3 of 4 speakers dead - 2004 Legacy Wagon

[tonebrulee]

Hey folks,

 

New member here, looking for some insight from those in the know.

 

I've got a 2004 Legacy Wagon that came with the stock AM/FM/CD unit and 4x speakers. About 6 months ago, all but the rear-left speaker cut out entirely. Over the next few months, the 3 dead speakers would all come back to life at once occasionally, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a few days, then all 3 would cut out together, back to the one rear-left speaker.

 

I assumed the problem was with the head unit and recently picked up a basic Sony unit to get a few more features (iPod aux input!) and fix the problem with the dead channels.

 

Installation went fine, but the new unit also plays just through the rear left speaker - i.e the problem was not the head unit.

 

SO.... the question is what am I looking here? I'm assuming the problem is in the factory wiring somewhere. The fact that 3 speakers all cut out and come back together should be some kind of clue, but it doesn't suggest anything to me, since each channel has an independent pair of wires coming into the harness.

 

Is this kind of problem common for Subaru's? Anybody out there have a similar experience, or clues on what I might look at next?

 

FWIW, I took off the black tape to look at the individual wires coming into the factory harness, and they all looked fine. I also spent some time jiggling the wires where they come into the harness in case the junctions there were problematic, but none of the jiggling caused any change in the dead or single live speaker.

 

All help much appreciated.

 

Thanks.