I've been having issues with my speakers - the front speakers have gradually been getting quieter and quieter, to the point where you can barely hear them. I pulled them out to have a look yesterday and the cause seems to be water damage.

The same thing has happened to my previous speakers, and while there was no obvious sign of water damage, I always suspected that to have been their cause of death (plus they'd always play up when it was raining).

Please ignore my very-DIY crimping job and the stock plastic speaker mounts, fixing both of them has been on the to-do list for a while :)

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd31/89djm/IMG_1552.jpg
As you can see, the bolts on the back of the speakers are beginning to rust, as is one of the screws on the bottom cable terminal.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd31/89djm/IMG_1545.jpg
Even the screw holding the speaker in place is beginning to rust.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd31/89djm/IMG_1553-1.jpg
Bit hard to see, but there's white powder forming on the bottom speaker terminal, where the speaker wire ends. There's no issue on the top terminal (the one under the 'cover' of the factory speaker mount).

I gave the speaker terminals a quick roughening-up with sandpaper and the speakers are now working fine, but I did the same on my old speakers, and it was only an interim fix, so I need a more long-term solution.

Has anyone else suffered water damage to their speakers before? How can I prevent this from happening again? The photos are of the right speaker, but the left speaker was exactly the same.

To help prevent it you can add some more plastic or some waterproof foam above the speaker.

Also to see if it helps, solder and heatshrink your speaker wires onto the terminals so they cant become disconnected, that way you can rule atleast one thing out.

Yeah , re join those crimps man. And add some solder and then heatshrink right over to the tip of the terminal. You can give everything a spray of lanolin to coat it, its harmless to everything, just a little sticky. Might stink for a day or two but it goes away. I would definitely be spraying the inside bottom of the door with some to prevent that rusting. You can get baffles for the back of speakers in the US, not sure about here. They protect from dust and water and stuff. Not sure if it changes the sound or anything though.

Maybe just jam some foam or something inside door above speaker like peanandham said. But definitely re do your connections and spray some lanolin around.

..time for new weatherstrips?

..time for new weatherstrips?

Not necessarily, water will leak in regardless of how good the seal is, but there are holes in the bottom of the door to dispose of this water.

All you can do is make sure your electrics in the door are protected.

I gave the speaker terminals a quick roughening-up with sandpaper and the speakers are now working fine, but I did the same on my old speakers, and it was only an interim fix, so I need a more long-term solution.
It's been raining the last few days have gotten worse again - there's no volume to them whatsoever.

With my last speakers, they had banana terminals.... whenever they played up, I gave the terminals a sand and a new end to the speaker wire, but the problem still kept getting worse - so I'm not sure if soldering the connections would achieve anything?

Loosely covering the back of the speaker with plastic or waterproof foam would do the trick. Does it have an affect on SQ at all? Pretty sure these speakers have had it... JB has 30% off Car Audio on Wednesday night, so I could pick up a set of Type R splits for $250...

It's been raining the last few days have gotten worse again - there's no volume to them whatsoever.

With my last speakers, they had banana terminals.... whenever they played up, I gave the terminals a sand and a new end to the speaker wire, but the problem still kept getting worse - so I'm not sure if soldering the connections would achieve anything?

Loosely covering the back of the speaker with plastic or waterproof foam would do the trick. Does it have an affect on SQ at all? Pretty sure these speakers have had it... JB has 30% off Car Audio on Wednesday night, so I could pick up a set of Type R splits for $250...

Soldering by itself will provide a secure connection and using heatshrink over that would stop moisture from getting to the now insulated cable.

You do not need to cover the back of the speaker, but you do need to create a veranda type housing to extend over the speaker magnets further. No affect on SQ.