Having a problem with my Rear Sail panel speakers

[Merlin]

Hello all thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I have just got a 94 Firebird Formula about a month ago. I have just put in a Pionner head out of my last car and some pionner 6.5 3 ways into the door's and the problem I ran into is that the rear sail pannel speakers no longer work. Now I got after market wire harnesses from best buy to put in the speakers and head. But as I said the sail pannels no longer work. I get sound from the rear hatch area speakers and the door's but not from the sail's ? Now this has me confused as hell because I know for shure it's the right head unit harness and that the sail pannel speakers do work because they work with the stock head. Any Idea's any one. I tried asking one of the guys at best buy back in the car audio area. But I'v had more luck talking to a brick wall. All he said was umm I dont know. So if any one has an idea it would be helpful. Thanks

[choley]

did your car come with a stock amp and if so you need a wiring harnes that hooks up to the amp they sell two wiring harnesses one with amp and one without this might be the problem.

[meissen]

wish i could help ya on that one, but my kenwood just had the wiring harness adapter to go from the HU to the car's wiring harness, it was an easy solder job.

[Merlin]

Thanks for the info Choley and thanks for trying to help meissen. As for if it has a stock amp I don't know kinda new to forth gens. I know third gens alot better was my first car and had to rebuild alot of stuff on it. Where would this factory amp be at? Thanks again

[meissen]

What kind of system was it stock? I think the amps only came with the monsoon sound systems if I'm not mistaken. Don't quote me on that, though.

[Merlin]

Well I know it was not a monsoon system it was just a stock ac delco with tape player. I dout that it did come with an amp would seem alittle strange to put one in a car with just a tape player and a basic sound system.

[meissen]

yeah I don't think the delco's had them. I think, unfortunately, the best way to figure it out would be to tear up the interior and trace the wires from the sailpanel speakers back to the HU.

[Merlin]

hmm well don't sound like fun but at lest I just got 2 days off work to do it. I don't know what to do I havent have 2 days off in a row in a long time. And for those woundering I am 17 almost 18 I work almost full time and go to College. It aint fun but it means I get stay at home have no bills other than what ever I spend on my car and insurance.

[meissen]

I hear ya bro, I was in the same boat two years ago. I've had a job ever since I was 14, plus school/college. Living at home, better than dorming and paying all that money.

[choley]

by any chance did anyone take the sill plates off cause some times you screw threw the wires and that might be the problem.but like brian said you might have to trace the wires.

[Merlin]

Well not that I know of I bought the car from my brother and he had bought it from our next door neighbor. I know for shure that my brother didn't do it. The neighbor I dout did it. He never usaly never worked on the car he had every thing done by a dealership. Oil changes every thing he never touched the car from the day he bought it. Only thing I ever saw him do was take a tire off in the drive way because it whent flat. But anyways ya I think today it looks nicer out side I pull it in the back yard and see if I cannot follow the wires from the head to the speakers.

Thanks Choley and Meissen for the help

[MattODoom]

How does an aftermarket head unit with 4 channels run a 6 channel car? Are the sail panel and hatch speaker supposed to be run off the same channels?

[wezeles]

yeah the hatch and sail panels run off the same...in most 6 speaker cars stock they are cheep and still run 4 channel and splice it off... but being a GM and the only only thing i dont like about GM is the cheep wire jobs they do i bet the wires were so tight even pulling that head unit out you might have just unplugged the sail panel speakers... ive done it many times, GM has always tryed to save a buck in the wireing department of there cars and its the only downfall ive ever had with them... i say pick up a cheep spool of wire and run it along the bottom door trim or something plug the wire into the head unit and see if maybe new wires doesnt fix it, every GM car i have ever owned i got sick of the cheep stock stereo wires and just rewired the whole thing... seems like alot of work but its not really just do one wire at a time

[randall814]

i am reviving this thread because i saw it in a related thread box at the bottom of another, but hopefully i can be of some help if your issue has not yet been solved.

if you look on the wiring harness coming from the car (not the aftermarket one), you should see a pink wire (im 99% on this), and when you look on the aftermarket side of the harness going into the stereo, youll notice this wire isnt used. clip it, add some more wire to it for length, and hook that wire up to the remote amplifier turn on wire on the pioneer headunit harness. once its all hooked up and such, turn the key to the on position and give her a test, and you should hear the sail panel speakers back in action, as well as the hatch speakers if you have the delco 10-speaker option.

basically, the issue youre having is the stock amplifier has no idea its supposed to be turned on, since it is notified by the headunit being powered on. if that wire runs to nothing, there is no notification.

let me know if this works for you, or if you already resolved it another way.

THE MORE YOU KNOW!

[SlyStoner421]

alright dude I have a 93 same issue with them, once you take out the head unit they will misteriously stop working, the easiest thing to do is run a speaker wire from the sail speaker to the hatch speaker on either side.