Releasing e-brake produces alternator whine??

[Jllaugh]

Hello, I'm new to the forum and I'm looking for people who may be able to help me out with this issue I'm having!

I installed a system in my 07 Camry SE and almost since the beginning I've had pretty bad electrical noise. I've tried just about every fix imaginable, the only thing I've yet to try is grounding my RCAs to the head unit. I've managed to at least make the noise tolerable by lowering the gain on my amplifier until this spring when the weather's nice enough to start tearing the car apart. Again.

I just noticed the other day that when I stopped the car and engaged the e-brake that as soon as I pushed and released my foot from the e-brake pedal, the noise was completely gone; dead-silent even with the car running. Even revving the engine at high rpm produced zero whine, I was completely astounded. I put my foot back on the e-brake pedal and disengaged the brake and the noise came back immediately. Pushing the pedal slowly back and forth and knocking it side to side will cause the noise to go away and come back. I cannot, for the life of me figure out why this is.

Before I go into additional details I would start by asking if anyone has run into this problem before? I'm starting to feel pretty excited that I may be able to finally fix this problem as I've spent 30-50 hours after the initial installation just moving things around and trying different grounding points/methods etc. I can no longer count how many times I have had all the panels and seats taken out and put back into my car and the trunk ripped apart.

Kenwood Excelon Head Unit (the noise exists but is much quieter when the HU is NOT connected to the EQ. Probably replacing this unit, don't like it at all.)

Pioneer DEQ7600 Equalizer (the noise is MUCH worse when this unit is connected)

Power Acoustik BAMF1200

Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.5'' components

Infinity Kappa 6x9's in the rear.

I have another amp and a subwoofer but there are no problems there.

Specifics in post below..

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[Jllaugh]

Okay, so I have a couple of ideas as to where to begin looking into this and fixing this issue. During the installation I overlooked a couple of things but had spent so much longer than I needed to doing the whole thing I just put the car back together to try again later when I felt like starting fresh.

The wire connectors for the front driver's side tweeters were not taped off and will sometimes make contact under the dash causing the speaker to cut out. Giving the wires under the dash cluster a gentle push will cause them to lose contact and the speakers will continue working. Ghetto I know, I'm fixing it. I think this may be relevant because the tweeters are mounted in the dash and the wires for them run down (probably right next to the e-brake arm) before going under the carpet to the crossover under the seat. Maybe the arm on the e-brake pedal is moving them away or off of something when it is pushed down causing the noise to stop? Curious because the pedal usually has to be pushed completely down and engaged for the noise to stop though it is possible through manipulation to make it cease while you are actually pushing the brake in.

Next, I believe the polarity of one of the wires may be crossed. This is strange. On the driver's side crossover, the wire from the x-over to the amp has its polarity switched on the x-over side. Polarity of the wire on the amp is normal. If I correct the polarity of the incoming wire to the x-over there is an extremely loud noise that blasts from the speakers. (Cannot remember at this point if it is just driver's side fronts or all speakers in the car.) Maybe I got polarity mixed up from one of the component speakers to the crossover? Seems strange and I'm pretty meticulous about details like this so I'd be surprised.. cannot rule it out though.

Last, I ran the speaker wires for the 6.5's through the rubber wire hose that connects from the door to the door jamb. I also don't know how this could happen if the wires are protected by the rubber sleeve but maybe it got cut on the sheet metal of the door and is making contact with it?

That's it. Those are all my starting points and all I can think off that I have not already done. Power and signal cables are run on opposite sides of the vehicle. I've ground the head unit and EQ's to themselves as well as other locations (the whine will lessen sometimes but not go away entirely).

I'm really hoping that I can solve this problem addressing one or more of the mentioned issues. This spring I was about to go completely overkill, buy a new head unit, put the car on a lift and run power through and electrical conduit along the undercarriage or install an additional battery in the trunk and completely replace all my speaker and signal cables, running them above the headliner to completely isolate them from everything. I am really excited to think I may not have to do any of this!

 

[SmartAsss 10+ year member]

The wire connectors for the front driver's side tweeters were not taped off and will sometimes make contact under the dash causing the speaker to cut out. Giving the wires under the dash cluster will cause them to lose contact and the speakers will continue working. Ghetto I know, I'm fixing it. I think this may be relevant because the tweeters are mounted in the dash and the wires for them run down (probably right next to the e-brake arm) before going under the carpet to the crossover under the seat. Maybe the arm on the e-brake pedal is moving them away or off of something when it is pushed down causing the noise to stop? Curious because the pedal usually has to be pushed completely down and engaged for the noise to stop though it is possible through manipulation to make it cease while you are actually pushing the brake in.

would start here. the e-brake thing is just such an odd thing to have happen. wire might be pinched some where.