Engine whine and ground loop fixes... take two

[emusaurus322]

okay. need help here. i have an amp wired to all my speakers it just has a direct input from iphone for now. the problem im having is when i plug the iphone into a car charger it makes a loud pulsing through the speakers. it works perfectly clear if i dont have it on a charger so im assuming some sort of ground loop. it sounds like a fkn machine gun. but i dont know how to fix it.

 

[plantinseeds]

Last thing I tried was the RCA ground trick because I thought that was only for Pioneer headunits, but I just did it with my Kenwood KDC-x396 and it worked!

 

[ewadz3006 10+ year member]

I cant get the whine to stop. I've done a few things that made it better but its still there.

the equipment- 2004 mercury mountaineer, Kenwood excelon 996, aq2200d on 2 sa 12's. aq 120.4 on factory speakers for now, have incriminator comp set but have been chasing alt whine so I haven't installed them yet. big three done in knu 1/0 ofc. a run of pos and neg to the back, distribution blocks (stinger) to the amps 1/0 on 2200 and 4 gauge to 120.4 Also have an old school mtx electronic crossover mtx rt01 i think (3 way). I have two runs of rca's running back to crossover (front and rear outputs).

I had power and rca's ran together, ran rca's down other side of car that helped a little. I grounded the rca's to the deck- that helped a little. ran a 18 gauge ground wire from the hu to the distribution block in the back. also tied all grounds together at hu.- not sure if that helped or not.

I think my next step is to run the amp straight off of a ipod or something. I have to find my adapter. if that doesnt work I will try new rca's? idk. my rca's are rockford fosgate twisted pair. I'm not sure if they are shielded.

Its not too loud and cant be noticed at med to high volume. but when two or more people are in the car and are talking its super annoying.

any more input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[eraceyfase 10+ year member]

hey guys i had a whine in my old car... grounded my alternator directly to my frame... never happened again. took 10 minutes tops

 

[Sound-Man]

I have been reading this thread, and have not herd anyone talk about power location, as a cause for engine whine or ground loop problems.

I have found many whine, poping, or huming problems to be where the power wire for amps and inverters, where hooked to main fuse box or other locations where lower power equipment are hooked to.

This lets the higher power of a amp or inverter into the power lines of the lower power items, like your audio deck. Your audio deck picks this signal up and amplifies it to your speakers in a whine or huming sound.

The solution is to always hook your power straight to the battery!

Make sure your ground is good!

Use shielded RCA cables.

I only run my RCA's on the other side of the car for mids abd highs with high frequency's.

I never had a problem running RCA's on the same side as power with lower sub frequency's.

Also Pioneer has really lowered the quality on there lower line decks lately:crying: , and I would stay away from them if all possible.

Alpine, Kenwood, JVC, Clarion, Sony are still solid choice's.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/clap.gif.178cba2c538c68e720c727fcb024b19c.gif

Just my 2 cent's

Thanks

 

[Rainelli 10+ year member]

I also need some help. I have an 01 brick lesabre with a kenwood hu. Fi Bl 15 currently on a power acoustic fire and ice series ( aq2200d is Otw) all 1/0 kni wire. Big 3 upgrade and all. When my hu is on I have a slight rumble coming from my sub. I have tried EVERYTHING. I relocated my ground several times I am now grounded straight to the battery. I tried new rcas. I tried a different ground for my hu. I tried ground my preamp outputs on the hu still nothing. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated im running out of ideas.

 

[West]

I also need some help. I have an 01 brick lesabre with a kenwood hu. Fi Bl 15 currently on a power acoustic fire and ice series ( aq2200d is Otw) all 1/0 kni wire. Big 3 upgrade and all. When my hu is on I have a slight rumble coming from my sub. I have tried EVERYTHING. I relocated my ground several times I am now grounded straight to the battery. I tried new rcas. I tried a different ground for my hu. I tried ground my preamp outputs on the hu still nothing. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated im running out of ideas.

Have you tried a different deck?

Try unplugging the amp from the RCA's and see if the rumble still occurs.

 

[Rainelli 10+ year member]

I haven't tried a new deck yet. And when I unhook my rcas from amp it stops

 

[West]

I haven't tried a new deck yet. And when I unhook my rcas from amp it stops

You will most likely need a new deck to fix the problem... Since you have tried the known fixes... You can try to wrap the RCA's ground the amp's ground wire. Sometimes that can help the problem.

 

[Rainelli 10+ year member]

Ill have to try that. Replacing the hu will be a last resort. My aq should be here in a week or so. So ill find out if its just the amp or not

 

[West]

Ill have to try that. Replacing the hu will be a last resort. My aq should be here in a week or so. So ill find out if its just the amp or not

You can try messing with the gains or running the head unit at a higher volume (as long as your not clipping...)

There are line drivers, but they usually add noise.

 

[Rainelli 10+ year member]

Ive been playing with the gains it doesn't seem to make a difference. And I normally do turn up the volume so I don't have to hear it

 

[West]

United radio does free inspections... you just have to pay shipping.

If you really like the deck it's worth it.

 

[Rainelli 10+ year member]

Just got my aq2200. Installed it and whala problem solved so I guess it was my old amp. Thanks for the help anyways.

 

[tat2bass 10+ year member]

Does grounding the RCA's work when using a line output converter? My subs will hit every time my engine idles. Once I start driving and get above the idling rpm range it quits. I've sanded the hell out of my grounds and they are more than abundant. My last resort is to ground the RCAs or run an inline ground loop filter which I don't want to do. But I don't want to take apart my whole dash to get to my loc to ground the RCAs if it doesn't work on LOCs anyways.

I have a 2013 ford cmax with the Sony system if it makes any difference. Not stock sub setup. Running a Boston gt 2300 on a Boston spg555. Power and ground is OFC 0 gauge and 4 gauge to the inputs. Battery in the rear so no crossing of cables going on