2012 Ridgeline Sport. No sound; need help troubleshooting

Pemulis said:

Thanks for the response. It's all four. I may have to at least take this by a local shop for an estimate because taking the door panels off and testing the wires might be a little too DIY for the time I have these days

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Basic logic points the root cause issue away from speakers and/or speaker wiring. The chances of doors speakers simultaneously failing is near zero. Unless something happened inside the cabin, chances of wiring going "bad" is near zero too. Certainly, no one needs to be pulling door panels to check speaker function. There are easy ways to determine speaker condition without going to that extreme.

The "single points of failure" are the head and/or amp. I'm not clear if you have an outboard amp and what speakers it might power, but.... your description would focus my troubleshooting on the amp first. Primarily because - depending on where it is installed - it should be easy to access for diagnosis.

The description intermittent and bump related could mean a power connection loosening up. Check out DC connections @ the amp and where those wires connect to the vehicle.

If you have a DVM, it would be a good time to check out speaker impedance. Disconnect each speaker wire - one at a time - and check to make sure there are no dead shorts - meter across good speaker wire/speaker *should* read between 4 & 8 ohm. If you don't have a DVM, use a AAA battery and listen for a pop at each speaker. What you are trying to do is eliminate the possibility that a speaker coil has failed causing the amp to go into protection mode - which *could* manifest as road bump intermittent behavior.

The fact that the head was hot *could be* a clue as well, but it isn't unusual for them to reach temperatures high enough to be uncomfortable to touch.

The point here is: Occams Razor demands taking the simple path to solution first. Start by powering up the system and firmly tap a knuckle on the amp. Noisy/intermittent? If yes, check power & speaker output connections. If those are good, check out amp input by wiggling wires/cables. If no problem, but vibrating amp chassis causes noisy intermittent sound, suspect defective components inside amp.

If amp checks out good, go to the head and try tapping it similar to amp. Report back what you find. You can do this and we can help you thru it. :act006:

Pemulis said:

My setup for years has been an aftermarket head unit with new tweeters and door speakers up front and a powered bazooka under the rear seat. When the sound started cutting out, I disconnected the sub completely and reinstalled the factory HU. When I got in the truck this morning, the radio worked for the first 5 minutes, and then cut out for the rest of the hour drive. So I'm down to original HU, original wiring, and just aftermarket speakers in the front. What could have gone wrong with the factory wiring to cause something like this? A loose ground wire? It also worked for about 5 minutes last night when I had to make a quick trip out.

Edit: and thanks for the help!

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Well ain't that the derndest thang?

When you say sound cuts out, I assume that means display or back lighting remains on and steady (no flickering weirdness) but sound drops out.

With that new info, I'm still thinking the problem is NOT wiring related. Or speaker related either. Primary reasoning: wires simply don't fail all on their own. They have to be exposed to mechanical stress and/or wicked environments to suddenly die - especially because we are talking about 4 discrete circuits - which raises the odds of all 4 failing simultaneously to the stratosphere. It simply ain't gonna happen all at once.

On the speaker side, there is potential one can affect many - only in the sense that amplifier protection can be triggered when it sees a load it can't tolerate. The one bad apple ruins the bushel of remaining speakers because the amp shuts down its output. I'm almost certain the OEM head isn't that sophisticated - most heads aren't because it takes NRE and physical space to implement that kinda stuff.

Strong recommendation: check out speaker leads with a VOM (volt/ohm meter) If you don't have one, go to harbor freight. $6. It'll do what you need done.
7 Function Multimeter

Using the pigtail adaptor that connected your Alpine to factory wires, you'll be able to ID speaker wires (Right Front + and - / LF, ETC). Measure them. You should see ~4 ohms each one. NOTE: tweeters typically employ in-line filter caps - which blocks DC - so depending on your set up, you may need to pop up dash grills and measure the tweets directly at the terminals. You are looking to ensure there are no dead shorts (reading on a meter as 0 or "OF").

You'll also be able to use the meter to check out + / - DC voltage being supplied to the radio.

I *THINK* what you'll find is: speakers and wires are OK. You just happen to have two devices exhibiting similar behavior.

While I agree 4 speakers won't go bad at the same time.

It's a preference, I tend to feel more comfortable removing a door panel over the dash to test for impedance.

By removing the door panel, not only you can check wiring, connectors, bad crimps, water resting on those semi clear red or blue spade connectors that are horrible in our trucks since water, splashes the speakers whenever it rains, terminals touching the door can be checked.
If MDF was used for a spacer, that can also be checked for expansion or damage due to water and moisture.

We know both head units do the same thing, unless both got damaged, no amp is being used for the 4 speakers. We know the aftermarket harness had to be removed to install the factory HU, that leaves very low chances of being a bad conection at the factory plug or even the aftermarket harness.


I would not be afraid to remove a door panel, even for the first time, it's just a few covers, screws, pop up some clips, a few connectors and done.

There are some YouTube videos, that will help if you search it.

I just hope that both units are not damaged, I'm not going to say it was a good thing to do to pop another HU to troubleshoot an issue having to do with a short circuit.

Keep us posted on how you fix this issue and good luck

Pemulis, you may want to call around to local shops, see if one can bench test the Alpine head - confirm if it operates normally out of the vehicle. In my day, we did that kind of thing no charge - with the idea that if the head tested bad, the owner might purchase a replacement. In the event you don't find a shop with that service...

If your preference is efficient troubleshooting, then starting at the convergence of multiple connections is most efficient. And you'll avoid needlessly risking damaging clips and aging plastic parts holding the door panels in place.

With a $7 VOM, confirming DC power is solved by checking the radio harness. As is testing the complete circuit path from harness to speaker voice coil. And basic door speaker health is confirmed by "popping" each speaker with an AA battery. If a functional issue is found on one door, the trail leads to pulling that door panel and justifying the risk of breaking clips and such. With panels off, a physical physical assessment could be made. If things like damaged speaker mounts or water damaged speaker cones are found on that side, chances are the other side will have similar issues. Both sides could be addressed once the scope of problems is found.

It's a logical troubleshooting progression. At least to my way of thinking.

Also consider if a shop can bench your Alpine, they may be willing to troubleshoot the rest for you as well. You *could* take the head out, leave the radio opening in the dash empty so they can easily access the OEM harness. If they do that for you, consider buying whatever parts are needed from them cuz they earned your business.

Just a thought. Best of luck.

It is all good, as long as we find the problem it does not matter who gets there first.


Given the information that he replaced the HU and the problem appeared again with a different unit, it would be hard to miss or not check the wiring even just by looking at it.

It all depends on who installed the HU and how confident the installer felt on the harness to HU connections. Once the harness and HU are removed, a failure in that area is ruled out.

What are the chances of wiring going bad behind an HU or a short or cut in between the HU and speakers? they had to really do a bad job to get a failure there.

Every time the HU is removed, I am not a fan of dealing with all the wire nests behind it. And connect another speaker to it while it is out, it is not something I would do unless I really have to do it. It's just a preference.

Is there more chances of speakers going bad, shorted terminals, water damage or factory wiring ?

Our doors, have some flaws that facilitate water to cause speaker damage or wear, I have done the simple water hose test before I take the panel out, and the speakers get a lot of water. In fact I created some water shields made with CCF and other water deflection ways to keep my speakers dry or reduce water splashing them.

And Yes due to the low impedance, maybe the HU internal amps failed, or a protection circuit triggered with a short with any of them.

I hope it is something simple and easy to fix.

So a bit of an update since you guys have seemed interested

I took a quick peek at both tweeters before intending to move to the door; nothing unusual. Then my wife borrowed the truck that night, and mysteriously everything worked fine. Been working for a few weeks straight without any outages. I've had no idea what could be wrong, and I have been patiently waiting for it to happen again before picking the troubleshooting back up again. Tonight, it finally went out again when my knee bumped against the driver side door panel. I gave it a second quick knock and it came right back on again. Happened twice that way tonight, so it's clear something is going on inside. I also remembered that my the mechanism that raises and lowers the driver side window had to be replaced fairly recently, so the door panel has been off at the local shop (which may be the root of the problem). I plan to take things apart this weekend and see if that is it. If it is, it is a prime time for me to go with the touchscreen receiver upgrade I've been window-shopping for but refuse to pull the trigger unless I'm sure everything is going to work as expected! Will report back after I am sure I have the solution.

Thanks everyone for your input and assistance!