I just bought a Pioneer DVD/CD/MP3/WMA/Navigation flip-out unit off of a member on here at a great price to install in my 98 CRV. Well to start off I had a JVC KDC- LH1000 deck in there before and it was great. I have all of my speakers and subs ran through RCAs and no speaker wires are used; everything was great with the JVC. I had another Pioneer deck in before temporarily and I got an alternator whine, not bad but still enough to **** me off. I switched it back for my JVC and I later read that some Pioneer units have a bad internal ground for RCAs; I shrugged it off since I ditched that deck anyway. Well fast-forward to this weekend when I brought home this newer, used DVD deck. After the install I got the whine again. Now I know everything is ran and grounded right, I know how to install and run wires, and even though I didn't do all of this install, the rest was done at an award winning shop before I bought the car. I had NO problems whatsoever before. After some frustrating trial and error, and buying and returning some ground loop isolators which did not work I decided to stoop as low to ask some of the 16-18 year old "techs" at the local Best Buy and Circuit City. I told them I had heard that the Pioneer decks had bad internal grounds and if they knew anything. Of course off the bat I'm wrong and I can't install worth a damn, they must look at it and ground loop isolators might be the only solution, unless of course I want to tear all of my stuff apart.
Anyway I reconsider what I read before about the Pioneer decks, go home, search for about 2 minutes and come up with this link. After about 10 minutes of stripping, wrapping, taping and grounding my noise is gone and I'm happy that I don't have to sell this deck that I got a great deal on. I can't take credit for the link or its info, but I thought it might help those who have an alternator whine and a Pioneer deck. It might not be your wiring, so before you go tearing everything in your interior up try this simple fix.

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/...nator

 

Hi. I'm 28. If we treat you like that at Best Buy/Circuit City, it's only because everyday we have 2-3+ people that come in that did their own install or their buddy did their install and "everything is right but it doesn't work" and it's pure crap. Diagnosing that is a real nightmare. You apparently know what you're talking about, but you're in the minority. So I just want to apologize.

People come in and they tell us things that just don't add up. Things that aren't physically possible. Things that make no kind of sense. Sometimes they're lying. Often times they're just stupid.

 

Haha its fine. I apologize for generalizing. Not every person at Best Buy who does installs is a dumb kid. Some are knowledgeable, but the majority of the time I have to deal with them its just ridiculous. I definately agree with you though, helping others, looking at others cars and even looking at cars to buy I see some hacked up installs and wiring jobs. Alot of people are idiots or just plain lazy when it comes to some things.

You work in the install bay though?

 

I don't get alternator whine (it does not change with revs, it remains constant) on my 980BT, but the unit does pickup whatever noise from the cd-pickup or the bluetooth part and when the car is in the 'on' posistion rather than 'ACC.'

I'm going to try grounding straight to a chassis screw on the HU, and then the RCAs.

 

Yes sir. Advanced MECP cert.

I haven't noticed any usual problems with alternator whine on Pioneers.

In general when I do a 4CH amp, I run an 18 gauge wire from the stereo ground to the location where I will be grounding the amp.

The only time I can remember having alternator whine was due to bad RCAs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by suspendedHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">In general when I do a 4CH amp, I run an 18 gauge wire from the stereo ground to the location where I will be grounding the amp.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Best way to solve the problem Your putting both ground potentials equal to each other so if oe goes up the other goes up by an equal amount. Its only when you have a difference that you have problems.

I looked at the link posted above LOL. If it worked for ya great I guess. RCA ground is not chassis ground. But following the link above it now becomes chassis ground.

Ground is relative to where you take a measurement. Ground can be biased above 0 volts.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxxtreme &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I looked at the link posted above LOL. If it worked for ya great I guess. RCA ground is not chassis ground. But following the link above it now becomes chassis ground.

Ground is relative to where you take a measurement. Ground can be biased above 0 volts.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You're absolutely right grounds are based on where they are, different locations may cause variations in the voltage. Yeah I know its kind of rigged, but it works. My deck is grounded to the same piece on the chassis that my amps are because they are located under the front seats. Theyre not grounded on the same exact spot however. That was the first thing that I tried, grounding the deck to the chassis near the amp instead of grounding it on the car harness. It did decrease some of the noise but not all.

That is a good idea with grounding a 4 channel amp with the headunit. I was thinking about grounding them on the same bolt but then I saw that people running just subs had the same problem so I tried this first. It works and it was easiest. I didn't want to change my setup and wiring because of the deck because thats where the problem lies. Thanks for your input, its nice to see people that take the time and do things the right way.

 

i used to work at a pioneer warr. center back in the day. this was a very common problem. we used to always run jumper wires from ground to the rca grounds on the bottom of the main board when repared decks. also, im glad to know im not the only 28 year old, that installs for best buy. haha