grrr alt whine = ticking noise

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

Everything was perfect... Then all of a sudden out of the blue, I have a ticking noise every hundred revs of the alt or so. When I hit the accelerator, it speeds up and gives me whine. GRRRR.

Steps taken:

1) Reground amps, grounded together and moved spots

2) Check RCA's, both front and sub rcas give the noise

3) Reground head unit

4) Replace amp

5) Wire one speaker into hu power - no noise with engine on or off.

6) Pull hu and test on my kitchen table with another amp, speakers, and computer psu

7) reassemble

I still have it. There is no noise unless the car is on. I will hopefully add 1/0 to alt-battery and engine block-battery and see if that takes care of it.

Anything else I can try beforehand?

Click to read more...

 

[LaBeLkilLs87 10+ year member]

im having that same problem...i thought it was just interference, but i don't know...i think it just might be my RCAs or the wire ground. i don't if i turn mmusic up it goes away. still kinda embarresing

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

I noticed something this morning. When I use the break, I hear a popping noise and then the alt noise cuts to about half of it's origional volume.

I don't understand how it could be an RCA problem. Everything was fine and then one day...

 

[zachzchw 5,000+ posts]

Sounds like one of the Pioneer ground trace problems.....I have the same thing, so I feel your pain....

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

What can I do about it?

edit: I haven't grounded the hu directly to the battery. Should that take care of this?

 

[OldManTod 10+ year member]

Man I wish I could help, I feel your frustration... All I can add is dont rule out either a bad head unit or a bad amp....

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

Did some searching... this problem comes from pulling the rca out of the hu or amp while it's on. I did nothing. In fact I was dropping a friend off at work. He got out of the car, closed the door, and I pulled off. I remember now, forgot to mention, I heard a snap from the sub. I guess it came from the front speakers too. I pulled into a parking spot to check things out and it seemed okay. I didn't hear any noise until later that day.

I don't know what might have caused that. The player is under warranty so it can be replaced. Within my searching I found that it's an easy fix for car audio shops, about $50. I couldn't go more than a couple of hours without my radio...

 

[zachzchw 5,000+ posts]

You could try grounding the deck to the battery, or grounding the rcas. My understanding is that the problem can vary in the degree of noise......you must have some decent shops, any shop I call about it just tries to sell me a new deck.

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

I didn't call any shops yet. That's what was said in another thread on here or caf.com from a while ago when I google searched.

 

[jsloan10 10+ year member]

This is a little out of left field, but have you checked your sparkplug wires lately?. A bad sparkplug wire can cause noise in your system.

 

[valant_94gt 10+ year member]

do you have a MSD unit or other type of spark Amplification Device (hi performace coil) . Thats the only cause of a ticking noise that I know off. As for the other "Noise"

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

engine is stock. I haven't checked and to be honest, I have no idea what I'd be looking for (as to whats wrong with the wiring)

 

[jsloan10 10+ year member]

Look for old deteriated sparkplug boots and wires, also check at night with the engine running to see if you can find any spark leakage (shows up as a tiny spark).

 

[lotas 10+ year member]

did you just relocate your grounds or did you sand them? how long are they?

check your ground spot with a multimeter.

 

[pwnt by pat 10+ year member]

Initial ground was sanded. Moved to a previous sanded ground spot. Then I drilled a new ground spot and sanded.