base model '94 940. I have noticed that neither of my back seat door speakers work. It occurred to me that on my model maybe no such speakers were installed at all.

Does anyone know whether all models were equipped with back seat door speakers? If so, is their diagnosis and repair easy, such as a loose wire? Or is it possible the speakers themselves have failed? Just wanted to get the lay of the land before I open things up.

Thanks, all.

Your base 940 Wagon uses four door speakers.

Depending on the head unit model, may use dash speakers that are a tweeter / midrange combo that reflect off the windshield. Dash speakers are powered from the radio.

Your 1994 940 Wagon stereo is factory?

What model radio?

The head unit will then use a remote amp connected by a shielded cable with DIN connectors at both ends. The remote amp powers the front and rear door speakers. Discontinuity may be at a connector with corrosion or wire insulation wear at the rubber seal through which route the power wires for power windows, locks, and speaker wires. I'm not entirely sure.

The power amp receives battery power at all times and uses a remote switch from the radio to amplify the pre-amp audio out from the radio. The amp is maybe made by Alpine or less so Mitsubishi. At 25 years, components in the amp and radio tend to fail. Do you also have the remote CD-changer?

The speakers are made by Dynaudio. They are paper with a foam surround and maybe a separate tweeter at the center.

http://www.v8volvo.se/mekartips/volvo/index.html

Find Volvo 940 1994 Michell.pdf and download the PDF.

PDF page 52 shows the in-dash radio with built in amp used in sedans, I guess?
PDF page 53 shows the in-dash head unit with remote amp.

You can find replacement speakers that are used or new. The Dynaudio speakers were not great in 1994 and no better whether they work or not in 2019. At least they are larger and more resonant than the crappy HT-214 front door speakers in 240.

You can find speaker that will fit, and seal, on to the door card surface front and rear and you have depth behind the speaker and in front covered by the removable grille.

You may need to measure and gently drill new holes, yet reuse the clips and screws the Dynaudio speakers use in all four holes. Though as already mention by your responders to your original post, verify some manner of continuity that the rear speakers do work. Though before replacing speakers you want to verify the stereo puts out sound to the rear speakers.

An old rather depleted yet not leaking electrolyte 9 volt battery is an easy test to power the rear speakers at the terminals or use an AA battery with a wire as aforementioned. If a multimeter shows continuity or battery contact makes a little static or the large woofer cone moves in or out and remain there with battery contact indicates at least a working woofer cone if not the entire speaker.

If the speakers check OK with multimeter or battery contact, yet both rear speakers do not work with the radio on may mean a failure at the head unit or maybe equally likely the remote power amp.

With ignition off and key out you can check for voltage from the amp at the wire harness spade terminals crimped to the wire ends. May show some voltage from the amp. The voltage is low and with an okay made multimeter you can test for resistance.

Through some fault diagnosis you can determine whether the amp or radio head unit is at fault. If so, you can risk replacing the amp or head unit with the same or a compatible Volvo branded model.

You other choice is to use a powered after market head unit, use adapter connectors that you solder or use insulated crimping connectors to connect to the radio wire harness connector. The second wire harness adapter connects to the remote amplifier connector to connect the after market powered head unit for the power speaker out put. There is no need to hack and splice or re-route around the factory harness. Volvo used good quality stranded copper alloy and heavy 80 or 100 C insulation routed through sheathing.

Just an idea-r.

Hope it works. I can put up images of the adapters if that helps. Here you go:




Metra 70-9220 Receiver Wiring Harness
Connect a new car stereo in select 1993-2004 Volvo vehicles


https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120709220/Metra-70-9220-Receiver-Wiring-Harness.html


https://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/RadioAntenna.htm

I give up on power aerials. Fixed mast is good for me!

The Crutchfield website offers a good selection though some of the adapters for early and later 240 seem to have disappeared from the site. You do have flea bay that sells these wire harness adapters.

https://www.crutchfield.com/

Questions? Hoope that helps.


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Thanks, all for your thoughtful responses. The tips on testing are helpful.

I guess my last question is, is it necessary to take off the panels, and if so, is it as easy as set forth in the FAQ?

Thanks.

Hi U.S. Diver,

Please forgive my late reply.

Take the door panels, you mean the inner door cards, off, for speaker replacement?

The speakers are surface mount on the inner door car surface, under the easily popped-off grill.

The Dynaudio speakers Volvo used may have an odd diameter versus the round speaker you buy. I'm unsure the diameter you may use. Somewhere around 6" or 6.5" of the screw holes? Of, some are riveted to the door cards and you have to drill them out. I thought mid-90s 940 had larger speaker retain using pinchy clips and screws. You should nto need to remove the inner door card panel.

I guess the FAQ article refers to the door speaker panel assembly and not the inner door card (panel?).

You may need to drill a small hole and move the pinchy clips the metal screws thread into securing the speaker to the inner door card.

You want the speaker back side to secure and seal to the inner door card surface isolating the relative air mass inside the door from in front of the speaker. Doing so maximizes the speaker box effect of the air chamber inside the door where the window rolls up and down and the inner door card. As with your home stereo speaker boxes of cabinets.

Though if it has been awhile, and / or you park 1994 Volvo 940 out-of doors primarily or exclusively, you may want to remove the inner door cards and inspect the works inside the door:
- Clear drains at the door bottom
- Inspect for rust. Water intrudes into the door, freezes, breaks the bottom edge pinch weld seal. Water expands on freezing.
- Exterior panel sound deadening, an asphalt-like material, can lose adhesion and and collapse to the door bottom. Remove and replace with more modern sound deadening?
- Power window works. Bolts securing power windows to the inner door sheet metal frame or panel can loosen. Also, maybe some discrete stuff grease to lube the works and slides / glides.
- Check the door lock / latch / handle and thumb latch for looseness and need for some lube.
- Check wiring on the power door locks and to the power window. A connector may be easily disconnected and reconnected so a bonded electrical contact is renewed disrupting like metal corrosion.
- I'm unsure yet the exterior window scrapers in 940 may also need replacement as with 240? To help limit water intrusion.
- Wiring inspection through out.

Removing the inner door card panel is not too difficult on 700-900. Unlike working with the dash and kick panels in the passenger foot wells, you may not need a boning tool to remove the works that obscure inner door car securing hardware.

As with speaker connection:
- Measure the larger of the two distances between the factory speaker retaing hardware as you may be able to fit that size speaker diameter. Also, measure the depth from the inner door card surface. The replacement speaker depth may be a little deeper than the factory speaker. Same for in front of the speaker so the factory color match grill snaps back in.
- The wire harness from the power amp to the doors and rear hat shelf speakers end in spade terminals. These may or may not fit the replacement speaker terminals. The larger, wider spade term is usually positive VDC and the smaller negative VDC from the power amp out.

I envy your choices with 700 and 900 for after market stereo updates. You get better acoustics in the sedan and wagon passenger cabin than 240 and you are able to use larger speaker more easily. Though unless heavily modified you are sort of limited to a 1 DIN height powered head unit.

I'd not had my head in 700-900 for some time so memory may be fuzzy.

Not a fan of that behind the cigarette ashtray fuse and relay platform box adding so much length to the wiring harness. As John Sargent calls it in the FAQ article, the fuse and relay platform is a serviceable item for remove, inspect, repair or replace including the wire harness ends the relay terminal spades connect to. Though 700 and 900 with 4 banger redblock engine has an elegance 240 does not express in abundance amidst all the 240 charming and quaint qualities.

And it seems I have a remote technical writer job for a while at least. Prove my mettle to the client and get to a full time perm or more than one part time rmeote writer role. Leave toilet arches town with the stupid baseball cardinals. I like a constant wind like in high county CO or WY or maybe the tsunami of silence that covers NW Montana and North Idaho and NE Washington state. Get a garage and install them SuperPro blue urethane rear suspension bushes on two 240s and new exhast gaskets and treat them rear wheel bearings.

Huzzah, I guess.

Sorry to go on so long.

Questions?

Thanks,


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I'm trying to remember if the speakers are mounted on the inside or outside of the door panel. Without going out to check for you, I kind of remember the speakers may be mounted on the outside, so in that case you would not actually need to remove the door panel and can drill out the rivets to remove the speakers and gain access to the speaker wires without having to remove the door panel. It's still simpler to do everything with the door panel removed. Removing the door panels in your car is perhaps easier than indicated in the FAQ which covers a variety of situations. After you've done it once, it's a piece of cake. My only added cautions to the FAQ are pulling the lower door edge clips straight down so the clips don't break when attempting to pry them off at an angle (I now use a hooked wire) and on reassembly to make sure the door panel is pressed in and the plastic studs are suitably protruding in their slots before pushing things back together.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

Can the wiring to the window switch and speakers be easily removed and reattached? Or is soldering required? Thanks.

As the Grey Kitten noted for you in his post earlier today, the wires attach on the back of the speakers using push-on spade lug connectors and the spade lugs on newer speakers will indeed often be a different size, typically narrower. Sometimes the new speakers come with replacement crimp terminals or pig tails that you can use. You can try using the existing female spade connectors on narrower tabs just so long as it's a snug connection and the wires cannot wiggle around or become loose. If they give you proper connector terminals then replace the old connectors with those, they will likely fit any future speakers as well. If they gave you pig tail wires then consider using them. When splicing pig tails onto existing wires, and especially when doing radio speaker connections, rather than just twisting the bare strands together and wrapping with tape (a sign of poor workmanship), use bullet or butt crimp connectors -for a professional job, solder the twisted wires end to end and protect with heat shrink tubing. If you are really desparate, you could always solder short lengths of wire directly to the terminals on the back of the speakers and then connect them to the car speaker wires using your own disconnect terminals, like bullet or spade crimp connectors, and alternate the orientation of the male/female ends so you will never accidentally get the polarity wrong in the future.

Although it's not fatal, you should always try to maintain the correct +/- polarity of the wires to keep the speakers in phase. For your 1994 940, the rear door speaker wire colours should be: LeftRear+ Yellow/Brown, LR- Yellow/Gray, RR+ Green/Brown and RR- Green. If there's no marking on the speakers then either look on the box (or brochure) or try to figure it out from the lug size (smaller is typically negative, as our Mr. Kitten mentioned).

As for the window switch pods, they use a Molex-style push on plastic connector block with lock fingers on the side. You won't be needing to disconnect them, they can stay in their pocket in the door frame.

If I'm assessing your technical experience correctly, unless you need to perform surgery to mount your new speakers, you may find it easier to try drilling out and replacing the speakers without removing the door panels. You can always remove the door panels later if you need better access or drop something inside. Still, it's a good learning opportunity for the next time you need to get inside the door.

Good luck.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

Thanks, all. Yes, I have done a fair amount of mechanical work, but really no electrical, and definitely nothing in the door panels. Thanks much for your detailed information and patience. Now I just need a cooler day here in CA to start!

Thanks so much for your information!

Maybe it's time to think UPGRADE.
From your posting : A base Model 940. I assume that you have a Sedan and not a Wagon.

I'm a 240 guy, however, in my sedan, I have rear speakers mounted on the rear deck.
Have you considered this option for New Rear speakers. Depending on how the metal of the deck is configured (Open the trunk and look) you may only need to run new speaker wires from under the carpet along inside rocker panels past the rear seat and into the trunk. At worst drilling a couple of holes. --- to mount above the surface enclosured speakers.

You'll be able to mount bigger and better speakers with an above the surface enclosure, rather than hanging them, which would require cutting the metal deck.

If you do this use good quality speaker wire, not the skinny stuff that give you for car stereos. Look at what Crutchfield sells for in-home systems.

Your 1994 940 almost certainly came with rear door speakers. Start by checking to make sure the fader control isn't set to silence the rear speakers. For the stock radios, if there isn't a slide fader control then you pull out the volume knob and turn to adjust front/rear balance (push in to set left/right balance).

Beyond that, the odds are the speakers have failed and it's not at all uncommon after all these years. There's of course always the possibility it could be a failed section in the radio/amp. Less likely in your case as it's both rear speakers is unconnected wires (at the radio harness or back of the speakers), but it could also be a broken wire, like at the door hinge area (more common at the driver door, not the rears).

To access the speakers, push the black plastic speaker grill in slightly (so that the door panel is pushed in slightly) and slide it toward the door pillar. The plastic clips on the back of the speaker grill can easily get broken during reassembly, so make sure the door panel is pushed in enough to adequately expose the heads of the plastic pins BEFORE beginning to slide the clips back over the pins. For speaker removal, you drill out the rivets (easiest with the whole door panel removed). Based on personal experience, do not try mounting replacement speakers with pop-rivets, but rather use short bolts or sheet metal screws into backing clips -when the pop-rivet finally snaps, the shock wave easily tears the speaker diaphragm, especially in used speakers.

Most of the later North American 940s got the trouble prone CR-915 radio with integral amp and connection for an auxiliary CD player. This is a 4-channel radio, LF-RF/LR-RR with slave front speakers on the dash. Some/most/all? sedans also got slave rear speakers on the parcel shelf. The most common problem with the CR-915 is a locked up front panel or tuner section. The internal AM antenna is also rather weak. After many years, the volume control rheostat will also start to wear out. There were other 940 radios (probably mostly in other markets) that had a separate amplifier (many of the later 740 radios also used a separate amp).

For replacement radios and speakers, check out Crutchfield (crutchfield.com), a favourite source for many of us. For replacement speakers, pay special attention to the depth clearance to the window assembly. Replacement radios will need a DIN standard mounting adapter box and a suitable plastic bezel (surround) for the dash (both available from Crutchfield). You will either need to purchase a plug-and-play wiring harness adapter (again, Crutchfield) or figure out how to splice the new radio connector(s) to the existing radio harnesses -the wiring is described in the 700/900 FAQ. Most everday radios come with an integral amplifier, so if your car has a separate amp then just bypass it.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

To close the loop on this, as I was too busy to move on this project, I took this to Gran Prix Auto Stereo in Culver City, which I incidentally recommend.

Mr. K. confirmed that the lack of sound from the rear door speakers was because... there were no such speakers installed. Mystery solved.

He added some Sonys, plus two new dash tweeters, all for $220 out the door, and now I have awesome sound.

Thanks all for your thoughts.

Thanks for the detailed response. I used your direction to remove the speaker grates, and confirmed that I do have such speakers.

Is there any way to test or repair the existing speakers? It seems a waste to just replace them, or is a repair simply not worth it?

Thanks.

I test suspect speakers by attaching short lengths of wire to their terminals, then using a AA battery. AA battery voltage is too low to hurt the speaker. Hold the battery with one wire (doesn't matter which) pressed against the battery bottom and scrape the other wire across the battery top. You'll get a scratchy, static-like noise from a speaker if it's not shorted out or open circuit. This does not check whether the speaker can deliver "good" sound - it may be damaged, or just too old to avoid distortion.

I've also used this method to detect which wires up in the dash are connected to which speaker, and that there are no breaks in the wires.
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Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), and XC60. Also '77 MGB and four old motorcycles. Long gone: 1981 244, 1994 940 and 1998 S90.

Like wally660 said, forget any thoughts of repairing, think new and better speakers unless someone offers you free used ones and improved sound quality is not of importance to you.

Since both rear speakers are dead, probably best to confirm that it's actually the speakers. Using suitable lengths of almost any kind of wire to make an extension lead, either try connecting a known working speaker (of similar design) to the speaker wires at a rear door or connect one of the rear speakers to the speaker wires at a front door. Polarity doesn't matter for testing purposes. Tips for removing door panels are here in the FAQ.

A quick check using the speaker selector at Crutchfield.com didn't seem to turn up any direct fit speakers for 940s, but there are a number of modified fit speakers listed. It's often just the alignment of the mounting holes which may require drilling, adapter plates or just gluing them in place. The front and rear speakers are the same dimensions and mounting, but as I recall are of slightly different design -the rears probably emphasize low range while the fronts are more mid-range to work with the smaller, higher range dash speakers. I'm not an expert on car sound systems so do some more homework or start a new post here seeking advice.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now

I believe that 25 year old speakers are not worth repairing and even inexpensive speakers will be a major upgrade to the speakers in your car.