The subwoofer speaker used in the Fiero's performance sound system is known to deteriorate. The foam that connects the membrane with the metal case rots away, and the speaker will sooner or later start to fail or generate distortions. This wouldn't be too bad, except for the fact that GM has discontinued this part. Several people have tried to find suitable replacement speakers, with no success. The problem is that the Fiero subwoofer is rather small (5.25"), and the enclosure is tuned. So any replacement would have to fit mechanically, electrically and acoustically.
One way to go is to have it repaired profesionally or get a repair kit. These companies may be able to help, but I have not tried any of them yet:
The cost is about $25-$30. But you can also repair it yourself for only a few dollars. In short, the only choice we have is to repair them ourselves. This is easier than you might think. You'll only need a tube of flexible silicone, medical gauze and a CD cover. I used white silicone used for bathroom repairs and gauze from a first aid kit. Finding a CD cover is left as an exercise for the reader. The goal is to make a flexible silicone sheet with gauze for reinforcement. We'll use the silicone sheet to make a replacement for the deteriorated foam holding the membrane to the metal case. It will look terrible, but it will work. Since the woofer has a very limited frequency response, the home made repair will be sufficient to get it back to work. And since there is no alternative and the old speaker is broken anyway, why not give it a try? There's nothing to lose...
So let's start by making the silicone sheet. Put the gauze on the CD cover and pull it straight. Now soak the gauze with silicone and try to spread the silicone evenly. It's almost like using fiberglass and resin, only we want to achieve a floppy result this time, and the smell is different. Make sure there are no holes left in the gauze, as we want the silicone sheet to be airtight. Now pull the silicone off the CD cover and hang it up to dry. After it's dry, you'll have a rubber-like sheet that you can cut with a pair of scissors.
Remove all (!) remains of the old foam from the speaker. Remove the plastic ring from the frame. Cut off a strip of the silicone sheet and glue it to the membrane on one side using silicone, and to the metal case on the other side. Try to shape the silicone similar to the way the old foam looked. Don't worry if you don't get it exactly right. What matters is that the membrane to case connection is airtight and flexible. Now continue cutting strips off of the sheet and glue them all around the membrane. The strips may overlap, but they don't have to. When you're done, smear some silicone in any gaps that are between the individual strips. Again, the keywords here are airtight and flexible.
Finally, reinstall the ring around the speaker and install the speaker in the enclosure. Boy, what a mess we've made! And it looks like crap. But surprisingly, it sounds really good! Very close to what it sounded like originally, and when it's mounted, nobody can see what it looks like anyway. The same repair can be applied to the 4x10's if you want to, but since you can still get these from the dealer, you may want to buy these new while you can.
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