i have started on trying to find my alternator noise, and i took out the interior and exposed everything so that i can see it, and i was going to seperate the speaker wire and rca's from the power wires, but now i am not sure what the power wires are? cause to me it looks like one thick red wire going from the 2 amps to the battery running along the passenger side, but the rca's and speaker wires are running along the drivers side along with the cd changer hookup cord,.......

........the question is, ........are the rca type wires going to the amp "power wires"?, basically which ones do i need seperated so as to not cause noise? cause i have it all apart and i was going to re-route them properly, but just need some details on which ones are not supposed to touch, any tips would be appreciated, thanks

 

- The power wire would be the huge red wire running down the passenger side of the car.

- The rcas and speaker wires that are running down the other side need to avoid all power sources including the fuel pump.

- Make sure that all the cables are plugged in securely.

- Check your grounds on the headunit and the amp.

- Unplug your RCAs from the amp with the system turned on. If there is still alternator noise present then the problem lies with the amp grounding or otherwise. If the noise goes away then it is in your headunit or RCAs.

- Just because an RCA isn't running near a power wire doesn't mean that it isn't a hunk of **** and causing noise anyway. I ended up buying monster cable micro XLN for my car after I determined my RCAs sucked and it helped immensly.

- I suggest exchanging your factory grounds for 4AWG grounds. The tranny, chasis, and valve cover grounds should be enough although I have yet to upgrade my + alternator wire yet. These grounds did help with my noise.

Umm can anyone think of anything else???

 

Rca's are signal wires. signal from the radio gets sent to the amp and the signal is amplified. The signal is a lot lower than the 14V from the power wires and it can actually get induced into the signal wires thats why they say to seperate them. Try disconnecting the RCAS and see if the noise goes away like he said and let us know.

 

1blackhatch, hey, i think you might of gotten me somewhere, cause i did what you said, and unplugged the rca's from the amp with system on, and the alt noise went away immediately, and the part i unplugged it from on the amp said "front L & R", but the other rca's on the part that said "rear L & R" did'nt change anything.

and i have another amp as well, which just controls my sub, and while putting my ear to the sub, i also unplugged the rca's from the sub amp, and the noise went away only on the sub, so any ideas now? ..........basically i have 2 rockford fosgate amps, one powers my 4 stock speakers, and the other amp just powers the sub-box, and when i pull the rca's from the sub amp, the alt noise cuts off on the sub, and when i pull only the "front" rca's from the other amp, it cuts off the noise on the front speakers.

now how do i pinpoint where to go from here, ...........i am new at messing with this, thats why i got on here, just to get opinions from people who already have experienced messing with it.

by the way the rca's just look about as thick as the speaker wires, just plain rca's like you would get for the vcr.

another thing to mention is that i unplugged my cd changer from the head unit, and listened to the system, and it did'nt change the alt noise, so its probably not the changer.

i do have an eq also hooked up under my head unit, its a clarion, 6-7 yrs old

and what about that inline fuse by the battery? i have an extra one they gave me a while back, would it be good to put the new one in?

any info to get me in the right direction would be cool, thanks

 

I can tell you what your problem is. It is the quality of your RCAs. They should be bigger than your speaker wire, (unless you are talking about your sub speaker wire). The fact that when you unplugged and the alt sound stopped means that your problem is the wires. Check the back of the head unit, make sure that everything is plugged in right.

My suggestion is that you get new RCA's I just replaced mine. And it is sooooo much better at first I bought cheap ones off of Ebay. NO GOOD. so I had to replace them with higher quality ones. SO MUCH BETTER.

Clarification: When your system is on and your RCA's are plugged in do you hear the alt sound with the volume all of the way down?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crxaddikt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1blackhatch, hey, i think you might of gotten me somewhere, cause i did what you said, and unplugged the rca's from the amp with system on, and the alt noise went away immediately, and the part i unplugged it from on the amp said "front L & R", but the other rca's on the part that said "rear L & R" did'nt change anything.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok so that at least tells you that the Front L&R RCA or the headunit or the EQ is causing the noise to that amp that runs your front and rear speakers.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
and i have another amp as well, which just controls my sub, and while putting my ear to the sub, i also unplugged the rca's from the sub amp, and the noise went away only on the sub, so any ideas now? ..........basically i have 2 rockford fosgate amps, one powers my 4 stock speakers, and the other amp just powers the sub-box, and when i pull the rca's from the sub amp, the alt noise cuts off on the sub, and when i pull only the "front" rca's from the other amp, it cuts off the noise on the front speakers.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Same thing here. There in noise being carried along with the signal to your sub via the RCAs.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
now how do i pinpoint where to go from here, ...........i am new at messing with this, thats why i got on here, just to get opinions from people who already have experienced messing with it.

by the way the rca's just look about as thick as the speaker wires, just plain rca's like you would get for the vcr.

another thing to mention is that i unplugged my cd changer from the head unit, and listened to the system, and it did'nt change the alt noise, so its probably not the changer.

i do have an eq also hooked up under my head unit, its a clarion, 6-7 yrs old

and what about that inline fuse by the battery? i have an extra one they gave me a while back, would it be good to put the new one in?

any info to get me in the right direction would be cool, thanks</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok. Fuse. Only change the fuse if the old one blows.

Basically there are a few parts of your system that could be causing the noise. Noise that is not induced by a power wire running close to your RCAs is generally caused by grounding.

I would check that grounds on your headunit and EQ. Make sure they are grounded to a paint free bolt somewhere on the chasis under the dash.

Second I would take the RCA marked rear L&R and connect it to the Front L&R outputs on your EQ and on your amp. Since this RCA was "noise free" on the rear channels if you hook it up to the front channels it should be noise free there too. If it isn't then it shows that the noise is comming from the EQ or headunit. If it doesn't have any noise then it shows that your front and sub RCAs are what is causing the noise.

Also, does your headunit have RCA outputs on it? If so you can remove your EQ and run your RCAs directly to the headunit and check for noise there. If the noise goes away then it would be the EQ.


Noise is a pain in the *** to deal with. I bought good RCAs so it would be one less thing to worry about.

Let me know what you come up with.

 

I know it's been said before, but the only time I ever had problem like that was with a bad ground. hope you get it fixed!

 

no, my head unit does'nt have rca's on the back of it, but tomorrow i will try the thing you said about the rear L&R hooking to the front, i did'nt think of that, especially since my rear stock speakers are close to being blown, and i usually have it faded towards the front, since the fronts are pioneer 6.5 (new), so if the rear connection is clear, and i don't use it, i mise well try hooking it to the fronts that i always use, ............i'll get back to you, thnx

btw, strange thing that i did'nt mention at the first is....................i had an alternator whine problem in like 2000-2002, but i had it fixed, and it was all good, but my alternator went bad in 2002, and i replaced it with one from autozone myself (the right way), along with replacing my battery terminal cables, and sure enough.....................after this, my alternator noise came BACK , so basically i am going through this all over again, but this time, i am not paying for it.

 

Yeah this is one of those "educational" experiences.

Just keep checking and rechecking. You'll find it.

 

1blackhatch, remember i said that when i unhook the rca's from the one that said (front L&R), the noise goes away?, and that it was clear on the one that said (rear L&R), well, the rear L&R had monster cables rca's, and thats why it did'nt have noise, so i did what you said, and swapped the rcas, so once i put the monster cable to the front L&R, it was also clear of noise!!!!


so, i was excited thinking the problem was solved, and all i had to do was get another set of monster rca's for the rearL&R, but i was wrong...................cause just to make sure my sub did'nt still have noise, i tried putting the monster cable from the sub output on the eq, and into the sub amp, but unfortunately, the ground noise was still in the sub, so the front door speakers are clear of the alt noise with the monster cables, and same with the rear 2 stock speakers, but...........now my problem is just with the sub having the noise????

what can i check now, i am stumped, and btw, both amps are grounded to one point on the metal using a Y shaped thick black ground wire, its split with a red crimp connection that i can't get off, and i am going to try grounding the amps individually, i heard its bad to ground with the same point from some web site.

as far as the eq and head unit ground, i can't find them, i pulled both units out, and there is just all this wiring, and it does'nt say the word "ground" on the back of either unit, so how would i know which is the ground wire???

so, if the noise is only on the sub now, what can it be??

if you tell me some things, i will check them, either the sub amp, the sub wire not thick enough?, the Y ground thing? or something else, but i don't know what else

 

Ok I would say that short of a problem being in the internal sub output of the EQ that it is most likely the sub amp. Try grounding it somewhere else. It really shouldn't matter but you don't know for sure till you try. Also does the sub amp have a lowpass filter on it? If so make sure that the lowpass filter is on at ~80-100Hz. This should eliminate any high frequencies being played on the sub.

 

i grounded the sub amp to a different place, sanded to bare metal tightened good (well both amps are attached to the same ground with a crimp connector which makes two black ground wires split into one thick one with a ring at the end of it)

there was no difference.

i did notice that the alternator noise is only when the engine is on, and is only coming out of the 10" subwoofer. and when i turn the engine off, and only have the key turned once, i can hear the radio clear with no noise on the sub.
and there is no low-pass filter on the sub amp, it only has a treble and bass ***** and no other features to tune it with.

it started pissing me off at this point, now its just wasting my energy and time, so i am thinking of taking it in now to earmark car audio.

is it possible for an alternator to do this? cause one thing i don't understand is that this noise was not there at all until i replaced my bad alternator with a mitsibushi re-manufactured alt from autozone, ..........that along with replacing my battery cables were the only thing i changed and then, ...........suddenly noise was back after doing those two things.
i was planning on spending my limited money on something else more enjoyable, but instead looks like i have to put some aside for the audio shop to diagnose this, but i can't wait to have it fixed, cause the system sounds good when its normal, and i miss it.

still, if you have any other thoughts anybody about what it could be, still i will try it, cause i can't take the car in til thursday, so in the mean time, i can still try and figure it out beforehand.

 

Ok did you try upgrading your engine grounds? Also what features does your EQ offer? Does it have built in crossovers?

 

funny how at the first of this topic i named it "basic question", when later it gets blown out of proportion.

my ground wire from engine to chassis is probably as old as the car (1990 model), so i should do that, and actually i was going to a couple months ago, but the car audio place i called said they had the wire to sell, but they did'nt have ring connectors and stuff, so i really don't know where to buy just ground wires, especially since its a certain length.

best buy or circuit city i think just has like amp installation kits that come with the stuff you need.

my eq has two little switches on the top, one is to make the sub either stereo or mono, and the other say high pass filter, and its in the on position, but i put it off, but it did'nt do anything. it also has 3 different db settings for loudness of the sub, i tried those also. .............................off the sub amp, there is a wire going to one side of my sub box that powers one of the 10" subs, but one time i lost the other wire that hooks to the other sub, so i have just been using one, which is good enough.

actually i get off work at 3pm, and have an appointment with earmark car audio at 4pm, they said its 45 bucks an hour, and if its a half hour, its 22 bucks, so i am just hoping they will know right away what it is, cause this place is a good quality shop. so i am hoping it won't be over an hour and a half.
if i messed with it any further i would of gone nuts, cause once i start something i get so obsessed with it, i can't get it out of my head until i fix it, lol

 

I know how that is! Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

 

weird, ................i got to the audio place, and this guy came out to the car with me, and i explained everything to him, and after wiggling things, and looking the mess over, he just said "ya know man, you should just start from scratch, its really not that hard", lol

its funny, usually they try to get you to fork the car over and the cash so they can make a profit from doing an install or diagnosis, but not this guy, he just sat there telling me how to do this and how to do that, and i asked questions, and decided he is right, cause i was probably getting close anyway.

so, thats what i am going to do, just like he said, you have to take everything out, basically inspect each wire and maybe get new ones, hook everything up from scratch making everything is secure, and he told me to buy these fuse holders that you attach to the power wire, they were like 6 bucks each, i turned a gain down a little on the front speakers and now i barely even hear it, but thats not good enough, i want it completely gone, so i am still taking stuff out.

one thing i tried, like you said before was to hook the head unit directly to the amp, instead of the eq, and noise stayed the same, so i can eliminate the eq now, (i did'nt know the head unit had rca's, but the guy pointed them out for me, i did'nt know the rca's came off of a cord, i thought they were holes on the back of the unit)

so, one question i wanted to ask was can i hook a home cd player with rca outputs directly into the input of the amp, and listen and test? cause that way i can eliminate the head unit, can this damage my amp if i do this?

probably sick of me by now, lol

after all this, i won't have to even pay someone to install my stereos for now on, this is like a learning experience, in just a week, i already understand how the system works and is wired, so i kind of enjoy this strangely enough.

 

Yeah it can be pretty frustrating but fun... Weird is right... Anyway yeah you can use a portable or home CD player for output to test with... I recommend a portable but make sure you keep the volume low and increase it slowly so you don't blow something up. I'm not sure what output voltage portable CD players have on the headphone jack so be carefull.