Pioneer HU, Alternator Whine Fix

[ultimate157]

Ok, I'm writing this for the people struggling to get rid of their alternator whine, and have a Pioneer head unit.

If you have a Pioneer Head Unit, and you have alternator whine. START HERE. Do not rip out all your wiring like I did.

Take a 14 or so guage wire, strip it, and wrap it around the Line-Outs on your HU. Take out two screws on the back
casing, and wrap the wires around the screws. Tighten the screws. It should look like this:



Turn on system and test. My alternator whine went away after simply adding that wire. $200+ saved for $.50 of wire. Yes this may look very ghetto, but for those who do not want to buy a new HU, or it is practically brand new, this is a very easy fix.

Edit: I didn't want to take credit for this, because i searched forever to find the answer. Thanks to all the people who suggested this in other posts. I wanted a final thread, with pictures! to show people how to fix their faulty Pioneer HU. My system is still all pioneer ! (except amps)

[SSS 18734]

That's exactly what I did to fix my alternator whine. You really don't need that much wire though. A few strands is more than enough.

By wrapping it around like that, you ground every single RCA directly to the metal chassis of the head unit. And it's a very secure connection because the RCA's pinch the wires down. That's a great picture showing how its done. Good work!

[PepsiFiend69]

that worked for me and my AVH-P5700


saved me LOTS of money

[Slaugh]

yeah, well, i thought RCA's shared the same ground... isnt is like this?

[dru]

what if you dont have a pioneer hu?

[ultimate157]

if you dont have a pioneer HU, check all your wiring, mostly grounds. If you are running a LOT of watts, keep your RCA and speaker wires away from power wires.

Check out this page i found, its a very good write up (go google!)
http://www.termpro.com/articles/noise.html

[ultimate157]

You really don't need that much wire though. A few strands is more than enough.

I dunno, because if I pause my music, and really crank the revs, i can still make out the whine... i guess a little of the sound output is still being ground-looped inside the player before it reaches the external ground wires I added.

[Harrison486]

I know this is an OLD ass thread, but I need to revive it for some help...

I have a older pioneer DEH-P3500

I have alt whine in my speakers that changes in frequency when I give the car gas and also gets real bad when I turn on the air-conditioning and all...

I attempted to do what this thread suggested and no change at all...

I have read that people have suggested completely regrounding the head-unit, but in my ingnorance, I dont completely understand how to do this....

[954runner]

take the black wire on the back of the headunit, connect a couple feet of wire to it, and find a bolt that you can safely ground the headunit to, just like you would with an amp.

[Harrison486]

ok so that big black wire in the back is the original ground?

And how would I go about attaching wire to that wire?

[SSS 18734]

And how would I go about attaching wire to that wire?

cut the black wire and strip both sides of wire where you made the splice. Then, clamp on a butt connector to either piece of the black wire, and insert the other end of the black wire in the other end of the butt connector, along with an extra wire and clamp that on as well.

[snoopdan]

actually ive found with them grounding the sheath on the rca outputs to the ground of the chassis of the unit and the vehcile will reduce alot of whine

[chibahawk]

anyone ever try this with like a Pioneer 880PRS? basically the RCA barrels that you plug into are part of a harness that plugs into the back of the HU

Ill try doing the same idea but it will require some longer wire... also would it help or hurt run the wire off the barrels to the black wire that is the grounding wire for the actual HU?

[TwistedMovistar]

ok question, i did the very first post's suggestion first and the noise went away, now it is back and grounding the rca's is making no difference, i have the 860mp, it was manufactered in feb 06.

anyone have this happend AFTER the fix

[ultimate157]

anyone ever try this with like a Pioneer 880PRS? basically the RCA barrels that you plug into are part of a harness that plugs into the back of the HU

Ill try doing the same idea but it will require some longer wire... also would it help or hurt run the wire off the barrels to the black wire that is the grounding wire for the actual HU?

I'd go straight to one of the head unit screws. There is an INTERNAL grounding problem with the screws, so going to the black wire isn't going to do much.

ok question, i did the very first post's suggestion first and the noise went away, now it is back and grounding the rca's is making no difference, i have the 860mp, it was manufactered in feb 06.

anyone have this happend AFTER the fix

Have you checked all your grounds, and the other sources of the noise? Try disconnecting your RCA's from the other end (amp) first.