Bad Ground

[TransAm619]

ok, so i have 2 10's in the trunk with the stealth enclosures. anyway, ive had them for a few months and never had a problem. recently installed a new headunit and they sounded even better. Anyway, the other day i bought the 3.5->3.5 wire to hook the ipod into the Aux input in the back. Doing this involved removing the headunit temporarily obviously. After all was said and done it all worked again but a new problem has occured. All of a sudden now i have a whining when throttling up and when im just idling the bass is still going when music isnt even on. its getting rediculous. i was told this was a bad ground problem but i kno the ground in the back is fine since i havent touched it. Soooo, my question is what did i mess up behind the H/U to make this stuff happen? anyhelp would be appreciated sicne i wanna fix this b4 the weekend since ill be doing a mini roadtrip.


Thanks in advance

[Tru2Chevy]

The whine sounds like interference from the alternator.

- Justin

[The Fixer]

Do you have this whine all the time, or just when the iPod is on?

[TransAm619]

all the time.. everyonce in a while itll go away for a few moments (ie. 1min.)

and yea, it sounds like a whine from the alternator but i didnt touch any of those wires... just the back of the radio. or could someting have moved in the back of the car too(ground?) and now its doing this?


i just wanna where i should start diagnosing this. its weird since i didnt do it when i first installed everything.. just now

[Tru2Chevy]

I was always told that the alternator whine was from unshielded/poorly shielded stereo wiring, but that may or may not be the only cause of it. I am by no means an expert. Might be a good idea to try and get a hold of Jake to help you track it down.

- Justin

[GP99GT]

you usually get that whine if you run your power wires and RCA cables on the same side of the car, and just because you didnt touch the ground behind the radio doesnt mean it didnt come a little loose. i'd pull it back out and triple check everything back there, try unplugging the ipod cable and see if that works

[Z28Justin]

yea its a ground loop, take out your ground sand and retighten if that doesn't work try moving them. and do you have a pioneer head unit there very well know for having bad internal grounds when amped but you can fix that too. I'm not going to get in to that unless you do and after you reground every thing else.


if all else fails radioshack sells a ground loop isolator that will get rid of it but its not a real fix just kind of a band aid. oh i forget cheaper amps also have ground problems such as lanzer pyrimid and stuff like that.

[johnjzjz]

i don't know if it still is a fix - but years back the interference noise from other electrical items in a race car - we would take and wrap the radios wire harness all of them ( head set ) with aluminum foil -- i was told that its an RF thing and that will insulate it from the other residual extrapolated signals ???? ( never knew if they were pulling my leg with that term ) it work on a few - but all were better even if it dident go complete away -- jz

[Z28Justin]

my dad use to tell me about in the 60's there was some ristor that had to be put on the radio to stop whine when you would put a big ignition system in a car. but i dont know much about that.