Can't Get Rid of Engine Whine

[Haunz 10+ year member]

Typical alternator whine is caused by a ground loop. With the RCAs unplugged from the HU the loop should be broken and there should be no whine. You seem to have something else going on. The only thing I could suggest is that your alternator is not functioning properly and you are getting AC ripple on your vehicle's ground.

You would need to put a scope on the charging system to look for this.

Beyond that I don't know what to tell you...

 

[lacboi 10+ year member]

i know caps are wastes of time but dont caps cleanup some engine noise? i had an issue in my 97 deville concours and put a 10 farad cap in and my noise went away.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

Check your earth on your headunit is solid

 

[slam 5,000+ posts]

Heres ur problem

Kenwood

 

[stevew007 10+ year member]

holy crap all the replys and no one suggested that you ground the rcs's to the head unit? check this out I'll bet money on this fix!

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/wiring-electrical-installation-help/198477-engine-whine-ground-loop-fixes-take-two.html

oh and by the way it is the very first post in this section

 

[KCMA 10+ year member]

Heres ur problem
Kenwood

Thanks for your infinite wisdom. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

In response to the other posts...

I have ran a new ground to two positions for the HU and that has never changed anything. I have also ground the rcas to the HU before, this did not solve anything either.

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

^^ with music going unplug each rca, one at a time until you notice the noise goes, then earth the rca to another rca that dosn't have the noise (as said a few times) i doubt your getting rca ground loop through all your rca's

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

heres a test.. pull the rcas from out from under the carpet.. take the h.u out to the front of the car.. set the acc and power to the positive terminal.. ground to negative.. run the rcas to the amp as far from the car as possible until you have to get it to the amp.. run it over seats etc.. if this solves it its rca placement..

so far you have figured out its before the amp.. so speakers/speaker wiring/ amp are out of the possibility.

whats left

h.u ground

rca placement

rca shielding-cheap rcas will pick up noise

 

[KCMA 10+ year member]

heres a test.. pull the rcas from out from under the carpet.. take the h.u out to the front of the car.. set the acc and power to the positive terminal.. ground to negative.. run the rcas to the amp as far from the car as possible until you have to get it to the amp.. run it over seats etc.. if this solves it its rca placement..
so far you have figured out its before the amp.. so speakers/speaker wiring/ amp are out of the possibility.

whats left

h.u ground

rca placement

rca shielding-cheap rcas will pick up noise

Thanks, I will give this a shot this weekend. Battery is in the rear of the vehicle next to the amp in the spare tire area.

Also, and I prob should have mentioned, I do have a kinetik battery in the back too if that makes a difference. Basically I have the power and ground coming from the vehicle's battery (I have done the big 3 and upgraded the factory ground as well), to the kinetik, and then splitting those via dist blocks to the the 2 amps.

Are the one below decent RCAs? I wanted something I can quickly pick up (locally) to test if need be. This is incredibly aggrivating. I can adjust the gain on the 4 channel to eliminate some of the whine, but then my speakers sound like @$$ when I increase the colume on the HU.

Kicker - 19.7' 4-Channel RCA Audio Cable - 09ZI46

Kicker - X-Series 19.7' RCA Audio Interconnect Cable - 09xi46

 

[jason1 10+ year member]

can anyone tell me please is it better to use 2ohm or 4ohm on 2 15 empires with a 3000 watt mono and a 5 farat capcitor

 

[The HACKER 10+ year member]

OP dont know if you read it already, ground your rca's on the back of the headunit. ^^^

 

[KCMA 10+ year member]

OP dont know if you read it already, ground your rca's on the back of the headunit. ^^^

Yes, I have tried this.

 

[KCMA 10+ year member]

Ok guys, I found out some interesting info about my car over the weekend:

"Theres power wires runing down both side of a LX. Noise filter at the amp OR GROUND THE RCA's at the head unit AND at the amp [both end's]. This is a big problem with chargers and 300's. High current draw power wires are located on both side of the car. The first thing you have to do on a charger before you do a system is upgrade the ground wire from the motor block to the frame and the one at the trunk from the battery to the frame. Passenger side of car has power cable to the battery and driver side has power seat/fuel pump/esp/bas cable's runing down that side."

So... with that said... I have upgraded the ground cable from the battery to the chassis in the rear. Guess I will have to see if I can figure out the motor block to the chassis.

Has anyone ever grounded the RCAs at the amp before? Would I attach the end to the chassis of the vehicle or to the ground wire at the amp?