Engine whine and ground loop fixes... take two

[RowJoe 10+ year member]

Thank you guys so much for this thread. I had nasty alt whine and was about to get a new Alpine or something! My deck is almost 5 years old now but it still works fairly well. Add one more to the list for this quick fix. =)

 

[WOT]

Ill attest to this working

My 860mp deck had a NASTY rpm dependant whine, tried new rcas, relocating wires. DIdnt work. Just tried the grounding rcas to the chassis of the headunit and it worked perfect

 

[Sublym1]

Alternator whine started happening the other day when I rolled down my driver side window. There was a loud popping sound & my HU & iPod shut off. When it came back on, the whine came on with it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif I figured that I had a grounding issue with the wiring in the door. Finally got the time to pull the panel off this morning and found that the window regulator was rubbing against the speaker wire for my seperates. I was really considering on buying a noise filter or a ground loop isolator. While conducting my search, I came across this thread and found out that I wasn't the only one that was having this problem with my HU. After reading through the entire thread, I pulled out my HU, grounded the RCA outputs and installed it with my fingers crossed. Started the car and turned on the deck, alternator whine....gone!! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

btw: I fixed the rubbing issue w/ the window regulator as well.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/thumbsupwink.gif.129404938effda6ad9cca39e7f4b58a3.gif

I just wanted to thank you for helping me solve this issue before I started pulling hairs. Your expertise is greatly appreciated.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/bowdown.gif.b85b23b82970bd22fb6b549c3392f016.gif

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/yourock.gif.93d527d504392657a77fa577298070a1.gif

 

[maxyp]

I joined this forum just to say thank you for this thread.

I had an extremely annoying alternator whine coming from my 6x9s, tried everything to fix it, ripped my whole car apart on about 4 separate occasions. I managed to reduce it a little, but every time a song changed/went quite, there it was pestering me from the back of my car. Bought a ground loop isolator as a last resort which came in the post this morning, and even that didn't solve it. I had literally run out of ideas so i just came to the conclusion that i woudl have to live with it, as annoying as it was. Did a google search for about the 20th time on the subject and came across this page which i hadn't seen before, did that thing with grounding the RCAs on the head unit and success! Absolutely no noise whatsoever any more. I am over the moon. I owe you a pint mate. Thank you!

 

[redphoenix 10+ year member]

Brand New Pioneer F700, wrapped the RCA's in some copper wire and the whine is gone! Second Pioneer unit to experience this...

 

[Hydrilus]

Sorry if I'm being a blind noob but...the F700 has RCAs?

I just had mine installed and it has a terrible alternator whine... It was put in a stock 2003 Tahoe...stock speakers, no external amps or anything. I have the Scosche wiring harness with chime and the iPod cable installed with it - that's all.

I've been searching everywhere for the solution to this whining and I've seen a lot of this 'wrapping wire around the RCAs and grounding them' solution posted, but I assumed I can't go the easy route with that solution because mine has no RCA outs to wrap wire around...does it?

I mean...there is the picture shown in post #1 of this topic, which I have seen many similar pictures...and then here is my unit, the F700

http://limitlessmotorsports.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/Avic-F700BT/AVIC-F700BT-2.JPG

What do I do?

I'm so confused :-(

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

If you only have the stock speakers hooked up to the internal amp, you should check to see where your head unit is grounded. Sounds to me like you've got a grounding issue.

 

[06chargerguy 10+ year member]

I have the answer to engine whining. Turn the volume up! If my music is paused I hear whine but once I press play it magically goes away.

 

[BoostedSC 10+ year member]

I tried grounding my RCAs today and it introduced a ton more noise. Do I need to start looking at the grounds for everything else.

My Setup is as follows.

Kenwood DDX 8019

PG XS2300 bridged running 1 12" Boston Pro sub

Coustic 160u running rear fill (Rainbow coaxials)

MTX rt2400 running a set of PG 6.5s

i was getting the noise and and lost one channel of the front stage on a bridged PPI PC450. I replaced the RCAs and the AMP and I still have the noise and one channel has gone in and out. Do you think I could be getting some strangness from the Kenwood deck?

 

[andrios 10+ year member]

Great info on this thread!

I have the f90bt which I got from an authorized dealer. I have tried everything to get rid of the whine, Im gonna have to say its that internal fuse causing the problem. Since I am still under warranty should I just notify pioneer about the whine or what?

Alot of you guys just grounded the RCAs but im not sure if any of you actually have a warranty. Has anyone had this repaired under warranty from pioneer? How did you explain them your problem after telling them you tried everything else?

I will probably try the RCA grounding but I am still under my 2 year warranty so I hope they can fix it.

 

[sj2000 10+ year member]

Has someone tried this trick in RCA input in the amp? I have some noises that I think coming from the amp, I am using factory HU and aftermarket amp.

 

[slappinX 10+ year member]

i have a friend that is wiling to repair my pico fuse on my 880prs. i saw some people on diyma use copper strand to bypass the fuse and i saw some used a resistor. My question is, which would be the better of the two? If i used a resistor, could i risk blowing the resistor and having to put another resistor on? If i used the copper strand could i risk the whole unit?

 

[vinyfiny]

I own the DEH-P780MP. I purchased it used and as soon as I installed it I had the dreaded alternator whine through all speakers and sub. Checked grounds, amps, battery terminals, EVERYTHING to no avail.

After learning about the pico fuse problem and reading the post on page 7 about grounding the RCA's to the HU I went ahead and tried that since it's very cheap and easy.

IT WORKED! Well for the most part, it eliminated about 98% of the noise and now I can only hear it BARELY if no sound is playing (can't ever hear it on 1 volume). I also had an issue with my speakers popping during power up and shutdown and that has also stopped.

I didn't do exactly as the post said and only grounded 1 RCA but that did the trick. Didn't notice any gains from grounding more than one. Again I grounded to one of the screws on the HU and not to my car. Just an fyi for everyone out there banging their head against the dash! haha

 

[s63]

Thanks

 

[vandiar2 10+ year member]

i am having this issue too but I think it has to do with the ground wire from my 4 channel amp (its long, too long and the whine is ONLY coming through the highs and mids, can't hear it through the subs) was in a hurry putting it all in saturday. going to go back through and redo the ground. if that does not work, I will try this. will update in a couple of days