I have a 2001 Fabia Classic 1.4 and I'm going mad trying to fix the left speaker. At the moment, it's completely dead. I've had the door card off and the head unit out and I'm fairly certain it's the wiring that's the problem. I'm fairly certain it happened when we had the external door panel replaced about two years ago after an accident, but the car was my mum's at the time and she didn't notice (how can you not notice a loss of stereo?!), so it's too late to make them fix it. As the car's now mine, I'm determined to sort it out.

It's kind of tricky to explain, so I'll be as literal as possible. Using my multimeter, if I put one probe into the unit end connector, and one into the corresponding speaker end, there's no circuit for either the brown or the brown-red wire so I'm assuming nothings getting through to the speaker.

However, if I put both probes into the head unit connector for the two speaker wires, there is a circuit. This isn't the case for the speaker that does work so I assume that that is the problem. Does this mean that the wires have been exposed somewhere, and they are shorting by connecting to each other? However, if I do the same thing at the speaker connector end, there isn't a short :confused:

Which brings me to my other problem, how on earth can I rewire it? They seem fairly solidy in place in the little rubber thingys that enter the door, and 90% of the wiring is behind the dashboard which I have no idea how to get to. Where should I start?

I'd really rather avoid going to a garage, but if I'm too far out of my depth I will. Do you know how much they'd likely charge for this? It seems a fairly straightforward problem, right?

If anything is unclear, I'll explain it differently. I'd be eternally grateful for any help, monophonic sound is driving me mental. Glad to be a part of the Skoda community!

Wiring problem huh? You think maybe the wires aren't connected to the driver? If they only replaced the door panel at the time then it could be a possibility that on the wires from the head unit into the driveraren't connected..you're gonna have to remove the cards to get to it.

If I've made a booboo in my assumption of the problem please let me know.

Sounds like you have identified which wires on the ISO connector go the the not working speaker. If you can get hold of an AA battery and some wire, put one end of each piece of wire into the ISO connector pins making sure the strands dont touch, then gently touch one wire to the + side and the other to the - side of the battery. You should here a gentle scratching/thud from the speaker. If you do then the wiring is intact and its the headunit thats broke. The hu amp may have been short circuited in the accident.

If Manny's idea doesn't work, then another way to test is using an old piece of speaker wire put loosely from HU to driver, if it plays ok then wiring is dead.

If it still doesn't work, check the speaker is working by removing and putting somewhere else.

If that's ok, then I think it's probable that the HU has blown a channel.

I'm almost certain it's the wiring behind the dashboard that's busted, but I will try with the battery to make sure the speaker's fine. If that is the case, how should I attempt to get to the wires? Do I take off the glovebox?

Wires very rarely break within a loom. Almost certainly the fault is at the connector on the back of the radio or at the connector on the speaker. Since the door has been opened it seems much more likely that's where the fault is. The radio is easy to pull out to get at the connectors - do a forum search for details and also the diagram showing which pins connect to the LH speaker. Then you can do the battery test as suggested above.

Sal

OK - an update.

I got one of my hi-fi's speakers out there, and both channels of the HU are outputting sound so we can rule that problem out.

Did the battery test - definitely nothing getting to the speaker from the head unit end of the connector, from both sides of it (i.e. i also stuck the test wires into the back of the connector to touch the speaker wires themselves). I'm going to take the door card off again tomorrow and try directly at the speaker but I'm fairly sure I'll find the left speaker to be working.

However, an interesting discovery. The wires leaving the HU end are blue and brown striped, yet when they arrive at the speaker they are red and brown! This implies there's some sort of link connector in the dashboard somewhere, right? I'll bet that's come undone. Does anyone know where it might be and where to start looking for it?

I wish there was a Haynes manual for the Fabia.

We are the Haynes manual for Fabia's.

I think we all need to start writing guides to silly little things that could help everyone. I'm going to do a rear bumper and parking sensor fitting one tomorrow. Maybe you could do a door trim removal one? Take pics if you can at every stage, every screw and bolt.

The reason for the different colours is the connection between the door and the car body.

The reason for the different colours is the connection between the door and the car body.

The question is, where is this connection? Is it in the door side, or the body side? How might I get at it?

As a guess, the body side. I think you should see a large multiplug connector.

Success! There's a connector block on the side of the dashboard, inside the black tubey thing that the wires run through at the join between the door and the body - jiggled that about and it came back to life! It seems a little dodgy though, and the inside looked kind of corroded - I'll aim to get it replaced at some point.

Thanks to everyone, particularly mannyo, for the help. Now I just have to sort the window, but that's a different thread .

To repair your speaker wiring, first disconnect power to prevent short circuits. Look for loose connections, damaged wires, or corrosion. Strip clean with a wire stripper, then reattach using proper terminals or soldering. Double check polarity (+/-) for balanced sound. Test carefully after repair.

^ Should've waited a couple more months for the 20th anniversary of the posting! 😁

On 06/06/2005 at 04:29, Moose said:

We are the Haynes manual for Fabia's.

I think we all need to start writing guides to silly little things that could help everyone. I'm going to do a rear bumper and parking sensor fitting one tomorrow. Maybe you could do a door trim removal one? Take pics if you can at every stage, every screw and bolt.

Love this notion! Posting in-depth guides for day-to-day repairs is such a win for the community. Can't wait to see your bumper guide—I'll certainly be doing the door trim one with photos and all!

I have had this problem before. Sometimes the sound comes back by removing the dash door connector block, cleaning it, and reattaching it properly. If there is damage, fix it. If there is dust or moisture on the speaker, cleaning it with Fix My Speaker will improve the sound quality.

On 11/04/2025 at 14:02, fixmy12 said:

Love this notion! Posting in-depth guides for day-to-day repairs is such a win for the community. Can't wait to see your bumper guide—I'll certainly be doing the door trim one with photos and all!

Love your enthusiasm, Hands-on repair guides like this are a real gem for the community. If you go ahead with the door trim fix, do share photos it'll surely help others too. I’m equally looking forward to your bumper guide. Also, for those dealing with muffled phone audio, I recently tried the Fix My Speaker tool it worked surprisingly well.

Would put $10 on a break in the loom going into the door from the A pillar Is a known problem and maybe they removed the door to fix the skin and pulled the wires because they forgot about them . I would bare a little bit of each one in the car and also in the door and try continuity there