Intermittent alternator whine. Help please!

[onthebrink]

I have a factory chevy radio with Bose. Recently I've started having intermittent alternator whine. It will whine for several days and then stop for a couple of days.

Today the noise was gone but when I killed my truck and re cranked it the radio volume wouldn't work at all. The radio was on but I couldn't get sound out on am, fm or XM.

I turned the radio off and back on and the sound came back.

I'm in the middle of picking out a new radio to go in it. I probably should speed that process up. Thing is I have a small second radio in my second row seats. That won't work unless I put a factory radio back in.

I'm considering a new after market radio with Bluetooth but to do that I will have to have extra adapters for my steering wheel controls and ON Star.

Is this whine just a problem with the radio or something else?

Will a new radio fix the issue?

Which radio would you choose and why?

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[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

It could be a problem with the radio, could be a loose ground wire. If you go with a new radio, be sure to mount that to a solid part of the chassis and not use the stock ground on the wiring harness.

 

[onthebrink]

Would a bad ground wire cause intermittent whining or would it cause the whining to be present all the time?