Engine whine and ground loop fixes... take two

[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

 

[2muchbass4u2tak]

guys can u help me please.. im ready to pull my hair out.. im getting alt whine and cracking and popping. It only seems to happen when i turn it up loud, then its present and will stop whenever it wants it seems. ive grounded my rca's ,relocated head unit ground, tried isolators, nothing cures it.. i followed steps on noise prevention site i found, and from that it points to ground loop.. i have two diamond audio 15" D9's , 4 d6 components, hifonics brutus 2000d, da d6 4chan amp.. this system will crack your jaw when operating correct.. please help

 

[SomeDonnieDude 10+ year member]

I have a slight whine in my front stage, only really noticeable when MY HU is on 0. It makes a "pop" sound when I turn my HU to 0, and when the HU shut's off. Also get a crackle exactly like 2muchbass4u2tak's issue at higher volumes. I grounded my RCA's, but did nothing. My sub has no whine, but I did hook it up to another amp and it had a crackle in it, but went back to original amp and no noise still. I noticed in the OP's picture that he grounded the speaker and sub rca's separate, that shouldn't make a difference if you ground them together should it?

 

[vandiar2 10+ year member]

yep. I redid all of my connections today made it look nice. and the **** engine way got MUCH worse. its pretty loud now. doesn't make any sense. everything is back in my car the same way except the grounds are shorter.. I could only assume that my rcas are not grounded properly. going to try this tonight. will update this weekend

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

My best advice is if you have tried all of the other steps, run a dedicated ground wire and test if that is the issue. You don't have to run it through the car. Just run a temp wire outside the car from your amps to the front battery or the engine block. This is advice I was given when I had engine whine that could not be traced and it worked for me. I since have ran that dedicated ground permanently.

 

[MrSwiss 10+ year member]

i ust upgraded my rca cables to knu conceptz highest quality 4 channel cable.

I had some really bad engine whine, and luckily for me it is COMPLETELY gone now...

best 30$ ive spent on my system yet, well worth the money.

 

[vandiar2 10+ year member]

it works!! 98% of engine whine is gone.

 

[2lefts 10+ year member]

Wow,this thread may solve at least part of my issue. I was hooking up a new sub to my amp,accidentally touched the wires together(yes,I was stupid and didn't shut the stereo off in all my excitement) and got the immense whining noise.

I also have a beeping noise(possibly a door chime,not sure yet) and I'll be trying this tomorrow.

Great thread!!!

 

[2lefts 10+ year member]

I can officially cast my vote as to how well this works. I simply did as shown in the illustrations and it cured the mistake I had made when I grounded my wires for my sub on accident,which blew the internal grounds.

Just finished up about fifteen minutes ago with 100% success! NO NOISE!!!

 

[JDMb16DA]

i had problems with my sub hitting off que and i narrowed it down to the hu (pioneer p80mp) took it to repair shop and it was the sub pre out ground fuse. sounded great after. now i'm getting alternator whining through my left front and rear speakers when it set the hu on auxiliary. i called them and they told me to check and make sure there were no exposed wire anywhere behind the hu. they said this is the only reason this would happen. have yet to check.

 

[JDMb16DA]

i had problems with my sub hitting off que and i narrowed it down to the hu (pioneer p80mp) took it to repair shop and it was the sub pre out ground fuse. sounded great after. now i'm getting alternator whining through my left front and rear speakers when it set the hu on auxiliary. i called them and they told me to check and make sure there were no exposed wire anywhere behind the hu. they said this is the only reason this would happen. have yet to check.

btw i'm just running components off my hu. no amps, except for hu pre amp.

 

[jaytoofly 10+ year member]

edit-wrong thread

 

[AJ²06 5,000+ posts]

my pioneer still has this wretched noise.

I wanna burn it.

I also have my **** grounded, so we'll give it another go on the amp end of things.

 

[Sarthos 10+ year member]

Probably already been answered but what gauge of wire should be used to re-ground the head unit? I want to re-ground it to the battery in my trunk, probably 15 feet, is 18 gauge enough or would like 16, 14, something be necessary at that length?

Also, is it better to ground from the chassis of the head unit to the battery or from the ground wire out of the harness to the battery?

 

[Sarthos 10+ year member]

I re-grounded my stereo with 16 gauge wire from the battery to the chassis of the stereo, still get a hum when the car is off. Have yet to check what it sounds like when the car is on.

 

[defteo]

This little nugget save me alot of money. if only I had found this thread before i spent hours grounding and re-grounding. it worked like a charm. Thanx!