Changing location of ground. Quick Question.

[MellowHype 10+ year member]

Let us know if that made any difference...works out..should be one he ll of a solid grounding poit

Ill be doing it tommorow and ill update this thread straight after.

Thanks for your help man!!!

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

yes sir..i think that will solve your issue of noise..better ground for sure..//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/santa.gif.e1ec9cf2e0a0dd232ad35aa594a126d0.gif

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

Grab a dmm and do a resistance check between the batt post and where your are hoping to ground the amp. That will give you a good idea if it has good continuity. I would also suggest that you upgrading the ground connection from the batt to the vehicle body. But chances are this isnt going to fix the whine, its just good practice.

 

[SourDeez 10+ year member]

I dunno. I have a set of 4 channel rca for speaker amp and 2 channel rca for sub amp run right up against my 1/0 power cable and i get no noise..

 

[goingdef 10+ year member]

make sure the ground is attached to a piece of sheet metal, scrape the paint make it nice and shiny, the throw a few self tapping screwing through it. Do NOT use a bolt of any kind.

I really want to hear the logic behind this statement!

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

Not sure about the not using a bolt of any kind. But my instructor at II many years ago suggested not using seat bolts as a means to ground the amp. The reasoning behind this was many vehicle's use a goop or loctite around the threads of seat bolts and this prevents a real good ground from coming through the bolt itself. However I believe that if one cleans the metal real well around the bolt then the bolt itself is not the conductor, the metal to the ring is. "Different strokes for different folks"

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Truthfully, the ground in the OP's pics looks adequate except that I always put a star washer between the terminal and the car body. Alternator whine is usually a ground loop between the HU and the amp.. relocating the amp ground might make no difference at all. Most people get better results playing with the HU ground - like running it directly to the firewall or to one of the factory ground points on the car body.

A ground loop isolator would tell you if this is your problem.

 

[MellowHype 10+ year member]

Turns out the seat belt bolt is too big for the ring terminals, however i found another ground that is just as good but the noise is still there!

My deck is an Alpine CDA-117, would the problem be likely to be the HU ground?

Is a ground loop isolator just from amp to isolator to HU?

 

[audiofreak95]

try wrapping some wire around your rca outputs to ground them to the radio itself linkidey

 

[MellowHype 10+ year member]

try wrapping some wire around your rca outputs to ground them to the radio itself linkidey

Will give this a go, and cheers for the link!

 

[audiofreak95]

awesome //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif let us know if it works ;D

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Turns out the seat belt bolt is too big for the ring terminals, however i found another ground that is just as good but the noise is still there!My deck is an Alpine CDA-117, would the problem be likely to be the HU ground?

Is a ground loop isolator just from amp to isolator to HU?

The HU ground would be a good thing to check next. A ground loop isolator goes between the HU and amp and isolates the grounds between them. It's a band-aid fix, last resort, but can help you figure out if grounds are your problem.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

If you have an extra set of rcas, just run them accross the seats and hook them up to see if it could be your rcas??

 

[MellowHype 10+ year member]

awesome //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif let us know if it works ;D

So, I wrapped some wire around the rca inputs on the HU, and the noise was gone... for 10 seconds So thats not the problem. I think my next step is the head unit ground.

The HU ground would be a good thing to check next. A ground loop isolator goes between the HU and amp and isolates the grounds between them. It's a band-aid fix, last resort, but can help you figure out if grounds are your problem.

Yeah im going to give the HU ground a go next, i looked at the connections at the back of the HU and the found the ground, what do i do? replace it with the same thickness wire and just ground it to a more solid point? does it matter how long the wire is?

If you have an extra set of rcas, just run them accross the seats and hook them up to see if it could be your rcas??

Ive ran double sheilded rca's down the other side of the car and the noise is still there. Didnt seem to help alot :/

Ive done a bit of reaserch, and it seems to be a common problem with the CDA 117. People say they have the same pops and whining sound.

Also, when i wired my second amp, i used the 'daisy chain' to wire remote to the second amp, this wouldnt be a problem would it? The amp thats powering the comps is a straight wire from amp to HU, so i dont think this would be a problem.

One thing i might, or could try, is using the 4awg wiring powering my Kicker EX1000.1, and try it in the Alpine MRP-F600 powering the comps.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

Yeah im going to give the HU ground a go next, i looked at the connections at the back of the HU and the found the ground, what do i do? replace it with the same thickness wire and just ground it to a more solid point? does it matter how long the wire is?

The HU must be electrically isolated from any metal in your dash for ground relocation to have any affect. On most new cars with plastic instrument panels that's not a problem, but with older cars where the whole dash is metal it's nearly impossible. You can use the same wire and just extend it with the same gage to a "new" location. Unfortunately there's no magic to figuring out if it'll be better or worse than what you had.

Daisy-chaining remote wires would not have an affect on this.