Okay... I just put in a Pioneer DEH4900, in my 1980 Malibu. The rest of the system is a hifonics XX zeus running the sub, and an older Lanzar vibe amp running the highs in the cabin. Now, the wiring was done pretty well, but the parts of the harness I spliced into - I'm sure they're fine, but I'm just sayin' they're 28 years old... but anyway, here goes.
I have a buzz all the time, and I'm thinking that's due to my sh!tty RCA's - I have new ones in the mail already. The real issue is this hideous, and I mean HIDEOUS engine whine. The battery is in the trunk with the amps, so it's not from the power wire running near the distributor. In fact the power wire isn't near anything. The thing that really gets me about this engine whine is that it comes and goes. The car is FINE after starting it up, for about 5 minutes, and it usually doesn't start until I've been stopped at a light for a while. It will then go away some time later after I start driving. (Or even while I'm still sitting at the light.)
At first I thought the battery was getting pulled low or something, and that was causing a weird effect, but the battery should be lowest right after startup, and it's fine then. I also considered that maybe it happened when the electric fan kicked on, but once the car warms up, the fan runs continuously, and the noise continues to come and go.
Last night I drove around for about an hour, and after a while, the whine would only show up once in a while, and it wasn't as intense (sometimes it's seriously loud). Another thing worth noting is that while it definitely increases pitch with the Engine RPM, there are other components to the noise, like warbles and hissing, etc.
WTF gives? do I have a crappy deck? I'm gonna monitor the voltage on the power wire today with a multimeter, but I'm not sure that's the problem anymore.
