i swapped out the factory radio with a pioneer z120bt and now once in awhile i get a whining type noise through the speakers with i believe is alternator noise. noise gets louder as rpms increase. funny thing is that the noise isnt always there..... stock amp, sub, speakers.... rf system ss package.... how can i fix this?

 

Have you tried looking into ground loop isolators?

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I used them on my previous car which was a 07 SI and it helped a bit with the noise.

 

Just talked to my local stereo shop and they mentioned getting some 4 ch converter wheriich has a gsfilter. Says that it depends if the factory head unit is high output or low output.

 

So I pulled the nav out and looks like there was a separate ground that the ebrake and mute wire were grounded to. I bypassed that and tapped it all off the black ground wire on the harness. Ill test to see if this helped 1st. If not I did get a ground loop isolator but it looks like I may need 2? There are front and rear rca's hooked up off pioneer to factory rf system
Is this correct? I need isolator for front and rear rca?

 

installed radio shack ground loop isolators on front and rear pre outs and the whine noise is pretty much gone.... barely noticeable if at all and sound quality seems the same.

 

alternator whine came back yesterday.... isolators didnt help i guess... now i have to rip it all apart and return them.... its weird that i dont get the noise all the time... maybe a bad harness on pioneer deck or something....

 

Was reading the forums over at DIYMA.com the other day, and somebody mentioned that ground loop isolators were only a bandaid for an installation that wasn't grounded properly.. or something to that effect.

Alot of those guys are professional installers and hardcore car stereo hobbyists, so most of them know their 'ish.

Maybe just go back through your install, and re-do all your grounds (to bare metal, instead of through an existing ground in any of the wire harnesses).. and it might also be a good idea to isolate the grounds and other stereo wiring away from your alarm system, or any other aftermarket electronics.

And if nothing else, get on DIYMA and post in the "no question is dumb" sub-forum, as everyone there seems pretty helpful.

Just some ideas, though.. good luck man!

 

I believe a Line Driver is what would eliminate the whining that are hearing through your speakers. The head unit that you installed may have a low voltage pre-amp output. The Line Driver goes between the amp and head unit and cleans up the signal it also boosts the voltage so the amplifier gets a stronger, cleaner signal from the head unit.

Rockford Fosgate Line Driver

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...3&locale=en_US

I would verify I had every wire correctly soldered and heat shrinked also nothing was exposed to bare metal or other wires.

 

I bypassed ground through harness and that didnt help. Everything else in stereo is factory. Went through car wash yesterday and whine got real loud and crackly then went away.... Its very annoying and its not always there. Sometimes I dont hear it

 

are you using an mp3 player through the factory auxillary input?

 

im using the pioneer ipod cable. this is soooo annoying. i regrounded head unit and still nothing. very weird it got worse in the car wash

 

When you play cd's does the noise go away?

 

Found this on DIYMA:

"The main problem is/was theirs a small fuse inside the headunit named a "pico" fuse. In some way this fuse is apparently inline with the ground for all the RCA outputs. If you "hot swap" the rca's ( take out and plug in) the rca's while the unit is on, theirs a big chance you've damaged your pico fuse inside your pioneer unit.

I dont know if EVERY model is at risk for this but i know a huge amount are. If it happens to your unit within the warranty period they will replace it. If not, your on your own. If you let the problem go unresolved long enough you also risk ruining your amp that the RCA"s are connected to because the ground can die completely inside the headunit resulting in the rca's going to your amp for a ground and from what i read, thats not to healthy for your amp. Pioneer may have addressed this problem on newer models but im not completely sure.

Ive narrowed my problem down to pushing the amp to hard. Like i said before my subs can handle the RMS of 2 of these amps and i basically have this one pushing out all it can rite now resulting it to either go into protect or cut out for short periods of time. Its not suppose to cut completely out, theres some type of circuitry in this amp that is suppose to just lower the volume of the amp and increase once it cools back down, but it just cuts out for about 2 seconds, comes back on at low level and returns to full volume after a few seconds."

 

Pioneer head units are known for crappy grounds. Are you using the pre-amps on the head unit? If so, ground the RCAs.

 

i have the 120bt and i have disconnected the rcas while the unit has been on and plugged them back in multiple times.. im using the front and rear preouts on pioneer to run to the mito mt-02 radio harness to tie into factory rockford amp.... how do i ground the rcas?