I have an old Alpine headunit that's installed on my car and yesterday, it just started making a loud annoying buzzing sound on it's own. Weird thing is that everything works normally, cds still play and the radio still works. I have no clue where it's coming from inside the headunit.

I know the headunit is equipped with an internal fan that cools it.

Any ideas of what could be causing the problem?

 

do you have any other aftermarket stereo equipment installed?
does the buzzing fluctuate with throttle/rpm? or is it a constant and consistent buzz?

 

Only speakers and some dynamat here and there.

The buzzing is random (happens at least once or twice every time while I'm driving) and I can't seem to replicate it, I even tried turning off the headunit and even pulling off the faceplate when it makes that noise, but it still happens.

I'm pretty sure that it's definitely coming from the headunit though.

Could it possibly be the cooling fan getting jammed up with dust or the laser mechanism that reads the cd is starting to die?

 

unistall it, put it on a test bench, locate the approximate buzzing location... best thing to do..

 

Thanks!

The noise has gone away for now, I'm hoping that it doesn't return *knocks on wood*