Please.....help me rid the crazy engine whiny noises

[growtalski]

Hi All,

I got a problem with engine noise coming through my front pioneer splits.

I have the power running down one side of the car and the signal cables on the other side. I have checked the earth (and moved it) of the amplifier running it many times.

My setup goes like this

Pioneer Headeck running 6"'s for rear fill (no noise), Remote going to amps with RCA line outs also going to amps.

Then I have a monoblock audiobahn amp running my 2 * pioneer 12" Subs<- seems to be no whine coming from the subs, most likely due to the low pass filter.

I have the main signal cable coming into the monoblock then paralled out of the monoblock into the other 2 chan audiobahn amp.

I have 4 gauge running from bat to a split where i have 1 * 4AWG cable and 1 *8AWG cable from the split running to my amps. The amps have different earthing points. The Remote on cable is part of the shielded signal cable which also goes into the monoblock and parallels to the 2 chan amp. The signal cable has a Left right and remote cable.

The noise gets louder when i have aircon, wipers or lights on and always with acceleration. Which leads me to the possibility of a dirty acc signal. Is this possible? The signal cable does run past a computer, but other than that its free from power cabling.

Oh by the way it is a Nissan Stagea RS four V.

Any help much appreciated as I think i'm going to crack. :bonk: :bonk:

[Haro]

I had similar problems with one of my previous cars and yes it does drive you insane listening to the little noise....

I tried everything, from rewiring my cables to run down other side of car (didnt help), i put the amp raised behind the seat as opposed to on the floor with still no love. THEN i bought top quality RCAs to run to my AMP with heaps of insulation.... but again NO LUCK.... i was basically freakin out by this stage and simply gave up.

BUT then i decided to try a different amp (Alpine from memory) and the noise vanished..... very frustrating as i even tried it with the crappiest RCA cables you could get (the ones from normal home stereo) and it STILL worked a treat.

I concluded that it must have been my somewhat cheap amp, cant even remember brand...

Hope that helps.

Haro

[ferni]

I had this problem with a cadence amp in my skyline, changed from a cheap alpine to a better/more powerful cadence, and couldn't get rid of the whine, so went back to the alpine

I also know some spark plugs without the 'R' in the model number cause whine... worth checking

[95GTST]

Jason, I had similar problems with Response amp... Go out and buy a ground-loop isolator (i think that's what they're called) for $20. Any good audio joint will have them, fixed my problem straight away... The guys there said that any cheapo amp will need one...

Hope that helps!

[Fhrx]

We always use a process of elimination when searching for noise problems.

Try a different RCA, then try a different amp, then try a better ground, then try a different deck etc. You just keep trying things and eventually you'll nail which component is to blame.

[drunkenmaster]

This is what I would try in order:

Make sure the RCAs are not crossing the power cables anywhere in the boot (even close to the amps), this is difficult when running 2 amps. Just unfasten your cables and move them by hand away from each other and listen if the noise increased or decreases. Hopefully you dont have excessively long RCAs.

Use the same earth point for the amps.

Buy some twisted pair RCA cables, the $20 blue ones from jaycar will do.

[jnr_j]

Jason, I had similar problems with Response amp... Go out and buy a ground-loop isolator (i think that's what they're called) for $20. Any good audio joint will have them, fixed my problem straight away... The guys there said that any cheapo amp will need one...

Hope that helps!

Is that the thing that fits inline with the RCAs? Or something on the power line?

[drunkenmaster]

IMHO noise filters are band aid fixes just masking the problem which is still there.

Any car audio noise problem can be fixed without them.

Its obviously noise introduced to the external amplifiers as the head unit amp is not showing any noise in the rear fill. My bet is that the RCAs are simply too close to the power cables at some point along the car introducing high frequency alternator noise into the RCA signal.

A photo of the install may shed some light.

[Fhrx]

I agree 100% We would have done thousands of installs over the years and never once yet have we needed a noise filter.

[igor]

I ve seen this before. I think one of your amps introduces the noise into the rca cables. try swapping the amps around and running them one at a time.

[Sumo]

If Im thinking about the same thing which is AC ripple, The whine is made from the alternator - with revs it should change the pitch of the whine?

Normally on your bosch gear, they have a capacitor that goes to one of the positive poles of the alt. As for your Hitachi gear - im am not to sure.

Cheers

Sumo

[growtalski]

I've already got the blue twisted pair RCA's, tried changing the amps over, tried moving RCA's further away from Power cables to amps. Tried a noise suppresor which didn't work. I did talk to one of our service technicians at work and he said that most car amps have a power inverter with a noise suppresor in it, he thinks that a spike with the power could have possibly blown the noise suppresor or damaged the inverter which could possibly cause the noise.

Does anyone know of any good Car amp repairers on the Gold Coast in QLD?