Re: '93 90csq rear speaker replacement

[Elliott Potter <epotter@abraxis.com>]

What worked for me was in fact very simple, but I don't know of anyone
else that has tried it so I don't know if what I did actually fixed it,
or if I fixed it by accident.

If you look at the rear woofers, there's a thick metal box attatched to
the back of it with some TORX screws.  (to remove these, use an actual
TORX wrench--I stripped 2 of the screws and ruined 3 allen wrenches
trying to do it the wrong way).  If you unscrew the cover you'll find
that you can't take it off.  Pry _very_ gently with a screwdriver to get
the metal cover off-don't try to pull it off.  There's a circuit board
screwed to the metal case, and the driver is glued to the circuit
board.  To separate them you basically pull the glue off the back of the
driver.  If you pull too hard, when the glue gives you'll rip the wires
that connect the amp to the speaker.  
This glue is what I think was the problem--The metal case is conductive,
and I think that the glue was pushing the amplifier circuit board
towards the metal case so that it shorted out somewhere.  To take care
of it you need to pull out the amplifier board (four screws into the
metal case + one screw that attatches the amplifier chip to the case. 
Be careful when you unscrew the amplifier chip; don't lose the little
flat bolt and don't get that blue stuff on you!).  Trace the outline of
the board, including the screw holes, on a piece of thin cardboard.  I
used the back of a tablet of paper; it has to be thin enough that it
won't set the board too high, but thick and strong enough that it won't
get punctured by the board.  Cut out the cardboard and the screw holes
as precisely as possible, so that if you hold it up to the circuit board
you can't see any of it around the cardboard.  Then just use the
cardboard as an insulator and put the circuit board back in!

Well the last person I told this to seemed a little skeptical but after
I did this I stopped having problems.  This was after the dealer, in
their infinite wisdom, replaced the head unit 3 times and the rear
speakers twice.

HTH!

Elliott

PS- Incidentally, how does your Air Conditioner work?  Does it cut out
at random?
Just wondering...