My DIY Bose subwoofer fix
Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 10:46 pm
Hi everyone I'm new here but just wanted to share how I fixed a Bose subwoofer in my wife's 08 SE.
Recently the woofer box area started to make a horrible rattle noise and that's when I started doing a little digging. I found a lot of info on replacement speaker surrounds and figured that was most likely to be the problem. I also ran into another problem, no one carries a surround specifically made for our woofers leaving us with pretty much only one choice... using a universal kit. But before I went jumping to any conclusions I decided to pop out the rear panel and take a look at both the subwoofers. After removing all the fastiners holding the panel in place I got it out in about 15 minutes. To my surprise both woofers looked pretty much brand new with the foam surround completely intact. So I then proceeded to turn on the stereo and attempt to isolate which one was making all the wracket. It ended up only being the rear woofer in my situation. I removed it and started looking closely for anything wrong, and nothing really looked wrong until I compared it to the other subwoofer. The sub that was still working properly had a very nice thick bead of adhesive securing the opaque plastic center of the cone to the paper portion of the cone. The failed woofer looked like the bead barely had enough coverage to secure it at all and was separated in a few small spots. I was able to actually press lightly in on the plastic portion and watch the edge separate... this was the problem!
All I had to do was re-glue the opaque plastic center of the come to the paper portion. I simply ran a small bead of crazy glue around the edge of the plastic and let out dry. Re- install it and test it out. Now I'm sure there is most likely a better adhesive to use for this but crazy glue is what I had available and it worked. So don't run out and spend $500 on a new Bose sub box. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
Recently the woofer box area started to make a horrible rattle noise and that's when I started doing a little digging. I found a lot of info on replacement speaker surrounds and figured that was most likely to be the problem. I also ran into another problem, no one carries a surround specifically made for our woofers leaving us with pretty much only one choice... using a universal kit. But before I went jumping to any conclusions I decided to pop out the rear panel and take a look at both the subwoofers. After removing all the fastiners holding the panel in place I got it out in about 15 minutes. To my surprise both woofers looked pretty much brand new with the foam surround completely intact. So I then proceeded to turn on the stereo and attempt to isolate which one was making all the wracket. It ended up only being the rear woofer in my situation. I removed it and started looking closely for anything wrong, and nothing really looked wrong until I compared it to the other subwoofer. The sub that was still working properly had a very nice thick bead of adhesive securing the opaque plastic center of the cone to the paper portion of the cone. The failed woofer looked like the bead barely had enough coverage to secure it at all and was separated in a few small spots. I was able to actually press lightly in on the plastic portion and watch the edge separate... this was the problem!
All I had to do was re-glue the opaque plastic center of the come to the paper portion. I simply ran a small bead of crazy glue around the edge of the plastic and let out dry. Re- install it and test it out. Now I'm sure there is most likely a better adhesive to use for this but crazy glue is what I had available and it worked. So don't run out and spend $500 on a new Bose sub box. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.