I cant kill my alternator whine.

[hammerhead 10+ year member]

Did you try grounding the RCAs like this?

If you did I dont know what could be the problem. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

This is what I had to do. It took almost all of it out

 

[CJL 10+ year member]

This is what I had to do. It took almost all of it out

x2 took every single noise out of my setup.

 

[fwb_1234 10+ year member]

Here you go.

Courtesy of CA&E. You guys should subscribe to them.

I took out the pic. Here is the text version. Please excuse any misspell or punctuation errors. I used text recognition software and its not perfect. I proofread the output but might have missed some things.

Without further ado.

Q: I’VE A WHINING AND TICKING IN MY TWEETERS AND 6x9’S. I'VE CHANGED THE GROUND AND GOTTEN A NEW AMP AND CROSSOVER ALONG WITH HIGH PERFORMANCE RCAS, BUT THAT NOISE IS STILL THERE. ANY IDEA NOW I CAN STOP THIS NOISE WOULD BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED

Q: HELLO, I DRIVE A 2001 BMW 32Oi STEPTRONIC. I'M IN SOUTH AFRICA AND SOME OF THE COMPONENTS I HAD INSTALLED MAY ONLY BE AVAILABLE HERE AND YOU MIGHT BE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE BRANDS; HOWEVER, ANY INPUT WOULD BE HIGHLY APPREClATED. I RECENTLY INSTALLED THE FOLLOWING COMPONENTS IN MY CAR: AN INFINITY REFERENCE 5761A; BOSTON ACOUSTICS s60'S; TW0 XL AUDIO LINE OUT CONVERTERS, AN ALPINE MRV-T500 AMPLIFIER; STREETWIRES RCA CABLES, MB QUART DISCUSS 12" 8 OHM. THE TWEETERS ARE CONNECTED DIRECTLY TO THE ALPINE AMP WHILE THE FRONT MIDRANGE IS CONNECTED TO THE FRONT CHANNEL OF THE INFlNITY AMP. THE REAR SPEAKERS ARE STANDARD BMW AND I'M USING THE FACTORY HEAD UNIT.

I HAVE A CONSTANT WHINE WHENEVER I START THE ENGINE. I'VE TRIED THE FOLLOWING: REMOVING THE INFINITY AMP AND CONNECTING A ROCKFORD FOSGATE AMP, KENWOOD AMP AND FLI AMP; REMOVING THE FACTORY HEAD UNIT FOR A ROCKFORD FOSGATE HEAD UNIT USING A MORE EXPENSIVE SET OF ROCKFORD FOSGATF LINE-OUT CONVERTERS; REPLACED THE RCA CABLES (THE DIRECTIONAL TYPE); INSTALLED TWO GROUND LOOP ISOLATORS; REMOUNTED THE AMP TO THE BACKSFAT (FROM THE BOOT SIDE) INSTEAD OF THE PARCEL SHELF; RAN THE RCA CABLES OUTSIDE THE CAR (ONLY TO TEST); CONNECTED THE LINE-OUT CONVERTERS AT THE FRONT AND REAR OF THE AR; MOVED THE PASSIVE CROSSOVERS FOR THE BOSTON SPLITS T0 THE REAR ANO AWAY FROM THE DOOR PAD ELECTRONICS (AIRBAG, ELECTRIC WINDOW SWITCHES, ETC.); CHANGED THE GROUND AND POWER CABLES; CHANGED THE GROUND SOURCE FOR THE AMPS; USED A SEPARATE GROUND FOR EACH AMP (EARMQUAKE); AND USED A SEPARATE FUSE BLOCK FOR EACH AMP (EARTHQUAKE).

I BELIEVE THE COMPONENTS ARE OF SUPERIOR QUALITY AND SHOULDN'T BE GIVING ME THIS PROBLEM. I KNOW OTHERS WHO FITTED SOUND IN THEIR BMW E46’s AND HAVEN'T HAD THIS PROBLEM. SO FAR AN AUTHORIZED INFINITY AND ROCKFORD FOSGATE FITMENT CENTER HAVE TRIED TO FIND THE FAULT BUT THE PROBLEM IS STILL THERE. DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS? PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THE FACTORY PLACEMENT FOR THE CAR BATTERY IS IN THE BOOT.

A: I wanted to look at both of these questions - one long and one very short - since both exhibit a common trait that could cause installation professionals to consume recreational pharmaceuticals for relief. Mayor, you've taken quite the list of steps to correct the problem, yet with no results. Unfortunately, this is very common, even among professionals, since noise elimination is a troubleshooting skill that's usually crushed by frustration before it has a chance to flourish. The key indicator is when an individual tries a dozen different "solutions" without actually knowing the source of the problem.

You've actually done a lot of things correctly, but not one of them appears to be the result of knowing what to shoot at. You'd never find a doctor prescribing every medicine in the book before diagnosing the problem to a clear path (or maybe you would, but that's another discussion).

There are many different types of noise and each one can be slotted into just a few categories: radiated, power line, ground loop and pulse. These categories indicate the method used to infect the audio system, but that's where the solutions separate, so it's a great way to create a focused target.

A constant whining immediately rules out pulse noise, which are loud pops that occur when a device, such as your brake lights, is activated. That just cut one-quarter of the solution paths. Now comes a bit of diagnosis: Unplug the RCA connectors from the amplifiers and listen if the noise stops. If not, plug in "shorting RCA’s" which are RCA plugs with the center pin connected to the barrel. This terminates the input and eliminates stray noise from entering the amplifier. If the amplifier still whines, unmount it from the vehicle and hold it about half a meter (a couple feet) away from its mounting location. If the noise stops, it was radiated from the nearby battery in the trunk (boot) into the amplifier chassis, and the solution would be to first relocate the amplifier. You tried that one with no success, but your RCA’s were probably still connected to other components, so try it again.

One other test would rule out the crossovers as the center of the problem. Turn off the system and see if you can hear the whining coming through the speakers. You'll need to listen closely and it may help to turn on the headlights, defroster and other electrical accessories to increase the alternator load. This might sound strange - the amplifier is unpowered, which means it can't amplify noise, right? Yes, but the inductors in a crossover can act like an energy converter, inducing a voltage from the stray magnetic field just by forming a complete passive circuit. The key here is that only a couple of speakers would whine since you don't have the crossovers for all of the speakers mounted in the same spot.

My bet is there was no noise. Next, reconnect the RCAs to the amplifiers but ensure that they're not connected to anything at the front of the car If you hear noise, connect shorting RCA plugs to the free ends using a gender change adapter If you still hear the noise, your RCA cables are picking up radiated energy Try routing the cables outside the vehicle once again to prove that moving away from the radiation was the answer. My bet is you still have no noise.

There are a couple strong possibilities remaining - noise radiated into the head unit, power line noise entering at the head unit and ground loop noise. Reconnect the head unit to the RCAs and disconnect the power leads, which will be connected to a car battery sitting outside the car and not connected to the electrical system - just the head unit's power wires. If you have no noise now, it means that noise was entering the head unit through the power lines and being faithfully passed through your ground loop isolators. After all, the whine is an audio tone that's no different than music when seen by the isolator. A simple power line fitter on the head unit should wrap things up.

If there's still noise present, pull the head unit out of the instrument panel and hold it a half meter away from the dash. If the noise subsides, it's being radiated through the case of the head unit from wiring or electrical devices near the head unit's chassis. This is a difficult fix, since the only truly effective way to solve the problem is to either relocate the head unit away from the radio opening or relocate the noise source away from the radio opening. Many times I've had to open a wiring harness to extend the larger gauge wires away from a radio opening and had excellent results.

You might hear someone suggest shielding the head unit with lead or "mu metal." Lead is useless if you're dealing with anything other than radioactive isotopes or light. Mu metal is the correct material, but you'd need a shield that was about 3~4" thick to get any useful results. Moving the noise away is highly effective and will only cost you labor.

If the noise was still present, the final possibility is ground loop noise. For that, I like the "staged installation" approach First, set all of your equipment on a non-metallic table beside the vehicle. Wire the whole system together on the table, connecting only the main battery supply and speaker wires from the car to the gear on the table. Turn the system on and listen for the noise. If it's present, you know that it can't be ground loop noise since nothing is grounded - just powered. It also can't be radiated noise since you're too far away from the car's radiated magnetic field. You can move the table a couple more feet away to prove it.

With no noise present, you can install the amplifiers into their final position and run the RCA cables from the table and fire up the system again. If noise appears, it's most likely being radiated into the amplifier chassis, which we talked about earlier. Keep working backwards up through the signal path until the noise appears. Your last step was the turning point and the source of the problem will be a lot clearer. My bet is that you'll find that the amplifier gain controls are too high, and the head unit was introducing a second ground point that was being equalized through the RCA cables and causing the noise. Make sure the power and ground for the head unit come from the power block in the back of the ca where the amplifiers are connected. You might also need a better quality ground loop isolator and an antenna isolator together. Good luck!

 

[FOSGATE JOE 10+ year member]

well i got a premier deck 860 and grounded it to one rca jack no more whine

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

I did ground the rca's like posted, I searched this forum for about an hour and only found one trick that I havent tried which was using the same power and ground source for the headunit and amp so they cant have different ummmm I Cant think of the words to describe it... but then others say not to do that... but Ive got nothing to lose I guess... I suppose I could wire the amp through the high level inputs and see if that works also.

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

I did ground the rca's like posted, I searched this forum for about an hour and only found one trick that I havent tried which was using the same power and ground source for the headunit and amp so they cant have different ummmm I Cant think of the words to describe it... but then others say not to do that... but Ive got nothing to lose I guess... I suppose I could wire the amp through the high level inputs and see if that works also.

WTF are you saying????

OMFG

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

WTF are you saying????
OMFG

I grounded the rca cables like the picture above.

I searched caraudio.com's forum for fixes for about an hour and tried everything except one, that involved sharing the same power and ground connect between the amp and headunit. That way the grounds will both have the same resistance, and power wires will see the same voltage. I have heard a few people say not to share grounds though.

I could also try using the high level inputs on the amp (speaker wire leads) and see if that helps.

better?

 

[hasa68mustang 10+ year member]

wellllllll =) the whine is gone! I hooked up the power wire from the headunit to my amp and the ground to the amps ground. turned it on and there was NOTHING! =( I kinda miss my supercharger sound.... oh well

 

[Orion Man 10+ year member]

I had the same problem in my Integra. I ended up pulling the amp and the separates and selling them. The whine drove me insane! You could hear when I accellerated, decellerated, changed cd's, changed tracks on the cd, everything! I tried so many different things.

 

[subbin_n_da_rex 10+ year member]

lol, i loook at my whine in my crx like a turbo. It amazes the hell outta me. . . lol u have to imagine your honda is turbo charged and then look at people and laff.

 

[Nelson9937955 10+ year member]

I know this thread is old but just wanted to put my 2 cents into it in case someone uses the search button and find this in hopes of solving their problem. I too had a nasty alternator whine through my speakers. And could hear the cd chaning tracks and all that. searched all the forums, tried everything and nothing helped.

I even tried 3 different brand new HU's and never solved problem.

I got a tip by someone to change HU to something with higher preouts and viola, problem solved. No more whine. All the HU's i tried swapping were all 2 volts or under and I switched to a 4.0 volt preout and that did the trick for me.

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

I know this thread is old but just wanted to put my 2 cents into it in case someone uses the search button and find this in hopes of solving their problem. I too had a nasty alternator whine through my speakers. And could hear the cd chaning tracks and all that. searched all the forums, tried everything and nothing helped.
I even tried 3 different brand new HU's and never solved problem.

I got a tip by someone to change HU to something with higher preouts and viola, problem solved. No more whine. All the HU's i tried swapping were all 2 volts or under and I switched to a 4.0 volt preout and that did the trick for me.

good info