Driving on the M4 yesterday, heard interference and crackling out of the drivers side door speakers. It was raining hard for a short time.

Then, ominous smell of burning, looked over at the centre speaker grill, and black smoke is coming out, not thick, but enough to notice it.

Panic….. pulled over, grabbed the extinguisher, and pulled the centre speaker grille up, smoke had gone, but this nasty smell of melted plastic.

Took the speaker out and found this….

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Nasty experience - that could have been quite serious.

The only thing I can think of is that the voice coil wires developed a short circuit due to insulation failure between windings and dropping the impedance low enough to draw enough current to melt the varnish or whatever is used to retain the magnet.

If you have a meter check the Ohms resistance across the connector pins. The magnet is not directly part of the electrical circuit. Due to the damage it may not explain the failure but I would expect it to be around 1 Ohm if the coils are shorted or open circuit if its essentially now burnt to failure Current: 2003 TD6 HSE. 161,000 miles
Previous 1993 Classic 3.9