Who's playing me?

[maylar 10+ year member]

I agree with the consensus - somethng's amiss in the HU. And like you said, it'll work fine on the bench. No alternator.

The best thing you can hope for is to convince the vendor that there's an internal ground problem, as evident by the noise changing as you jiggle the unit and the fact that it went away with another unit. Don't ask for a refund, just another unit even swap.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

again, the noise changes as i wiggled the hu around, does that have any significance? (does it mean it really is the hu?)

Yes it is. That's why I wanted to make sure that all the wires and connections connecting to the HU are proper and secure. If all the wires and connections are secure, then that only leaves one other option: The HU itself.

 

[forbidden 10+ year member]

What you have is a difference in ground potentials. If one unit has a bad ground it goes looking for another one (through the shield of the rca's). Many headunits that are built to hit the pricepoint have real crappy ground planes on their internal circuit designs. Take the cd out of the dash so the case of the cd player cannot make contact with metal, place it on the seat. Disconnect the antenna as well as it too is a ground. Reground the cd player to a new ground point, try an amp if you like. If you are using the factory ground wire, it may be sharing a ground circuit with who knows what inside of your dash. If you reground the unit and test it with no antenna hooked up and you still have noise, you might be a redneck, oops, sorry dude, if you still have noise, the cd player will be the culprit. If I'm around I'll post up some more info for you, but do this test first. To me, your cd player needs to go to the old Kenmore home in the sky.......

 

[ighettoboyi 10+ year member]

i'm surprised and glad at all the helpful and informative responses. what really pisses me off is even if i convince ravi at indo that it is the hu, i'm afraid his schemerass is gonna just send it in to kenwood to get refurbed. the smart thing to do is sell it on ebay to some sucker, oh wait, i was that sucker.

and to forbidden: could you clarify on your little procedure. you're saying if i had the cd player chillin on the seat grounded to the chassis (some other place) with no antenna hooked and there's still noise, then it's definitely the hu? sounds interesting but the wires that my harness is soldered to is all taped up and I dont wanna get back in there and screw with this as it's already been a pain in the urethra.

Has this happened to anyone else before?

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Is it a myth? About everyone i talk to says it is true.

Helotaxi what is your opinion?

I'd post a pic of mine ziptied together on my SILENT system as to my opinion, but I can't figure out what my wife did with the camera.

 

[djjdnap 10+ year member]

hmm, mine run next to each other and i dont get a wine //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif , but in my old install i did it and i had a wine???

So maybe it depends on more than just the wire, maybe amp and so forth??

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

hmm, mine run next to each other and i dont get a wine //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif , but in my old install i did it and i had a wine???So maybe it depends on more than just the wire, maybe amp and so forth??

No, you probably had a problem with either your grounds (both amp & headunit) or the RCA wire was damaged in some way. It is HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY unlikely that it had anything to do with where the wire was ran. I've had a stereo in my car for ~6yrs, and all of those 6yrs my RCAs, remote on and power wire were zipped tied together for the entire length of my car. I've never had any noise (and back when I first got into this hobby, I had some pretty shitty equipment).

 

[ighettoboyi 10+ year member]

Do the headunit grounds go bad easily? I NEED THUMPAGE!

 

[ighettoboyi 10+ year member]

bump 12345

 

[djjdnap 10+ year member]

yes if they touch something, thats why most people get wire harnesses

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Normally the HU shares a ground with several other components in the car. Try finding a good spot and reground the HU and only the HU to that spot. Good place to look is the firewall.

But if the problem is internal in the HU, then this isn't going to do much for ya. But, you could always try it and see I guess.

 

[ighettoboyi 10+ year member]

Yea I was told the hu shares the ground with other components too. If I wanted to test it out, how exactly do I make this new test ground lead from the harness?

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Just unplug the ground wire on the rear of your HU from the wiring harness, connect a new wire to it and run the wire to your new grounding location.

 

[ighettoboyi 10+ year member]

OK! Actually took some time too look at my car. I noticed that the installers already tried a new ground. They'd cut the origina factory ground line and grounded the head unit with its own lead to a very nearby spot. Since they tried a new ground and the unit persists to create the nasty engine noise, I should just close this case and get a new unit right?

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

OK! Actually took some time too look at my car. I noticed that the installers already tried a new ground. They'd cut the origina factory ground line and grounded the head unit with its own lead to a very nearby spot. Since they tried a new ground and the unit persists to create the nasty engine noise, I should just close this case and get a new unit right?

Hey, what do you know......an installer actually did it right Yeah, as long as the new grounding spot looks good to you (i.e. any paint/grease/etc was removed) I would call it a day and get a new HU.