[Mk2] [Generic] Whining noise from speakers.

[No_more_GT4]

Hi guys,
I've posted this in the electrical section too, so I guess one of them will be deleted, but ICE & electrical are part one & the same, but there are 2 different sections for it, so here goes.


Right, I've searched the forum using the search function & although this topic has been covered, from what I can make out, there has been no solution to it

I get the problem of a whining noise coming through the door speakers which gets a bit louder when the steering wheel is turned. It then disappears after about 30 seconds if the steering wheel is not turned, when the engine is off, but stereo on, there is no whining noise coming from the speakers.

The audio gear I have is a JL A3400 amp, XR6.5" components with crossovers mounted in the frunk, one either side of the amp & a 10" JL Sub:


The amp is powered from the +ive battery terminal by the blue wire with the inline fuse. Earth is from the battery & a connection to one of the bolt holes to the chassis at the front of the frunk.

The current location of the RCA, speaker & power wires are as follows in the pic:


Do you think the interfearence coming from the speaker wire location, or the RCA leads

There isn't much room in the frunk to run the wires anywhere else as they all go through the bulkhead pretty much near the P/S pump

I have thought of re positioning the amp to behind the drivers seat, but that'll be such a ball ache to do. Plus I've read that other peeps have done this with no result to the whining noise.

Do the ground loop isolators you can buy really work? As again, I've read someone elses post & the isolators worked, but the next day the whining noise was back. I'd rather kill the noise completely rather than just making the noise quiter, or turning my stereo up louder to drown out the whining

Would some kind of a thick lead cover over the P/S pump work

If anyone has a positive outcome to this dilema that many of us seem to be having, I'd very much appreciate any hepl or advice you can give me

Many thanks for any replies.

Richard




UPDATE

I think it may be the location of the x-overs I've just extended the wire to the x-overs & the noise has appeared to have quitened down a bit, but not much.

However, I can't see that the interference from the P/S pump would have an effect on the x-overs which when the extended speaker wires were attached, the x-overs were sitting on the bumper Surely the distance is too great for the P/S pump to have any interferance when the x-overs were sitting on the bumper



Rich

[steve b]

I've just spent the last hour fiddling with my wiring and putting in a "noise suppressor" and it made no difference. Engine not running, crystal clear, engine on motor of some sort gets amplified

I've only got a non standard head unit, i've tried to restore the stock wiring as much as possible but can't fix it

[oBladeo]

Have you got shielded RCA leads?

How close are your stereo cables to your power cables?

[phipck]

good way to check whats the cause,

unplug the phonos from the amp then put the keys in and turn the stereo on, see if you still get the noise, if so its the amp and speaker cables.
if not it might be the headunit or phonos. turn everything back off.

with all plugged back in unplug the phonos from the head unit, put the keys in and test again, if the noise is still there then its the phonos and something interfearing. if it goes then its the headunit. turn everything off.

if its the amp and speaker wires, i would double check your power and earth connections, making sure the earth is nice and strong (i know im preaching to the converted, im sorry) i have previously had a faulty rca terminal where the outer terminal wasnt connected to the amp correctly, this made terrible humming noise and speaker cutout.

if its the phonos then you can earth the outer shielding, this way you will have a nice safety bubble around the signal wire inside and this might help your issue.

if its the headunit, i stopped using the stock earth connection on my toyota loom as it was thin and i didnt trust it, so now im using a length of "remote wire" as a good strong earthing wire bolted to bare metal under the carpet of the passanger side centre console.

most of my random noise has gone now............in fact my alternator failed so im hoping that with a new one in what remaining noise was there was caused by a poorly alternator.

[steve b]

if its the phonos then you can earth the outer shielding, this way you will have a nice safety bubble around the signal wire inside and this might help your issue.

I thought this was my issue today after reading up about connectors etc, so I earthed the outers on my home made RCA to loom connectors...

no joy still get the whine and as the OP mentioned the powersteering being the cause,.. guess what so's mine.

Could it be a problem at the power steering end that maybe easier to resolve?

[steve b]

i stopped using the stock earth connection on my toyota loom as it was thin and i didnt trust it, so now im using a length of "remote wire" as a good strong earthing wire bolted to bare metal under the carpet of the passanger side centre console.

Exactly where i'm earthing to.

[phipck]

lol great minds must think a like!

with regards to the power steering, i would say its a myth that its interfearing with the amp or signal cables that have been run into the frunk........i say myth because i dont have my amp in the frunk, mine is behind the driver seat and there are no signal cables run into the frunk and still i get some slight interfearence.

im considering looking at the connections on the power steering to see if they are well earthed, but other than that there isnt much more to consider?!

when i get round to ordering my alternator (another problem i have a thread about) im going to look at its connectors too and make sure they have strong connections to the cables and equaly the cables to the charge system, dont want any alternator whine! this may also be the cause of the p/s noise i get as the failing alternator was struggeling to power the power steering and could have been making a lot of noise maybe? as i have no cables run into the frunk it cannot be their proximity

[steve b]

No cables in the frunk for me either. Really annoying me, came to work today with stereo off

[gnzyza]

Rich, What HU are you using?

[No_more_GT4]

Gnzyza, I'm running an Alpine CDE-9882 Ri headunit. I've heard from my laocl car audio shop that the ground loop isolator that I was thinking of fitting to try & get rid of the problem are a waste of time

[gnzyza]

Gnzyza, I'm running an Alpine CDE-9882 Ri headunit. I've heard from my laocl car audio shop that the ground loop isolator that I was thinking of fitting to try & get rid of the problem are a waste of time

Sorry fo late reply, i got my cables running thru the drivers footwell and i dont have no noise, my prob was earthing really before i sorted it the noise was same as you described. P/S pump, and winds down if you dont turn it.

I would say ground any amps to the chassis in one location no further than about 18" from the amp itself and make sure the amp(s) are not in touch with the body (doesn't look like it) also the earth wire from amp should be same gauge as positive wire or more.

-N battery terminal is ok, but sometimes can cause probs. Then you need to earth your H/U if you haven't already to the chassis and not through the iso plug.

noise supressors can work in some applications, but i can guarantee you it wont resolve th P/S noise- anyway all they do is cover the problem and not solve it.

let i know how you get on

[No_more_GT4]

The amp is grounded to the chassis no more than 18" away. It's grounded to a hole which the metal frame (that the big black plastic cover sits on) bolts to.

I think I'll try moving the ground location to perhaps a more suitable position.

The amp itself is mounted onto MDF.

The earth wire from amp is the same gauge as the power wire.

The earth for the H/U is connected into the amp's earth. This part was wired in by my local audio shop when I went to them to set up my amp.

Perhaps I should also try to locate this to the actual chassis & not to the amps earth, which then runs to the -ive battery terminal

Rich

[gnzyza]

The amp is grounded to the chassis no more than 18" away. It's grounded to a hole which the metal frame (that the big black plastic cover sits on) bolts to.

I think I'll try moving the ground location to perhaps a more suitable position.

The amp itself is mounted onto MDF.

The earth wire from amp is the same gauge as the power wire.

The earth for the H/U is connected into the amp's earth. This part was wired in by my local audio shop when I went to them to set up my amp.

Perhaps I should also try to locate this to the actual chassis & not to the amps earth, which then runs to the -ive battery terminal

Rich

Not sure exactly the earthing point you on about because you said its directly to the chassis but then said it also goes back to the -ive?

As long as its directly to the chassis (i earthed mine to a bolt in the frunk at about 5 o'clock if you look at it from the front) rubbed down the paint aswell a little to get a good connection.

But i think your may be grounded ok already if it directly to chassis if not re-ground.

But you may be right about the hu, i reckon that may be it? try earthing that with a short wire to the chassis aswell

Nice install BTW

[No_more_GT4]

As you look at the car from front on, the grounding piont from amp to chassis is at about the 7 o'clock mark. I'll have a fiddle (ooerr) over the weekend & get back to ya

Rich

Not sure exactly the earthing point you on about because you said its directly to the chassis but then said it also goes back to the -ive?

As long as its directly to the chassis (i earthed mine to a bolt in the frunk at about 5 o'clock if you look at it from the front) rubbed down the paint aswell a little to get a good connection.

But i think your may be grounded ok already if it directly to chassis if not re-ground.

But you may be right about the hu, i reckon that may be it? try earthing that with a short wire to the chassis aswell

Nice install BTW

[gnzyza]

[way2fast]

I had the same problem after i installed my system. tried noise suppersors, shielded and grounded rca's, different amps, ground points and cables. a couple different cd players, i finally put an alpine in and the buzz went away, but from time to time it would come back (not with the power steering turning on and off), i'd just be cruising along and it would come on for a few days and then it would go away again. the actual frequency of the buzzing was directly related to the ehps but i think i was getting a ground loop from the factory amps.


try disconecting all the factory amps, not unpluging speakers but the amp itself. the only ones i had left in my system were for the rear speakers. i have since disconnected mine but i haven't had the chance to run the car since so i don't know if thats the solution.


BTW - i worked at it for weeks; new parts and ground points for the ehps, engine, batt, deck, amps, nothing seemed to fix it, but there has to be a solution somewhere.


old thread but i thought i'd chime in anyways

[gline]

same problem here. only finished install on monday, so i havent had a chance yet to really look into it, mine doesnt seem to be the p/s, it is a whining sound, but when accelerate it gets worse, seems to point to alternator, i think ?

i have bought a few types of devices to get rid of the interference, but judging from the posts above, im wasting my time.... though even if i could lessen the noise that would be fine, it is just too loud as it is.


another weird thing is...... i get this interference from the speakers, even when the hu is switched off

[phipck]

i dont know how much experience you have so i'll say a couple of bits from my experience that might help.

if you've amped the speakers, double check that the amp is off when the headunit has no power. If not then you know your "remote on" connection is keeping the amp powered which it shouldnt. There could be a number of reasons for this, normaly a minor mix up on the wiring instalation but you'll probably find whats up quite quick if you run through where the wires go. But remember as soon as you put the key in and turn it to ignition, some headunits send the "on" signal to the amp and any interference being picked up will be amplified to the speakers, even without music playing.

The noise on through the speakers can sometimes be decieving, a guy i know sat me in his car and "showed" me his hissing noise, both with the car only on ignition and again with the engine running. turned out that the noise he could hear with the keys in but no engine running was his air blowers on low.....DUH! switch them off and it was crisp and clean, but he was suffering from whine when the engine was on. we replaced the cheap non-shielded RCA's with shielded and made sure all earth points were clean and well secured. This seemed to work fine for his issue, but as mentioned in most posts in these threads there can be many other reasons for whine.

in my mr2 i found that a bad earth on the head unit was the main cause of whine. i replaced the existing toyota earth with a thicker guage mod. I have left all the toyota harneses intact, but luckily my headunit uses a bullet connector to alow you to swap between a self made earth on a bullet or the ISO earth on a bullet so no cutting and bodging was required.

you can test to see where the whine comes from by eliminated sections of your sound system. Starting at the head unit if your using RCA's unplug them from the back of the head unit (with the ignition off and the keys out...its not ideal to unplug them with the power on!).
With them unplugged turn the system on, if you have no whine then it is most likely to be something with the headunit, like the earth. If its still there then the whine is being picked up or created further down the line so try the next bit

turn everything off again and unplug the RCA's from the amp, this will now eliminate the RCA's picking up interference. Switch it all back on. If you loose the whine now then its possible that the RCA's are acting like an arial and picking up interference, you will need to either re run them away from any electrical motors etc or earth them better (the outer ring of an RCA is an earth, so can be grounded if required).

if you still have the whine then obviously its not the head unit or RCA's as they are no longer in the loop. sometimes a faulty amp can be the cause or simply a bad earth on the amp. double check all sockets and connections are both secure in the amp and all power lines are securely mounted at both ends.

i could keep going with suggestions but i feel like i might be starting to teach granny how to suck eggs......where did that phrase come from anyway?

hope that helps a little