So i installed a JL audio 2 ch, a Rockford fosgate 4 ch, a pioneer 10, and a new deck.

Now heres my problem, i turned the gain up on my the rockford fosgate, and have the annoying whinning sound

Originally i grounded to strut bar, now its got a self tapped screw into a spot that is sanded to bare metal. it helped a little bit but the sound is still there.

Could it maybe be the paint on my valve cover for where the ground from valve cover to the chasis is?

Anyone else have some good ideas??

I did run the 4 ch rca's with the power wire...

 

its a ground issue as you already suspected. You need to chase down the battery to chassis and chassis to motor ground. Ensure that these are all good grounds. If your RCA's are junk then running them parrallel with the power could cause an issue. But generally it doesn't matter.

As a last resort on some cars with horrible grounds I have ran a ground from the battery directly to the amp. That usually resolves the problem.

 

Make a new earth ground and separate both your power and cable wire from each other..

 

The whining sound is your RCAs picking up alternator noise from the power wire. Separate them a good distance and you'll be fine.

 

just like mrdeadman said separate the rca's from the power wire you should lose if not all most of the alternator whine.
If you're feeling lazy you could buy a noise filter. it'll go inline with your rca's

 

Are these amps new? A bad amp could cause this issues. If the input stage is blown. Not always separating the power wire and rca's will fix. And not always will running the power wire with rca's cause alternator noise. Its a good ideal to run both separate. But on some install they might have to go together. Makse sure the main car battery is good because it filter out the ripples from the alternator and make sure your headunit is grounded well too. Also make sure the headunit is not damage too. Adding a filter is a band aid. Fix the problem and don't half *** it. You will get better sound.

 

So many people don't understand this. The current levels have to be really high to induce noise into a cable. This only works if you're using junk RCA cables.

The same amount of current that is flowing through the "power cable" is also flowing through the frame of the car! 9.9/10 times this always comes down to a ground loop somewhere.

 

x's 2!!!

Ground loops are caused by a difference in potential. Basically, the chosen location for your amps ground should ideally have zero resistance to the negative terminal of the battery. I don't feel that I would have chosen the strut bar as my ground, rather, the actual chasis of the car itself, since the battery negative terminal is grounded on the chasis as well.

 

um...it's a honda civic, which means unibody, which means no chassis. realistically in this case and place with bare metal on the main unibody of the car will be an "earth" ground.

i would move the RCAs to the other side of the car and that will probably fix your issue