Anyway.. at fairly normal volumes, things sound OK. Crank it up, though, and it starts to sound like the speakers are blown. I can think of a few possibilities here:
- blown speakers (are they still factory paper cones?)
- bad head unit amp
- poorly wired head unit can't source enough current?
- some other major chassis electrical problem.
I noticed while fiddling that if I only have one speaker running, things sound fine. Each speaker sounds OK on its own, so they're not blown. Taking off the back speaker panels shows some newer poly speakers, so my original fear of 17-year old paper cones didn't pan out.
The electrical system is throwing a strong 12.6V on battery, 13.8 on alternator, so I discard that possibility for now. Down to bad head unit or bad wiring.
Removing the head unit revealed a nasty mass of wiring, with some fairly dodgy things sticking out. All four "ground" leads from the head unit are commoned together, to each other (!)
Took the head unit out and swapped it into another car (luckily I have a Pioneer in my daily driver and it's a direct swap) -- crank it up, and it sounds great.
Now to troubleshoot the wiring in the 325. I see from my PDF of the electrical diagrams that I may have a car with a "sound system" (includes amplifier in the trunk), or just a plain head unit. The standard stereo option will certainly be easier to troubleshoot, but having amp wiring in the trunk may be useful as well.
Off to investigate.
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