I own a 1995 Acura Integra 2 door hatchback and about a year ago i installed my stereo and it had been working perfectly fine until about a month ago.

The problem: There is a very noticable "whine" coming from my front stage speakers. It seems to be consistent at times, while at other times; it seems almost non-existent. I have noticed that during the day (without a/c, lights, high beams, etc. on) that the sound is seemingly non-existent. At nighttime with the interior and exterior lights on the noise presents itself. It also seems that around about 3k rpm the noise goes from a slight whine, to a louder pop and the whine becomes even more noticeable. The "whine" is definitely almost always present but not always as noticeable as when more electrical components are running.

I had never dealt with this problem before in this car, but when i was cleaning up wiring and tuning up the amplifiers i believe i may have touched one of the amps rca's together and i heard a very loud pop. My stereo still played fine though and the noise was not present until a day or two later.

My stereo consists of the following:

JL XR653CS 3-way component set (midwoofer in doors, midrange&tweet in qlogic kick panel enclosures)
JL 300/4 powering the components off the front channels
JL 12W6v2d4 subwoofer
JL 500/1 powering the sub
Premier P680MP headunit
JL 4-gauge power, ground and remote wire, high-end stinger RCA's and lightning audio 12 gauge speaker wiring.

The amplifiers are mounted vertically with the heatsink fins facing directly up as per JL spec. The RCA's, remote and remote bass **** wires are run down the center of the car, the ground is about a foot long and the power wire is run along the passenger side of the car along with the speaker wires.

The only thing that isnt right with my install that i know for sure is i did not have a distribution block to correctly install my ground wire together but i never had a problem with it before. I am going to install a dist. block there but i still find it hard to believe that is what caused this problem to arise.

This is as detailed as i can be about my problem. Please Help!!!

 

Just because something works perfectly fine initially does not mean that it is installed correctly. The fact that it stops working prematurely is a good indication that the install is flawed.

Grounds are absolutely critical in preventing noise. Choose a ground spot that is part of the continuous piece of metal making up the frame rails. Verify that there is nothing beneath the sheet metal, ie gas tank, brake lines etc. Get a wire wheel and sand down the paint to the bare metal. If you use reverse on the drill, it will get you down to the shiny metal. Use a lock washer and several metal tapping screws to attach the ground wire's ring terminal to the chassis. Make sure that it is extremely tight. Also check the battery ground and the engine grounds.

Another thing you should do is take an 18 gauge wire and pinch it alongside the ground wire input to your amp. Run this wire behind the deck and tap it into the stereo ground.

If you still have noise, it could be your amp has gone bad, your spark wires are bad, your battery is too old, your RCAs are bad, your stereo is sharing a ground point with some other circuit, your wiring connections have too much resistance, and ON AND ON AND ON. It's no fun to diagnose. It's easier to start from scratch.

 

I would be looking for a grounding problem, if the noise is only on the front speakers I would be looking at the HUs front preamp outputs, swap them with the rears, if noise is still on the front speakers only, the problem is not the front outputs, swap the RCAs back, and try the same thing at the amp, if the noise is still on the front speakers only, the RCAs are not the problem, swap the RCAs back, and swap the speaker outputs on the amp [front to rear], if the noise is still on the front speakers, you are wrong and there is noise on both the front and rear speakers, [all speakers].
What HU are you using?

A ground splitter box is not needed, better to have the grounds from both amps connected to the same point on the chassis, [no added connections]. 94

 

i am running a Premier P680MP headunit.. about a year old.

as i stated.. i have a shitty connection between my grounds from each amp where a distribution block should be.. its never caused a problem with the noise before but im going to redo the grounds without a distribution block.. im just putting two separate grounds to the same grounding location instead of bringing two grounds to one and then grounding that. i still feel as though the loud pop i heard when i believe i touched one of the pairs of the rcas together is the culprit.. but im praying its not.

if so im thinking about just saving for a new headunit.. possibly one with a screen and dvd capabilites as well.... any input?

 

Well if you have been thinking of changing, nows the time, however shitty grounds on amps is not a good thing, in fact if the system is playing and you loose amp ground the amps will "get" their grounds through the RCAs and because of the load you can "blow" a ground trace in the amp or HU, more then likely the HU, sometimes that results in no signal at all and sometimes noise.

FYI, I have had more noise problems with Pioneer HUs, [when connected to other then Pioneer amps] then any other brand of HU. 94

 

everyone keeps saying that the pioneer/premier headunits have a tendency to create or be prone to noise. i really like the headunit and hope it isnt ruined because i dont want to part with it, nor do i want to spend more money on a new one. but, if thats the case.. im looking for probably an alpine screen and headunit combo for the best price i can get. any input with that?

thanks