What a waste of a night

[jlindy]

I've been researching, reading FAQ's, asking advice about speaker amp repair, and I was finally read for the do it yourself fix on my subwoofer. The sub was working, but my center channel gave out no sound, so I was going to try to fix. I had all the materials and I was ready. First of all, what the hell is that big glob of goo that they pour all over the capacitors that I read about. It's like Bose is trying to protect Dyno DNA inside the belly of a mosquito caught in tree sap. Ugh! What a pain to get off.

I got everything apart and didn't see any leaking capacitors, but 1/2 of them were under goo, so it was hard to tell. I replaced every capacitor on my subwoofer amp excluding the C19 and C25 as instructed. Got it all back together and found out some good news. I found out that my subwoofer never worked at all and I didn't even know it. Those two little door speakers don't actually sound that bad for their size. I upgraded the subs performance from nothing to buzzing. At least I had sparked some life into it.

Well 5+ hours later and nothing accomplished. I guess now I will have to send it off to Bose to fix. It kind of pisses me off, but makes me laugh at my luck. If you want to sign up, I am currently taking appointments for receiving kicks to the groin as well.

 

[Vytas]

I had my subwoofer amp rebuilt just a few weeks ago. With the help of a fellow Prime member, all the round shaped capacitors were replaced and still the buzzing persisted. Turns out the white square caps were at fault (which don't fail that often compared to the round ones). The goop was tough to remove but I was able to get it all off. I sent in my subwoofer amp to a shop called SoundRepair in Florida. They are an experienced Bose amp repair shop. Contact them at 888/615-9700. The charge to rebuild the amp completely is $85 shipped (FedEx). Turnaround is very quick. They only need one day to do the rebuild. Used them before to have them rebuild my door amps and they work fine after nearly two years.

I also sent them my subwoofer speaker with my amp to be checked out and they were nice enough to test it and report that it was working fine. They had a replacement available for $40.

 

[jlindy]

While I changed all the capacitors out, maybe there is a chance that I used too much heat in the process and damaged the board. I have read that can happen. Since I am relatively new to this process, it is a possibility. The reason that I was going to send it to Bose is because they would have everything that I would need to fix it. Do you think this shop in Florida could do the same if for some reason I screwed up the motherboard?

 

[hlweyl]

If you want to sign up, I am currently taking appointments for receiving kicks to the groin as well.

I had a good laugh at that one jlindy I feel your pain though, last week I replaced a little seal in my 67 chevy transmission. It had to come apart to do it, i.e. jack up, move crossmember, drop pan, yada yada. Took me about 5 hours total, got it all back together as i'm putting the new tranny fluid in, it started leaking again but worse than before!! I felt like vomiting!!!

Now this might seem like a stupid question, why not replace the crappy bose with something good rather than try to repair the bose itself? I don't really care much for the bose speakers... i'm gonna replace the whole lot of them. We are not alone though, many gripes about bose from the S2000 forums, even car and driver tv was ragging on the 350z's bose speakers. Are bose using old ac delco parts or what???

 

[jlindy]

Re: Re: What a waste of a night

I had a good laugh at that one jlindy I feel your pain though, last week I replaced a little seal in my 67 chevy transmission. It had to come apart to do it, i.e. jack up, move crossmember, drop pan, yada yada. Took me about 5 hours total, got it all back together as i'm putting the new tranny fluid in, it started leaking again but worse than before!! I felt like vomiting!!!

Now this might seem like a stupid question, why not replace the crappy bose with something good rather than try to repair the bose itself? I don't really care much for the bose speakers... i'm gonna replace the whole lot of them. We are not alone though, many gripes about bose from the S2000 forums, even car and driver tv was ragging on the 350z's bose speakers. Are bose using old ac delco parts or what???

What do you recommend for using the stock head and money is a factor. The problem is that I don't have a lot of extra cash right now and $75 to fix the sub vs. having to buy all new speakers is a big difference.

 

[NeSX]

I had all three of my speakers/amps rebuild by World of Sound in Florida. The price was more than fair considering that I overnighted them to himon a Monday and had them on my desk on Wednesday. Sound like new and have a one year warranty on them.

If you search World of Sound you will find the contact person's name.

 

[kenjiMR]

I've been researching, reading FAQ's, asking advice about speaker amp repair, and I was finally read for the do it yourself fix on my subwoofer. The sub was working, but my center channel gave out no sound, so I was going to try to fix. I had all the materials and I was ready. First of all, what the hell is that big glob of goo that they pour all over the capacitors that I read about. It's like Bose is trying to protect Dyno DNA inside the belly of a mosquito caught in tree sap. Ugh! What a pain to get off.

I got everything apart and didn't see any leaking capacitors, but 1/2 of them were under goo, so it was hard to tell. I replaced every capacitor on my subwoofer amp excluding the C19 and C25 as instructed. Got it all back together and found out some good news. I found out that my subwoofer never worked at all and I didn't even know it. Those two little door speakers don't actually sound that bad for their size. I upgraded the subs performance from nothing to buzzing. At least I had sparked some life into it.

Well 5+ hours later and nothing accomplished. I guess now I will have to send it off to Bose to fix. It kind of pisses me off, but makes me laugh at my luck. If you want to sign up, I am currently taking appointments for receiving kicks to the groin as well.

I did the exact same thing... my left speaker kept cutting in and out... now I am suspecting the cd-changer itself. I replaced all but the two big caps that were stuck in the goo.

Vytas, would you mind letting me test out your CD-Changer at the next club lunch?

 

[aerodrums]

What a waste of a night.....maybe not!!!

JLINDY.

I just recently went thru the same procedure as you tried. In this case my right amp. Found it almost impossible to get thru that damm amber “goo”. But…..this will work!!! Get an EXACTO knife with the standard blade (a # 11), now warm the blade over a candle flame and now the blade goes thru the “goo”, “like a hot knife thru butter”!!
I replaced all the capacitors on the board and the amp works fine. Hope this helps everyone.

DAVE

 

[FeetFxr]

The guys here in Orlando at Factory Car Stereo Repair http://www.carstereohelp.com/ do a great job of repairing Bose speakers/ amps at a reasonable price. They have done work for me while I waited for the speakers. Check out thier web site it's very informative. Good Luck!!

 

[jlindy]

Re: What a waste of a night.....maybe not!!!

JLINDY.

I just recently went thru the same procedure as you tried. In this case my right amp. Found it almost impossible to get thru that damm amber “goo”. But…..this will work!!! Get an EXACTO knife with the standard blade (a # 11), now warm the blade over a candle flame and now the blade goes thru the “goo”, “like a hot knife thru butter”!!
I replaced all the capacitors on the board and the amp works fine. Hope this helps everyone.

DAVE

I wish I would have known that, but I sent mine to soundrepair in FL. I had to burn through all the goo and it was messy. I have a feeling there was more wrong with it than the capacitors.