Whine coming from speakers of stereo...Any ideas?

[sman83]

I have always had a whine coming from the engine of my car but never from speakers until just now.

I just installed a new amp and crossover to compliment the sub and amp and now there is a high pitched whine coming from the speakers when the stereo is on I can hear it while it is on ACC and it is even louder when the car is started.

1999 Mercury Moutaineer
500w amp
400w amp
crossover
4 Kicker 6x8 in the door panels
Pioneer DEH-P6900UB

I only heard the whine in the engine compartment with the sub and amp but now that the 6x8's have an amp it is very noticeable. Everything is ran through a ground distribution block and grounded to the metal frame which has never caused problems before.

The whine does coincide with the engines RPM's. I have read on the forums that this could be alternator whine? Or a bad ground somewhere? How would I get rid of this annoying sound?!?!

Any help appreciated thanks !

 

[corkey]

it sounds like a ground loop , one of the amp is seeking a ground and possibly finding it thru another amps ground wire,,,
ground each amp individually and see if the problem goes away ,

 

[Mbrooks420]

How far away are your power wires from your RCA's? Are the RCA's cheap? First thing I would suspect, since it is grounded to the frame, is the RCA's. Does the engine whine only happen when you are coasting, and go away when you hit the gas? If so your IAC needs cleaned/replaced.

 

[sman83]

Whine..

The RCA's are Stinger and Rockford they are really close to the power wires, there was some space limitations, so I had to keep them kinda close.

I will ground each ground wire individually and see if the whine persists..

I replaced the IAC maybe a year and a half ago, bought one from autozone and stuck it on there, do these wear out that fast? or are they just prone to failure? The whine is always there from when I start the car to when I put it in gear. The only thing that changes is the sound pitch and sound when I accelerate. It tends to get louder when the RPM's increase, not deafing loud but noticeable.

Thanks for the info !

 

[Donner]

Do you have the appropriate ANL fuse? Where is it located/attached to?

 

[Mbrooks420]

The problem is most likely the interconnects being to close to the power wire. Why not run them down different sides of the truck?

 

[sman83]

Update

I reran all of the grounds(3) to seperate places in the vehicle instead of using the ground distribution block, and the whine has gone down dramatically. I am still left with a little whine from the speakers when the car is on, no whine when it is in ACC.

I do have the power wire and the RCA's ran down different sides of the vehicle, but when they all meet in the back everything is criss crossing.

I am using a 80amp maxi fuse 4ga power wire from the battery to a 4ga 3 in/8ga 4 out fused distribution block.

Could the speaker wire make a difference? I bought some from best buy, I think its 24ga not sure its pretty thin stuff, could that be the cause for the rest of the interference?

I am off to work for the rest of the night so I will have to wait to try anything else =(

 

[toypaseo]

Try grounding to factory grounds...?

 

[hworksinc]

You may also need an additional heavy gauge ground from the negative battery post to the body or frame (whichever one you have the amp grounds connected to). The factory ground paths are not nearly good enough for 80A worth of additional power draw straight from the battery.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=181150&i=127SNI1&tp=1522

This will help. I had the same problem and this killed most of the whine.

 

[sman83]

...

What do you mean ground to the factory grounds? I have an idea what you mean but not completly sure.

As for wiring another ground from the battery...Should I just replace the factory one and replace it with a larger guage or try and stick another ground wire on top of it and mount it to the frame?

I am on my lunch break now going to read up on the crutchfield articles to see what I can also do..

Thxs again guys the help is much appreciated

 

[onecrazyfuq]

your problem is that you have your rca cables running to close to your power cables, since your power cables run under the hood it picks up engine noise, transports it through the wire where your rca begins to pick up that sound off the power wires. Run your power wires down the driver side, and your rca's down your passenger side. I have my truck like that and i don't get any interference's whatsoever

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

I ran my wires straight down the side the battery was on, i didn't cross it across the bay. i had a little whien, but it was barely noticebale, i just have tubes in my ears, so i hear everything

 

[hworksinc]

I was referring to adding an additional ground wire from the negative battery post to the frame. This would eliminate amp power interference as the amps *should* take a more direct ground path that way. This would not deal with any signal ground loop issues.

The way to see where the whine is coming from is to unplug the RCA cables from the amps when the car is running - if the whine goes away, then the problem is a signal ground loop issue, which would require a ground loop isolator like the one from Crutchfield. If the whine is still there after unplugging the RCA cables, then the problem is in the amp power lines.

 

[juggaloscorpio]

i had a problem similar to this and it turned out to be nothing more than bad rca wires and rca outputs on the back of the head unit. and for the power wire and rca wires running alongside each other or "criscrossed" and getting this whine i dont know about that as my wiring meets up at the hood release and runs on the driver side where it comes up from under the seats to the sub box mounted amp and grounded it behind the rear seat under the "flap" where the tire tools are

24g i thought was too small for subs so i used 16g for the speakers and a standard amp install kit for power and ground wiring

 

[sman83]

tried some more things

So today I spent most of my time trying to get this whine out.

I replaced the alternator was putting out 98a vs teh 130a its supposed too. That didnt help the whine noise any.

I replaced the speaker wire with 16ga and regrounded the head unit to the factory ground. No change...

Is there grounds any under the dash in the vicinity of the radio that I could try and groung it too also? My friend said it might be a bad ground for the radio, and that could be causing the hiss.

As far as the RCA's and power wire go they are both ran down seperate sides of the vehicle. I never had any problems until I added a second amp(for mids and highs)an active crossover.

I did try unhooking the RCA's to see if the whine continued and after I unplugged them all it stopped, which as the previous poster said would indicate RCA's interferrence.

I would rather not use a ground loop isolator, too me its just a cover up for a bigger problem, and I would rather get the bigger problem out of the way if possible.

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

So today I spent most of my time trying to get this whine out.

I replaced the alternator was putting out 98a vs teh 130a its supposed too. That didnt help the whine noise any.

I replaced the speaker wire with 16ga and regrounded the head unit to the factory ground. No change...

Is there grounds any under the dash in the vicinity of the radio that I could try and groung it too also? My friend said it might be a bad ground for the radio, and that could be causing the hiss.

As far as the RCA's and power wire go they are both ran down seperate sides of the vehicle. I never had any problems until I added a second amp(for mids and highs)an active crossover.

I did try unhooking the RCA's to see if the whine continued and after I unplugged them all it stopped, which as the previous poster said would indicate RCA's interferrence.

I would rather not use a ground loop isolator, too me its just a cover up for a bigger problem, and I would rather get the bigger problem out of the way if possible.

i was under the impression that alternators only put out maximum amperage starting around 1200 rpms or so... was it tested?

 

[sman83]

It was

I went to Advance Auto parts and they had me keep the rpms at 2000 to get an accurate reading on there machine.

 

[radium-]

so you are still unable to fix the problem?? I have the same issue with my 2001 xlt

 

[sman83]

Working to a point

After running out of ideas I started to clean all of the grounds underneath the hood which didnt really help that much, but I was able to find that happy median of gain on the crossover and amp to make it ok to listen too.

The gain on the amp for the highs and mids isnt turned up that high but the crossover helped compensate for it by boosting the signal.

The whine is audible only when the sound is turned all the way down and you have your head right by the speakers. I am still going to try other things to eliminate it, but I am running out of ideas.

Last night I shortened the power cable and speakers wires all running to the back to help lower the resistance, every little bit helps I guess.