Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Help w/electrical interference on stereo please?

I've recently installed my system and thought everything was fine. Until I started it up. I get semi-crackly high pitched interference at idle that turns into a high pitched whine that changes w/the revs of the engine.

I've seen a thread on this before but I searched and searched and couldn't find jack. It may be important to note that the interference sound coming from the speakers stays on even if the head unit is powered off, so it's definately something to do w/the amps.

Would a ground wire kit for the engine fix this? Be a good excuse to get one. Do I need to move my power wire around in the engine bay and find a better spot? Do I need an additional ground somewhere else?

This is a pic of my ground block. One ground for each of the amps hits that block where the wire turns all thick and that's bolted to the front left bolt that has the cargo hook on it under the carpet there in the trunk. Is that a shitty ground spot or what? Help, this shit is driving me insane!

mcbumpage

If that's the ground on the right side of the pic, you MUST use the same gauge wire throughout your system for power and ground. Things to check are make sure your RCA cables are run down the opposite side of the car as the power cable...or as far apart as possible. That ground spot should be good, that's where mine is. You can always try another though. Also, your ground wire should be as short as possible. It's alternator whine most likely. It's b/c of a "ground loop" hard to explain, but it's gettin' thru your wires and into the amps somehow. Good luck, it's nerve racking troubleshooting that.

ya its ur ground most likely, just check it and make it a better one anyways. get some nice wire

If you have your amp hooked up with RCA lines, install a "ground loop isolator". you can buy them at radio shack, and they plug in-line with the RCA's. this will fix the problem easily; I've done it before, and it works every time.

shweet... yeah, using RCAs, and the RCAs and power are run down seperate sides of the car already. I'll swing my Radio Shack and pick one of those up. Thanx

Hey dude, don't waste ur money. Ur amps should be grounded to the same spot. Oh & you definately want the same gauge size on that. Keep the ground wires as short as possible, use 4 gauge at least(looks like you already got some). Another thing is if ur amps are touching each other U WILL get a whining noise. Make sure no wires are pinched along the sides of the car. A good idea would be a power distributor & a power capacitor My bad looks like you already have a power distributor. I'm almost certain it's ur ground hookup.

just clean up your wiring and use the same size on both the power and ground. use the best RCA's you can afford. get rid of those loopty loops in your wiring, make it as clean and simple as possible. dont buy anything at the shack.