this.

do you have bose sound system?
do you notice if the passengers side or drivers side plays lower than the other door?
My drivers side speaker plays lower than passengers side when I play low, it almost feels like speaker is dead although it plays music, when I crank the volume drivers side comes back to life louder!

I replaced my bose amp with another one same partsnumber and the soundquality is still the same with my new amp.
My amp is not the problem, have to check drivers side speaker.

 

[bolide]

This is usually the symptom of a broken tinsel lead or a sticking voice coil on a speaker. Translated into English - the speaker's knackered

Nick Froome

 

[noogieman]

This is usually the symptom of a broken tinsel lead or a sticking voice coil on a speaker. Translated into English - the speaker's knackered

Nick Froome

are you refering to threadstarter or my reply?

 

[Buffers]

I have a 2003 c270cdi and l that to replace one of the speakers. Had similar symptoms to you.

 

[Grahamcol]

My W202 C200 is displaying similar symptoms to those described by the op. I've always felt it's the Pioneer head unit at fault rather than the speaker/s. It's always the left channel in my case and increasing the volume always sorts it. Sometimes it'll go for many days without playing up. Other times it'll play up two or three times a day !

 

[SJX]

Voice coil is corroded, duff speaker just as posted by bolide.

S

 

[SAFC]

Well, Gents (I'm assuming gents, of course) thank you for your input. It sounds like the speakers used by M-B are pretty much crap from what I've read. I'll leave it for the time being and if the speaker(s) is/are faulty they should get worse and confirm the cause of the problem.
I've been disappointed in the quality of my car, I have to say.
I've changed: All Air Con gear, front bushes, discs, hi-press' diesel pump, springs and other stuff I can't remember. The car's done less than 90,000m, been very well looked after and is less than 8 years old. I'd expected better, especially as my previous C-Class (A W202 C220 petrol manual) was very tough.

 

[SAFC]

PS. I'm wondering: are the covers easy to get off to acccess the speakers? Anyone know?