Discuss How to determine positive and negative? in the DIY Electrical Advice area at ElectriciansForums.net

Spiner

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This is wiring for a car speaker, everyone says that the polarity doesn't matter if it's only 1 speaker but does for multiple, this one has purple and brown wire and the other side has blue and green wires, so colors wont help at all. I have a Multimeter and was wondering how do i test which of these is positive and which is negative?
 
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Car speaker wiring which is positive(can't go by color)?

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Connect a 1.5v battery across the speaker coil briefly. If the speaker cone goes outwards then your speaker positive is the one connected to the battery positive.

As you say, it's important to get phasing right if there's more than one speaker.

And welcome to the forum!
 
Connect a 1.5v battery across the speaker coil briefly. If the speaker cone goes outwards then your speaker positive is the one connected to the battery positive.

As you say, it's important to get phasing right if there's more than one speaker.

And welcome to the forum!
I'm asking for the car's positive and negative, not the speaker, speaker has the markings for + and - .
 
Ah I see. You should be able to get the wiring diagram from the web. If not then connect the two speakers up but don't put all the trim back. If they are the wrong way you will be able to hear it when listening to some music. If you're not sure then swap one of them over and try again. The correct way will definitely sound better.

You won't hurt anything by doing this.
 
Thanks I really hope my hearing is good enough to tell the difference, haha. As for getting the diagram i can't even find out which oil and spark plugs are correct for my model of car i've found multiple different "opinions" and also sites showing different stuff.
I'll try the swapping and hear what it does. But I wonder if there is no way to test that with the multimeter?
 
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Thanks I really hope my hearing is good enough to tell the difference, haha. As for getting the diagram i can't even find out which oil and spark plugs are correct for my model of car i've found multiple different "opinions" and also sites showing different stuff.
I'll try the swapping and hear what it does. But I wonder if there is no way to test that with the multimeter?

It's possible that one side of the connector is grounded, but probably not. Try a continuity test from each wire in each connector to ground just in case.

What car is it out of interest?
 
It's possible that one side of the connector is grounded, but probably not. Try a continuity test from each wire in each connector to ground just in case.

What car is it out of interest?
2005 Toyota Aygo (EU) .
 
This is wiring for a car speaker, everyone says that the polarity doesn't matter if it's only 1 speaker but does for multiple, this one has purple and brown wire and the other side has blue and green wires, so colors wont help at all. I have a Multimeter and was wondering how do i test which of these is positive and which is negative?
Usually the positive are the striped ones.
 
"The correct way will definitely sound better."
-Tried this and can't tell the difference, it just all sounds bad on some songs and normal on others but i think that's because i'm focusing too much on trying to hear every sound and then they just sound weird. Is there a certain song / sound that would give a clear winner as to which one sounds better?

"Usually the positive are the striped ones."
-They're full colored , green,blue for right side and brown and purple left side.
 
"The correct way will definitely sound better."
-Tried this and can't tell the difference, it just all sounds bad on some songs and normal on others but i think that's because i'm focusing too much on trying to hear every sound and then they just sound weird. Is there a certain song / sound that would give a clear winner as to which one sounds better?

"Usually the positive are the striped ones."
-They're full colored , green,blue for right side and brown and purple left side.

Unfortunately a lot of modern cars have moved away from striped wires.

It's not so much the quality of the music you are listening to, but whether it has a strange 'out of phase' sound when you are listening to normal stereo music with your head central to the speakers.

You can also get bass cancellation when they are out of phase.
 

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