Engine noise, Grounding problem

[ephyouckay 10+ year member]

I installed my comps last night and im using LOC's to get RCA outputs... i already sanded the ground and made sure ti si as tight as possible and it is grounded in back of the seats on the bottom where there is thick metal (frame) that connected the trunk to the rest of the car or something like that. however im getting a whining noise and i have already searched. there are a couple of things i think is causing the problem but im not sure.

a. my loc are not grounded. they are connceted to the sspeaker + and - but not grounded. Am i suppose to ground it? i was told it wasnt necessary.

or

b. my ground wire from distroblock to amp is too long. it is 5 ft. i can try to get it down to 4 but thats already pushing it. i can do 3 or less but then the wire will be visible.

also.. im pretty sure it is a ground problem because when i unplug the RCA i dont hear it anymore.

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[ephyouckay 10+ year member]

ok so i shortened the ground wire from the amp to distro to a little over 3.5 ft isntead of 5 ft. it didnt help at all

i also checked to see if i ran my other RCA if it would help... that didnt help at all actually made it worse.. these rcas i not ran throughout the car they are only in the trunk and are tapped into the rear speaker lines with an LOC... (rcas for my type R) so i figured why not try grounding the rear LOC and yea that didnt help either.

now im thinking i have a bad ground... i think it is the seat bolts that i grounded too...

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

What amp is it? Although from what you said, your problem isn't with the amps at all. It's with the Head unit.

Think about what you said, "when I unplug the RCA's the whine goes away". Hmmm that would mean whatever is producing the whine is pre-RCA's. Reground your HU.

 

[ephyouckay 10+ year member]

its an orion hp2300 2 channel amp.

im using stock HU with LOC... could the problem lie within the LOC?? maybe the cheap LOC that i bought is causing the whine?

http://www.millionbuy.com/hithlc3.html

that is what i bought.

i dont have ti grounded though i tried it grounded on the rear RCAs that for some reason are actually worse than my front RCA.

the way i have it setup is the rcas for the components are hoooked up to an LOC and the LOC is tapped into the stock hu radio harness. then i have rcas for the woofer and those rcas are tapped in ot the rear speaker wires from the trunk.

i tried the rear rca with it not grounded and it was worse than the front. then i grounded it and thre was no improvement.

should i invest in better LOC? what else could it be? or can i just use a groundloop isolator? yes i know its a bandaid like thing that just covers up the actual problem but if it gets rid of the noise then why not //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

before when i first grounded, i forgot to sand so i did the sanding and it got a little better.

is my ground not good enough?

btw, i only hear the noise coming out from the tweeters nothing from the mids. i also get some static noise as well.

 

[thatkidbob 10+ year member]

it could be the cheap LOC...

BUT... most amp manuals tell you not to ground on the seat bolts...

edit:

just re-read and saw this:

you said, "when I unplug the RCA's the whine goes away". Hmmm that would mean whatever is producing the whine is pre-RCA's. Reground your HU.

i concur.

 

[ephyouckay 10+ year member]

it could be the cheap LOC...
BUT... most amp manuals tell you not to ground on the seat bolts...

edit:

just re-read and saw this:

i concur.

the actual factory HU has its own ground?isnt it just grounded through the factory radio harness? if so how would i find the ground for that? since it is preRCA than wouldnt that mean it could also be the cheap LOC? others with stock HU dont have whine problem though. This is a 2005 accord. are you suppose to even ground the LOC?