New Fiesta Titanium Td1.6 Speaker Vibrates

[derk652]

Hi I have recently got this car and I am shocked at the level of after sales service I have received.

When I play the radion at say level 11 or 12 on Motorway the Front passenger speaker vibrates the Bass is not

on full, music is set to Rock , It sounds worse if you turn the Speakers to the driver only on the set up.

Taken it to Ford after abit they agreed to replace the passenger speaker after 2 weeks the problem has

returned. Told the garage basically they do not want to know as the car is just over a year old!

And said and I quote " All Fiestas have standard Speakers fitted 20 watts -if you turn the volume up and the Bass

on full it will vibrate" Now you would think this would be written in the manual - Not really a selling feature

if I would of known this I would of up graded my car .... But that's why I bought a Titanium.

Anyway has anyone experienced the same thing? And has Ford corrected your problem?

Please note I do not play my music loud nor do I have the Bass on full to replicate this annoying ripping

noise.I am very dertermined and will not be fobbed off by Ford and will go higher and higher until this

problem is sorted if any Ford people maybe reading. You are due for a bit of Free PR on Watch Dog and Which

Get it sorted Speakers cost a few quid to replace the car cost me over £12k

[Brendon]

Hi

Firstly doesnt matter which model you bought, all models have the same speaker, splits in front and mids in the back. Ive had my car now for 6 months and never had a problem with my speaker. I did run them in when i got it but never experienced any rattles or weird noises from my Speakers. I also added a sub so the fronts play less bass now. Id take the car back to ford and tell them to fix it, maybe it just something inside the doors and not the speaker but good luck and keep us updated.

[james_60]

Hi

How do you run a speaker in ?

Jamie

[Brendon]

Hi James

It might sound silly but the rubber on a new speaker is stiff especially on a sub but even splits cause it consist of a little woofer. So what you do is you play music with it but not on 20 and full bass since the day you got your car. Short term you wont notice a diff but in long term it pays of cause you loosen the rubber and everything inside the speaker so 6 months down the line like me they play like new and they actually seemed to improved a little but not much but just something ive learned from experience. But let be honest if i bought some nice Focal or JL Audio or even Hertz splits for $300 then id like them to last long and then you run them in. Its very tempting but you wont regret it. Hope it helps and you understand.

[Brendon]

Hi James

It might sound silly but the rubber on a new speaker is stiff especially on a sub but even splits cause it consist of a little woofer. So what you do is you play music with it but not on 20 and full bass since the day you got your car. Short term you wont notice a diff but in long term it pays of cause you loosen the rubber and everything inside the speaker so 6 months down the line like me they play like new and they actually seemed to improved a little but not much but just something ive learned from experience. But let be honest if i bought some nice Focal or JL Audio or even Hertz splits for $300 then id like them to last long and then you run them in. Its very tempting but you wont regret it. Hope it helps and you understand.

[Nico.]

i have had this vibrating from day one... i just pad up the door trays it seems to be them making the rattle

[Brendon]

Still doesn't make sense why it would do it. Dynamat might help you with rattles but ill strip down the doors and play them and see what rattles and what doesn't and take it from there. Might even be a little bit of plastic or screw or something. Have a weekend with your car and try sort it out seeing that ford is being lazy :P

[AntonyJ]

Hi I have recently got this car and I am shocked at the level of after sales service I have received.

When I play the radion at say level 11 or 12 on Motorway the Front passenger speaker vibrates the Bass is not

on full, Music is set to Rock , It sounds worse if you turn the speakers to the driver only on the set up.

Taken it to Ford after abit they agreed to replace the passenger speaker after 2 weeks the problem has

returned. Told the garage basically they do not want to know as the car is just over a year old!

And said and I quote " All Fiestas have standard speakers fitted 20 watts -if you turn the volume up and the Bass

on full it will vibrate" Now you would think this would be written in the manual - Not really a selling feature

if I would of known this I would of up graded my car .... But that's why I bought a Titanium.

Anyway has anyone experienced the same thing? And has Ford corrected your problem?

Please note I do not play my music loud nor do I have the Bass on full to replicate this annoying ripping

noise.I am very dertermined and will not be fobbed off by Ford and will go higher and higher until this

problem is sorted if any Ford people maybe reading. You are due for a bit of Free PR on Watch Dog and Which

Get it sorted speakers cost a few quid to replace the car cost me over £12k

The standard Speakers aren't the best, but it's unlikely the vibration (buzzing?) you hear is coming directly from the speaker itself. The speaker frame is a single piece plastic moulding with three screws mounting it to the plastic inner door shield with a thin layer of foam in between. If the screw holes had their threads stripped then you might get some vibration between them, but this is unlikely. On the front of the plastic speaker frame there's another thicker ring of foam that forms a seal with the door card. If there's some misalignment, then the door card might miss this foam and touch the plastic frame, so that would cause some buzzing at certain frequencies.

The most likely problem is resonance at certain frequencies is causing the inner plastic shield to vibrate against the door card, or cause the window winder mechanism (which is metal) to buzz. Tracking down and fixing these problems isn't easy which is why the dealer (not Ford) is reluctant to do the work.

I experienced similar issues with my car, but sorted them out myself. Some of the vibration was also road noise related, rather than from the Speakers. I replaced the Speakers with higher quality Pioneers and made my own mounts out of plywood to reduce vibration. I added vibration damping sheets to the metal inside skin of the door and to the flat parts of the plastic shield where I could see/feel resonant vibration. Finally, I glued sound absorbing foam to the back of the door card and used thick high quality draft excluder foam to isolate the speaker. Ideally this would be done in the factory esp. adding some sound absorbing foam between the door card and inner shield, but the Fiesta is built down to a price, and this is one place you feel it :( .

A few pics:

The original (cheap) speaker:

The ply ring mounted and you can see the SilentCoat sound deadener I added to the skin:

Here's a pic of the new speaker complete with foam ring on the front. The silver pieces you can see on the inner shield are the sound deadener where I could feel resonance:

I don't have a pic to hand of the sound absorbing foam on the back of the door card, but I can upload that later if you're interested.

You can download test tones that you burn on a CD, but if you have a particular track that produces the effect it will help you fix this, or demonstrate it to the dealer or a professional car hi-fi installer (who would be far more experienced in sorting out these issues).

[derk652]

Hi

Firstly doesnt matter which model you bought, all models have the same speaker, splits in front and mids in the back. Ive had my car now for 6 months and never had a problem with my speaker. I did run them in when i got it but never experienced any rattles or weird noises from my speakers. I also added a sub so the fronts play less bass now. Id take the car back to ford and tell them to fix it, maybe it just something inside the doors and not the speaker but good luck and keep us updated.

Thank you for your reply I have taken the car back to Ford who said that after a year electrical faults, noises squeaks Etc..

are NOT COVERED BY THE THREE YEAR WARRANTY- SO BE WARNED EVERYONE IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH YOUR CAR

TAKE TO FORD Q U I C K !! Otherwise they will not cover the cost!

Thanks for ALL the other replies to this problem but I don't see why I have to put my hand in my pocket to upgrade

Speakers on my Titanium 1.6 TDI car! That's why I bought this model. I only found out afterwards that they only

fit basic Speakers to it - which really is NOT my problem - And although they say it is Not covered under the warranty

watch this space ...... More info to follow..

[pikestones]

Thanks for ALL the other replies to this problem but I don't see why I have to put my hand in my pocket to upgrade

speakers on my Titanium 1.6 TDI car! That's why I bought this model. I only found out afterwards that they only

fit basic speakers to it - which really is NOT my problem - And although they say it is Not covered under the warranty

watch this space ...... More info to follow..

Whatever made you think you get upgraded Speakers in the titanium?

I dont want to dissapoint you any more mate but my titanum(and no doubt yours) has the same headlights as the basic ,the same seatbelts as the basic,the same speedo ,the same paint,the same thickness of body steel,the same bumpers.....need i go on!

Before you go rushing off making a fool of yourself regarding the warranty,I suggest you read it.

You DO NOT have a 3 year warranty.

You do have a one year full warranty with a 2 year complementary lesser warranty(apologies I do not have the exact wording to hand)

These are bundled together to look like a 3 year warranty to those who dont read the small print.

If your car is a grey import it has 1+1 warranty.

.

Dave

PS thanks to Antonyj for the third picture,I find it amazing just how many components are fitted inside a door,and the complexity of designing and assembling a small sub section like a door ,

[derk652]

Whatever made you think you get upgraded speakers in the titanium?

I dont want to dissapoint you any more mate but my titanum(and no doubt yours) has the same headlights as the basic ,the same seatbelts as the basic,the same speedo ,the same paint,the same thickness of body steel,the same bumpers.....need i go on!

Before you go rushing off making a fool of yourself regarding the warranty,I suggest you read it.

You DO NOT have a 3 year warranty.

You do have a one year full warranty with a 2 year complementary lesser warranty(apologies I do not have the exact wording to hand)

These are bundled together to look like a 3 year warranty to those who dont read the small print.

If your car is a grey import it has 1+1 warranty.

.

Dave

PS thanks to Antonyj for the third picture,I find it amazing just how many components are fitted inside a door,and the complexity of designing and assembling a small sub section like a door ,

[derk652]

Hi Dave,

Do you work for Ford? Because I am surprised you seem to be offay with their 3 year warranty and seem to be OK with it.

"You do have a one year full warranty with a 2 year complementary lesser warranty(apologies I do not have the exact wording to hand)

These are bundled together to look like a 3 year warranty to those who dont read the small print.

If your car is a grey import it has 1+1 warranty."

I never assumed I got upgraged Speakers in the Titanium only Speakers that don't vibrate if the Bass be turned on.

And to be told by Ford that if the Bass is turned up slightly with the volume the Speakers will Vibrate and make a distorted noise

I find this ridiculous ! I understand if you turn the volume up full this may occur but surely not at volume 11!

[AntonyJ]

I never assumed I got upgraged speakers in the Titanium only speakers that don't vibrate if the Bass be turned on.

And to be told by Ford that if the Bass is turned up slightly with the volume the speakers will Vibrate and make a distorted noise

I find this ridiculous ! I understand if you turn the volume up full this may occur but surely not at volume 11!

As I said in my previous post, the Speakers themselves are unlikely to be the problem. They are causing vibration (which is their job, after all) which is making something else resonate, and it's this that you are hearing. Just putting in better Speakers won't fix the problem. But better Speakers will handle higher volumes without distorting, though at 11 the stock speakers should be OK. (For info, I spent £150 on speakers and almost as much again on sound deadening and other installation bits and pieces and I listen at volumes around 10-12).

You should be able to feel the vibration with your hand on the door card, and by applying some pressure might be able to isolate where the issue is. On the back of the door card where the arm rest is, there's a spacer that looks like 3 plastic vending cups. This could well be vibrating against the inner shield. On mine on the left side there was actually a small piece of foam attached to it for this reason. You don't have use the special sound deadening material that I used, any thin dense foam can be used - many people use cheap foam camping mats cut into pieces and stuck in place (double sided sticky tape will do). You probably don't want to get into this, but the people over on talkaudio.co.uk are very helpful in sorting out these types of problem.

Your dealer should have been more helpful rather than just pointing out the warranty fine print - you can always call the Ford helpline to get them to talk to the dealer and see if they can do some sort of goodwill gesture. But you need to help them to help you and do what you can to isolate the exact source of the problem. If you can find which bit is actually rattling, taking the door apart and fitting a piece of foam is a 10 minute job (literally). It's tracking down the source that takes the time.

[pikestones]

Hi Dave,

Do you work for Ford?

No I dont work for ford.

The exact wording is below

To begin with, your Ford warranty covers you for one year with unlimited mileage. From then on, Ford Protect will safeguard you for another two years or a total of up to 60,000 miles, whichever passes first. (Remember, the 60,000 mile limit includes the mileage you covered in your first year of ownership.)

So year one is Ford warranty

year 2 and 3 is Ford protect.

Ive just also found out you can extend Protect to 5 years /100k for £400 if you do it before your car is 12 months old.

Dave

Dave

[derk652]

No I dont work for ford.

The exact wording is below

To begin with, your Ford warranty covers you for one year with unlimited mileage. From then on, Ford Protect will safeguard you for another two years or a total of up to 60,000 miles, whichever passes first. (Remember, the 60,000 mile limit includes the mileage you covered in your first year of ownership.)

So year one is Ford warranty

year 2 and 3 is Ford protect.

Ive just also found out you can extend Protect to 5 years /100k for £400 if you do it before your car is 12 months old.

Dave

Dave

[derk652]

UPDATE ON MY Speakers

Went to Hartwell Ford in Scunthorpe who agreed I had a problem with my Passenger front speaker - they said they would fir a new one.

Problem went away for 3 weeks then returned - took the car in again and their verdict was put the BASS and Volume on low.

It thought this was stupid! Called FORD Customer services who said they cannot disagree with the garage Hartwell Scunthorpe

said I should get a second opinion from another Ford garage. I was not happy because I thought they would have a record

of the supposed speaker being fitted to the car and they would just say the same.

I took it to Evans Halshaw in Gainborough who heard the speaker and AGREED WITH ME !! - THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE FRONT SPEAKER

AND FITTED A NEW ONE! I asked to see the speaker that was replaced but I could not keep it because they have to return it

to Ford to justify the new one ... I don't think Scunthorpe Hartwell Ford ever replaced the speaker in the first place !

and I WOULD ADVISE ANYONE NOT TO USE THIS GARAGE THEY ARE NOT HONEST AND I WILL BE TELLING TRADING STANDARDS ABOUT THEM

NOT TO MENTION ANYONE ELSE WHO WILL LISTEN!!!!!!!!!!

[Westy]

UPDATE ON MY SPEAKERS

Went to Hartwell Ford in Scunthorpe who agreed I had a problem with my Passenger front speaker - they said they would fir a new one.

Problem went away for 3 weeks then returned - took the car in again and their verdict was put the BASS and Volume on low.

It thought this was stupid! Called FORD Customer services who said they cannot disagree with the garage Hartwell Scunthorpe

said I should get a second opinion from another Ford garage. I was not happy because I thought they would have a record

of the supposed speaker being fitted to the car and they would just say the same.

I took it to Evans Halshaw in Gainborough who heard the speaker and AGREED WITH ME !! - THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE FRONT SPEAKER

AND FITTED A NEW ONE! I asked to see the speaker that was replaced but I could not keep it because they have to return it

to Ford to justify the new one ... I don't think Scunthorpe Hartwell Ford ever replaced the speaker in the first place !

and I WOULD ADVISE ANYONE NOT TO USE THIS GARAGE THEY ARE NOT HONEST AND I WILL BE TELLING TRADING STANDARDS ABOUT THEM

NOT TO MENTION ANYONE ELSE WHO WILL LISTEN!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all

I too have this annoying buzz if I have the radio volume on anywhere near loud enough to hear at motorway speeds and my Titantium is only 3 months old.

It wasnt there to start with, only came on after a few weeks. I am taking it in for its 12,000 service next week and so will be pointing it out then.

I have to say though to the OP, I think that you seem to jump to conclusions rather quicker than I would consider normal. Perhaps, you react this way in person and so maybe the victim of your own attitude. Not that I have ever met you, but sometimes, a slightly more relaxed approach can unlock more doors than screaming at each and every occasion.

You are right, and things should be good from new, but as pointed out earlier in the post, unfortunately you and I have a Fiesta, which as pointed out earlier, is built DOWN to a price. If you require audiophile quality Hi-Fi, then perhaps you should consider upgrading your Speakers and housings - and then maybe also the head unit and amplifier.

Personally - I know the cars limitations, and accept that it will never win a sound off competition.

Please dont take this the wrong way - its meant as a little advice.

Cheers

Westy

[derk652]

Hi all

I too have this annoying buzz if I have the radio volume on anywhere near loud enough to hear at motorway speeds and my Titantium is only 3 months old.

It wasnt there to start with, only came on after a few weeks. I am taking it in for its 12,000 service next week and so will be pointing it out then.

I have to say though to the OP, I think that you seem to jump to conclusions rather quicker than I would consider normal. Perhaps, you react this way in person and so maybe the victim of your own attitude. Not that I have ever met you, but sometimes, a slightly more relaxed approach can unlock more doors than screaming at each and every occasion.

You are right, and things should be good from new, but as pointed out earlier in the post, unfortunately you and I have a Fiesta, which as pointed out earlier, is built DOWN to a price. If you require audiophile quality Hi-Fi, then perhaps you should consider upgrading your speakers and housings - and then maybe also the head unit and amplifier.

Personally - I know the cars limitations, and accept that it will never win a sound off competition.

Please dont take this the wrong way - its meant as a little advice.

Cheers

Westy

[derk652]

I am very happy with my new speaker and the noise has stopped, it sounds fine.

I totally disagree with your personal comments and find them unnecessary

The reason I was annoyed in my earlier posts is because I was being fobbed off by Hartwell Ford who

could find nothing wrong with the speaker and asked for another garage to verify their findings.

When I took the car to a different gargage they agreed with me, and sorted the problem.

The reason I wrote these posts is to help other drivers in a the same situation.

I do not expect to be crtitise on my attitude! Only in England could this happen ... don't get me started!

Do you work for Ford perhaps?

I will keep you posted if anything else untowards happens.

[speedyuk]

HI AntonyJ

can you please tell me what size are the Speakers in the door as i am looking to do the same as you have. your post as been helpfll thank you

[olly]

I dont think the speaker is your problem....I had grotesque vibration from the passenger side from day one...I traced the problem on my car to the door pocket resonating against the main door moulding and 98% sorted it..I've posted about this before, this is from a previous answer....

"Not a very technical fix but it worked for me: if you run your hand along the door pocket towards the back of the car you will come to the point where the door pocket meets the main door moulding, I found that the door pocket vibrates against the main moulding here: I cut a felt pad (the type that you stick on the bottom of chair legs to protect a laminate floor)down to size and rammed it between the door pocket and moulding which stopped the vibration. Cant believe that so few have mentioned this irritational fault on here. This lack of attention to design IMO is very poor especially when so much thought has obviously gone into other areas"

Hope this helps in some small way

[AntonyJ]

HI AntonyJ

can you please tell me what size are the speakers in the door as i am looking to do the same as you have. your post as been helpfll thank you

They're 6.5"/17cm for the main front driver and rear Speakers, which is a standard size with lots of choice. But remember you'll need to make/buy an adapter ring. The problem is the front tweeter, which is a non-standard fitting, but there might be something from Pioneer (as one of their Speakers is in the Ford accessories catalogue). I ended up putting the tweeters on the dash in small pods (that came with them).

[speedyuk]

They're 6.5"/17cm for the main front driver and rear speakers, which is a standard size with lots of choice. But remember you'll need to make/buy an adapter ring. The problem is the front tweeter, which is a non-standard fitting, but there might be something from Pioneer (as one of their speakers is in the Ford accessories catalogue). I ended up putting the tweeters on the dash in small pods (that came with them).

ok Antonyj

thanks you for that i have a look around and see what sort of Speakers to put in