Whining noise in car speakers, popping sound in subwoofer.

So about a month ago I finally installed subwoofer & amp to my golf IV with original speakers. Everything went smooth the first weeks, until one day while driving to work when my sub suddenly made a "pop" sound. After that the sub has never been the same, it just makes a low humming sound and an ocasionally pop whenever I turn it on or off or switch songs/radio channels. About a week after that my speakers started to make a couple of sparkling sounds, before they got this weird "whining" sound. Turning the volume down or up did nothing with it, it had the same volume no matter what. Turning it off and on again seemed to help for only a few minutes max then it would be back.

I've done A LOT of research on this subject without being successful, thus I'm making this thread.

What I've tried so far:
* Delivered my Kenwood 2-din player to the store which I got it from; They did some testing on it but found nothing wrong with it.
* Checked if my amplifier & sub works correctly; I connected the RCA cables directly from iPod to amp, and it worked just fine. I also connected the iPod to the RCA cables going from the amp to the front of the car, and it still worked fine.
* I've tried disconnecting the amp from the player, which led to my speakers not having the whining sound anymore.
* I've checked for loose ground connections, but they are solid.

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One thing I got out of all my research was that I may have a problem called "ground loop", which some meant that you could ground your RCA cable to the deck of the player and it would work. However, this was for a slightly different problem called engine noise, where the speaker whining changed in phase with the gas pedal. I have not tried this.


One more thing that may be worth noting is that I have never completely attached the player to the car. It has been laying loosely inside the cabin, though it doesn't move much while I drive.



If you guys think you got any kind of solution to this, please let me know!! This has already taken too much of my time.

Sounds like a ground loop 2 me.. I'd say its coming thru the rca's ... Meaning u probably blew the interal fuse to ur RCA out on it CD player..

Solution .. Have the fuse fixed or buy a new head unit

Alright thanks, I'll check with another head unit first to see if you may be right.

Ok.. Good luck

I'm sorry it's been taking so long for an update but it's hard finding the time for looking into it. Alright, so now I've tried with another CD player now and it was just the same noise with the popping sound whenever I turn it on and off. I also tried playing music directly from my phone through an AUX to RCA adapter and into the amp, and the sub once again plays fine.

I'm pretty sure the amp and the subwoofer are fine, that the RCA cables from amp to head unit are fine, and that the head unit itself pretty much works as it should too. The ground is also properly connected, every fuse is still in function, no loose cables at the car battery neither. Which makes me completely clueless. Any ideas?

I might have created some confusion in my latest reply, what I meant to say was that the subwoofer plays fine when connected from an external source. If I connect it and play it from the CD player, or any other CD player simutanously with the speakers, I get the constant humming and a loud kick at start.

When you use a different HU, are you using the same wiring harness? Sounds like a bad ground at the HU.

I've changed the amp ground to a more secure bolt and scraped the painting off beneath it. It is stuck as a rock now, and I'm pretty sure it's safe to say this ground is a secure and good one now. I've also wired a ground from the HU harness to the amp ground without any optimistic results.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gckless

When you use a different HU, are you using the same wiring harness? Sounds like a bad ground at the HU.

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If this is the case, do you know where the ground usually is wired? It kinda disappears behind the panels, making it hard to reach for it without taking the front panels off. Is there an option to cut the HU ground and wire it to the amp ground, or even directly connect it to the HU harness? Any suggestions? :)