Ground Loop or Alternator Whine

[KaMiKaZi_t0M 10+ year member]

I can not take this issue anymore. I have a very high pitched whine coming from my mids and tweets at all time. It is engine RPM Dependant, in which when I rev the engine it increases. That makes me think it's Alternator Whine! I also noticed today, while putting the window sup, that if I press the window button the sound increases. That makes me think it's engine loop!

You think I have a little bit of both? I haven't tried the line in filters or ground loop filters, what should I try?

Thanks so much,

Tom

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[Worlddre 5,000+ posts]

a ground loop will cause alt whine...fix your grounds and fix the problem

 

[KaMiKaZi_t0M 10+ year member]

Thanks for the post. I just tried to ground the amp directly to the battery (ground cable from amp to neg on battery) and the whine persists. I have now noticed that it appears only one amp is producing this whine. I tried changing the in line fuse on the power cable from a 40amp to a 12amp. I figured this would fry the fuse... but it didn't. Any other ideas on why this would happen? I'm thoroughly confused.

Only other thing I could thing of now is a faulty amp or alt whine. Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Any alternator whine is due to a crappy ground somewhere. What it means is that there is a potential (a voltage) present where there should be no voltage (ground). This causes parts of the component to find an alternate or "sneaky" ground.

Try grounding the amp to a new location to the chassis of the vehicle and make sure to sand all the paint away. Also try making a new ground for the headunit as some will ground through the antenna and it isn't always great.

You could also try doing the big 3 if you haven't already.

 

[DBDRAGGUY 10+ year member]

Any alternator whine is due to a crappy ground somewhere. What it means is that there is a potential (a voltage) present where there should be no voltage (ground). This causes parts of the component to find an alternate or "sneaky" ground.
Try grounding the amp to a new location to the chassis of the vehicle and make sure to sand all the paint away. Also try making a new ground for the headunit as some will ground through the antenna and it isn't always great.

You could also try doing the big 3 if you haven't already.

exactly, re ground your amp or add a second grounding point.

 

[KaMiKaZi_t0M 10+ year member]

I don't understand. If I grounded DIRECTLY to the neg terminal on the battery, how could there be any outside voltage? How would me grounding it to the chassis somewhere where there could be voltage help? I'm no car audio expert but I don't know how there could be excess voltage coming off of a neg terminal on a battery.

What is this big 3 thing? I'd like to give it a go if I could find out what it is =]

Thanks,

Tom

 

[IgnoreMe 5,000+ posts]

I don't understand. If I grounded DIRECTLY to the neg terminal on the battery, how could there be any outside voltage? How would me grounding it to the chassis somewhere where there could be voltage help? I'm no car audio expert but I don't know how there could be excess voltage coming off of a neg terminal on a battery. What is this big 3 thing? I'd like to give it a go if I could find out what it is =]

Thanks,

Tom

dont worry about it bro. i have everything grounded to my battery in my explorer and im getting alt whine and hissing when driving, and when car off i get hissing. pretty much goes against everything ive ever learned about proper grounding in cars.

you should see my thread in the electrical section about my cd5000 (and a cd3100 aswell). i even went over everything i have done so far, in the thread, to no avail. nobody really has any idea on what it could be and neither do i //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[DBDRAGGUY 10+ year member]

I don't understand. If I grounded DIRECTLY to the neg terminal on the battery, how could there be any outside voltage? How would me grounding it to the chassis somewhere where there could be voltage help? I'm no car audio expert but I don't know how there could be excess voltage coming off of a neg terminal on a battery. What is this big 3 thing? I'd like to give it a go if I could find out what it is =]

Thanks,

Tom

Grind down a place on the frame, and ground it there. If ghe problem still exists replace the rca's or switch them around.

 

[KaMiKaZi_t0M 10+ year member]

dont worry about it bro. i have everything grounded to my battery in my explorer and im getting alt whine and hissing when driving, and when car off i get hissing. pretty much goes against everything ive ever learned about proper grounding in cars.
you should see my thread in the electrical section about my cd5000 (and a cd3100 aswell). i even went over everything i have done so far, in the thread, to no avail. nobody really has any idea on what it could be and neither do i //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

That sucks man. I don't get whine when the car is off, or off the HU, just everything on my amp. I have shit Walmart RCA cables, I suppose that could be the problem.

Ugh, I'm going deaf from having to blast shit just so I don't hear the whine. If ****ing drives me nuts.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

I don't understand. If I grounded DIRECTLY to the neg terminal on the battery, how could there be any outside voltage? How would me grounding it to the chassis somewhere where there could be voltage help? I'm no car audio expert but I don't know how there could be excess voltage coming off of a neg terminal on a battery. What is this big 3 thing? I'd like to give it a go if I could find out what it is =]

Thanks,

Tom

It's not excess voltage, but rather a resistance to ground. If the resistance is too high, it will take a different route.

The problem might not be with the amp's ground but rather that other components are trying to use its ground. Try the chassis though as it could have less resistance than the wire going to the negative battery terminal (especially if it was a thin wire run the distance of the car).

The problem could also very well be with the RCAs or the headunit ground and you shouldn't avoid those possibilities. Putting thicker gauge wires from the battery negative to the chassis of the car is a good idea if you haven't done it yet too.

 

[Civic_boi334 10+ year member]

iget i with hu off. . .

 

[nismos14 5,000+ posts]

What head unit is it first off? Might be a probllem with the HU not anything else.

 

[pilyin 10+ year member]

I did have alt. whine one time that had nothing to do with ground. Make sure your remote wire is hooked up correctly and not touching anything. That's what was causing whine for me one time.

 

[KaMiKaZi_t0M 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the help guys, I can't wait to solve this. This is my second headunit with this problem, First was a Pioneer DEH, this one is an Alpine CDA-9883. I'm going to try a thicker wire. I'm using 12gauge speaker wire right now.

Btw, Picked up a ground loop isolator just to rule that out. 12 bucks out my wallet. Didn't do shit.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate this. No other forum actually helps like you guys.

Tom

 

[Wkbdkid 10+ year member]

12ga ground wire