H/U Installation Help

[ghawkes10 10+ year member]

Here is my problem. I wired my head unit (Alpine CDM model) to the aftermarket wiring harness (the car is a 2005 Honda Accord if that helps). When I put the fader to the front I get a lot of crackling coming from the rear speakers. However, as long as the fader is 100% to the rear I get no distortion. I have not hooked up the front speakers yet because I plan on replacing factory speakers and installing my Boston comp set this weekend.

Another question, probably related to the noise I am hearing now. For the front speakers I ran new speaker wire from the new wire harness to the trunk so I can hook up to an amp (Alpine MRV-F450) Is this correct wiring?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!!!

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[ghawkes10 10+ year member]

bump

 

[boister77 10+ year member]

not quite sure about your noise problem. but if it doesn't it when balanced, you could just keep it there. as for the your speaker wire, why didn't you use the rca outputs?

 

[ghawkes10 10+ year member]

If the most likely reason why I am getting noise from the speakers is a bad ground, how could I check? As for where the ground connection is now I just used the aftermarket wire harness that had a ground wire which I crimped to new h/u wire. Is this sufficient? If grounding is the culprit can I just ground to the chassis and from the chassis back to aftermarket wiring harness?

As for your question regarding the amp. Yes, I am running RCA cables but I still need to hook up the front speakers to the amp via speaker wire. That was my thought process when I hooked new speaker wire from the wire harness to the trunk (not head unit to trunk.) My reasoning for doing this was for ease (meaning I don't have to run new speaker wire to each door I would just do it from where the factory wire met the factory h/u)

BTW, this site is great. Thanks

 

[Jamesr316 10+ year member]

Just wait until you get fronts... then test it.

all else looks good.

 

[ghawkes10 10+ year member]

Thanks James,

I tested it with the stock speakers w/out amplifier and it cleared up the noise. Just out of curiousity, why would it create noise in the first place if I don't have front speakers hooked up?

 

[ghawkes10 10+ year member]

Finally got my front speakers hooked up through the amp. However, I still have that same problem regarding the distortion coming through the rear speakers. I disconnected rear speakers; problem solved. I am considering just leaving the rears out. But, just for my own curiousity, why would this happen? Is there something wrong with my h/u? the wiring harness? my wiring?

Thanks guys

 

[bonesninja 5,000+ posts]

does your headunit have three sets of rca outputs? sub out front and rear out? that amp has three inputs so run 3 sets of rcas to the amp then speaker wire to your speaks.

 

[ghawkes10 10+ year member]

No, unfortunately I only have two: front and rear/subs. So the distortion is due to the RCA outputs? I had the same problem when I wasn't going through the amp. Thats why I am confused

Anyways, I think I am going to leave the rear speakers off. I would still like to know why though.

Thanks

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

does the factory sound system include any stock amplifiers? If it does, the speakers are probably distorting due to dual amplification. You gotta find the amps and take em out and then it might go away.

Another idea... the wire that you spliced into the wiring harness may be shorting out some where, causing the crackling noise. Retrace all of your wires to make sure that everything is hunkydorry.