Ls430 Subwoofer

[Tom and Terri]

For those of you who have found a scratchy noisce coming from your subwoofer or have been told that this speaker needs to be replaced, I have a possible very easy solution. Most of the older cars will have a problem with the outer edge of the subwoofer foam losing the attachment to the speaker frame. Once this happens the cone will not move up and down in a linear path creating an annoying noise that sounds like scratching. Replacing this speaker is very expensive.

The solution is to get some silicone sealant in a tube with a very fine tip and drop a line of cement between the frame of the speaker and the outter edge foam surrounding the speaker. Clearly there is not a lot of room in which to work so have a mirror handy to see the areas where you cannot directly see what you are doing. Take your time and use just enough material to fill in the space between the outter edge of the speaker and the frame. The silicone bead should be less than an eight of an inch or about 4-5mm. Let the silicone set well, so don't turn on the radio for at least 12 hrs. This simple solution will fix 90% of the subwoofer problems that you may encounter unless you are a rock head and play your system at ear shattering levels rountinely.

Good Luck

[Riick]

Solution that will renew that speaker to original (new) quality is to remove speaker,

measure & then buy new foam surround -- Parts Express is one spot.

Here is link to a YouTube on re-foaming the speaker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwcfP5pKeek

Your solution will work, but this way that sub will work at high volume and sound good.

[FatCat23]

Silicone is a short-term fix so you dont have to take the sub out. But it'll only last a few months.

Put in a new foam surround. Very easy to make the repair but getting the speaker out is tedious.

[eacla]

Did the silicone thing 3 years ago, using a mirror to see what I was doing. Still sounds great. Don't be afraid to use a lot of silicone, all the way around.