Sound system problem.

[s13silady]

95 s14

now i dont have a crazy ass system or anything, but i did replace all stock speakers with aftermarket Pioneer speakers. bypassed the factory amps with an 800watt 4channel. and i have a pioneer head unit.

now when the car is running, i hear the infamous alternator whine. (gets louder when more gas is applied. now my search wielded only a few threads to which none of them have the answer except one which stated that there is something called a choke for this problem.

my grounds are pretty much solid. points were sanded. my RCA cables are on the opposite side of the power cable...but its still there..

anyone run into this issue? if so what was done to fix it.. drop the knowlege on me. i want to be able to enjoy my music. :hsdance:

[4thHorse]

What head unit do you have, I have a Pioneer DEH-P5000UB. When I upgraded my system I didn't upgrade the deck until a few weeks later and now that it is installed I get the whine. Also is the whine always there or does it come and go like mine?

[1five10]

Hope this helps...

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-R0dFEp32mbX/learningcenter/car/amplifiers_noise.html (http://www.crutchfield.com/S-R0dFEp32mbX/learningcenter/car/amplifiers_noise.html)

[s13silady]

What head unit do you have, I have a Pioneer DEH-P5000UB. When I upgraded my system I didn't upgrade the deck until a few weeks later and now that it is installed I get the whine. Also is the whine always there or does it come and go like mine?

nothing big i have a pioneer DEH-2000MP. the sound is always there... but only starts when i turn the car on and running. the sound goes away when i unplug the RCA's but definately there when they are plugged in.

[Dr.Baby]

sent you a PM.

[Tenchuu]

1. makle sure your RCA's only cross power cables at 90 degrees
2. good ground, the trunk in S14s is not a good ground
3. buy a ground loop isolator.

one of those 3 is your problem. just because your amp power is on one side dows't mean you are not running your RCA's along a factory power wire.

[design240sx]

check your ground. make sure its on bare metal. also check power and rca wire. make sure they're not next to each other. signal will be bad.

[s13silady]

thanks everyone for your help.. i guess my next step is to get a couple of Ground loop Isolators.

[s13silady]

ok so i tried out some ground loop isolators today... got rid of the whine for the most part if not all... but when they are plugged in, my sound quality goes to shit.. now does that have anything to do with the quality of the GLI's? cuz i tried out some shitty ones from frys that were like 14 each...

[SexPanda]

Ok, now this is just me... but I dont like sound systems. Too much weight, and Im waaaaayyyyyyy too fucking white. Sorry.

that alternator whine is created by your alternator generating an electromagnetic field. All your wiring basically acts as intennas and picks up, and amplifies the electromagnetic energy, and turns it into sound. Now, the "choke" you've been hearing about is just a radio interference canceller. They use those in diesel trucks to help clear out all the background noise when they use aftermarket control units. If you talked to someone with a big ol' cummins about one of those background noise cancelling boxes, they could prolly show you where to get one.

[1five10]

What brand amp and RCA's are you using? Cheaper brands have a lot of distortion to them. I think you should try another ground location.

[s13silady]

ya i might want to try better cables...

sex panda: ya im not to into sound systems neither.. i just wanted to upgrade my stockies cuz those sound like shit...thanks for the help..

[SexPanda]

Believe me. My 240 had 1 working speaker, and the stock 89 cassette changer. It did me fine. Just imagine how i felt when i learned my bmw had like 12 of the fuckers that actually worked. I was like "OH MY GOD!!!"

But yeah im thinking about taking 11 of them out. Seriously, I miss the ghetto-fabulousness of my 240. Now my buddy charles can hook up anyting into anything. I guess thats what a degree in electrical engineering can get you. His Vdubya has 2 alpine type r's (dont neg me, I THINK theyre alpines. I dont know for sure if alpine does type r's) a rockford fosgate 1000watt amp or some shit like that, mids and highs, and its all sealed. He knows his shit. If i can get in touch with him i'll ask him what you can do.

[fueled by hate]

You can also get whine when an rca isn't plugged in all the way. Could also be a problem with the deck. You shouldn't have to use any ground loop isolator on your system. Double check what others have posted and make sure your rca's are plugged in all the way. If you still have problems go to the store and buy another pioneer deck and plug it in. I've seen a number of cases where it was the deck causing the whine especially with pioneer so give it a try.

[mmm858]

make sure the radio is grounded. did you use an aftermarket radio harness? if so, don't use the ground on the harness. ground the radio straight to the chasis.

[slw240sx]

The 240s lacking of a ground in the radio harness can cause issues with the radio pulling ground through the antenna and rcas if applicable. Try running a ground for the radio directly to a metal. Ideal you can do a star ground and run a 14awg back to the amp ground and ground it all at the same point. Ive found in the past 8+ years of installing that unless damaged, the cables themselves usually wont help noise much, as much as the manufacturers want to think that.

Joel

[s13silady]

yuhp.. my RCA's are snuuuggg. and my head unit is grounded straight to chassis. dont know what else it could be besides maybe needing the GLI's




my car sounds super charged. lol

[slw240sx]

try this. take an old rca plug or just a simple piece of wire and run it from the center pin of the rca plug at the amp to the outside of the plug, this is called muting the input. dont have the rcas from the deck plugged in. if you have noise now, it is with your amp. If you dont have noise work forward, remove the muting device and plug your cables back in. unplug the cables from the deck and take a piece of wire and jump the center pin and outer part of the cable. If you have noise that you didnt before, it is your cables, if nothing still then it lies in the deck. If it is the deck, try grounding it at the amp ground and try running the constant power(usually yellow on the deck) straight to the battery via fused lead. As a last resort PAC makes an inline rca noise filter that is the only thing I have ever used that took out noise on the rca side and didnt degrade SQ a noticable amount. I had to use these on my adcom amps as a last resort, because the line drivers picked up any noise and magnafied it x10.

[iitywygms]

Try this. Connect all of your grounds together, not necessarily to the same spot, just make sure they are all connected together. My buddy works at a stereo shop and he suggested this. Something about a ground loop and different resistance at grounding points.

[projectRDM]

Buy another pair of RCA cables (good ones), and run them outside the car. Is the noise gone? If so, it's picking it up in the chassis somewhere. If not, you're ground and/or power cable are introducing it.

[s13silady]

little update..

so iI tried running both grounds (amp+HU) directly to battery. still has sound...if not louder. then i tried running both to same ground source in the trunk. still has the sound.. so i reconnected everything. this time i shortened the ground for the amp and found a better grounding spot... sanded down to bare metal of course.. then i shortened the ground to the HU to a solid bare metal chassis ground. i would say this got rid of 60 to 70 percent of the sound. it is still noticable when the HU is turned down all the way. but BARELY when the HU is up a bit.

when the speakers are connected to the HU directly there is no sound. so there is only a whine when the amp is plugged in...

so what do you guys think from this small process of elimination.. what would be my next step?

made a little progress today..

sorry so long.
and thanks again for all the help.

[white92_s13]

hey, have you tried A checking belt tension. B maybe a new belt?

i had the same problem, had a horrible super charger sound, happened when i put my stereo system in the car, and turns out i had a bad belt, and becuase i added stress to the alt. with a stereo system it just made it worse.

check belt and tension!

[s13silady]

hey, have you tried A checking belt tension. B maybe a new belt?

i had the same problem, had a horrible super charger sound, happened when i put my stereo system in the car, and turns out i had a bad belt, and becuase i added stress to the alt. with a stereo system it just made it worse.

check belt and tension!


all my belts are all new and tightened properly.

damn electrical probs.
lol

[slw240sx]

try the muting process i suggested. it will let you know where the problem lies. Ive had noise sourcing from head unit issues but the internal hu amps did not make noise.

[s13silady]

try the muting process i suggested. it will let you know where the problem lies. Ive had noise sourcing from head unit issues but the internal hu amps did not make noise.

can you be a tad bit more specific? as to which plug and where the wire will run? etc? or maybe you can whip a quick diagram with ms paint to show that would be great.
thanks again.

[Dream240]

Definitely DONT use ground loop isolators. They're a waste of money and all they do is kill your sound quality.

I'm thinking it's a combination of your head unit and RCAs being poor quality. I have a Pioneer premier deck right now and 4 infinity 6 1/2", and a BOSS Chaos 1000 watt amp, and I only started getting the whine when I transferred the deck over from my totaled kouki. I had to do some structural repair on the deck but it still works! My guess is that the impact of the accident caused some internal damage and now I'm getting interference. Plus I switched to some cheap eBay RCAs cause I needed some quick sounds. Yeah they suck.

I'd look to spend about 50 bucks for some decent RCAs and get a better head unit.

Also just out of curiosity, what are your guages for power and ground? And how many feet are you running for both?

[s13silady]

Definitely DONT use ground loop isolators. They're a waste of money and all they do is kill your sound quality.

I'm thinking it's a combination of your head unit and RCAs being poor quality. I have a Pioneer premier deck right now and 4 infinity 6 1/2", and a BOSS Chaos 1000 watt amp, and I only started getting the whine when I transferred the deck over from my totaled kouki. I had to do some structural repair on the deck but it still works! My guess is that the impact of the accident caused some internal damage and now I'm getting interference. Plus I switched to some cheap eBay RCAs cause I needed some quick sounds. Yeah they suck.

I'd look to spend about 50 bucks for some decent RCAs and get a better head unit.

Also just out of curiosity, what are your guages for power and ground? And how many feet are you running for both?


ya i definately want to get new RCA's and ill be replacing my HU soon. my ground to my amp is about a foot. was longer and i cut it and thats what killed alot of the whine. my power is from my trun to stock location on battery.

[Dream240]

ya i definately want to get new RCA's and ill be replacing my HU soon. my ground to my amp is about a foot. was longer and i cut it and thats what killed alot of the whine. my power is from my trun to stock location on battery.

Okay, so what gauge wire?

[loveskylines]

HA same problem i had!! make sure your Power (+) wire is on the opposite side of your speaker wires... if not you'll continue to run into problems...also make sure you use rubber grommets so the amp itself is not grounded to the chassis..but only the single grounding wire from the amp!!

gl!

[s13silady]

Okay, so what gauge wire?

oh haha.. 4 gauge wire. for ground and power.

[twistedsymphony]

Lots of people are suggesting "better RCAs" but no is telling you what makes a better RCA...

basically a high quality set of RCAs will be 4x shielded near the RCA ends there will be a long piece of lose bare wire hanging out of the cable on both ends, you'll want to ground this to a good ground. This will shield your RCAs from outside interference. I couldn't find a picture of one but if you want I can take a picture of the ones I use on my cars... I can't really suggest a brand either because the brand I have are no longer made :(

If that doesn't work you can try hooking up a Capacitor to the amp... Basically the capacitor acts as a buffer and smooths out the power so that when a big bass sound hits or something similar it doesn't overly stress the electrical system all at once, instead the cap absorbs the shock and "refills" on the off-beat... however it also works in the reverse, meaning that if the power in your car is uneven (creating the alt noise) the CAP should buffer that out as well and deliver your AMP smooth power.

CAPs can be expensive so I'd see if you can find someone near by who will let you borrow one to try out on your car, it shouldn't be too difficult to hook up temporarily to see if it works... be super careful though because it's essentially a giant tazer !!

These typically aren't my first suggestions for a problem like this, but it seems you've already tried everything else.