Well i just put together my system this weekend and all went pretty well.

The only issue im having is that now i have motor whine coming through the speakers.

I had some music before and this was not an issue but with the new setup i seem to have this issue.

I did run the 4ga power wire on the passenger side with the RCA's which is not the best but since i didn't have a problem in the past i didn't think this would be an issue.

So from asking a few bud's for mine, they seem to think that it may be the head unit Ground. This was not changed this weekend and when i installed the radio the first time i didn't use the stock wiring harness for ground and made a new ground in the radio chassis area with a self tapping screw.

So my question is what do you think is the cause of this issue? I figured i would try a new HU ground since that is the easiest thing to test first. The ground for the rest of the setup is the middle seat belt bracket, i have a 4ga ground with a gold terminal and i sanded the area down to bare metal before i screwed the bold back into place.

Here is a pic of the amp rack with the common ground in place. It the 2 port one toward the top of the amp rack to the left of the crossover.



here's a pic of the ground before i painted the board:



I need to take pictures of how its setup but i was mad tired on Saturday and had the camera but was so into wiring stuff i never stopped to take pics.

Please let me know what you think the issue is.

 

Running your RCAs next to your power leads will definately pick up that alternator whine. Are those at least twisted pair cables going back to the crossovers?

 

The ones in that pic are not the ones actually being used these are the cables that im using for all RCA's in this setup:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

here is a pic of them

 

try 2 of these on the rcas before your 3way crossover..... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PAC-S...fAudioQ5fVideo

if that doesnt work try it before the amplifier.

 

Hrm ok that looks pretty interesting. Ill see if the radio ground doesn't help if so ill have to order a set of these and hope for the best.

 

ya i predict it might help a little bit but not completely...

and if it only whines with the radio you can try a antena filter also...
http://www.pac-audio.com/products/pr...Filters#ani-33

 

Thats funny cause one of my buddies asked me if my Antenna was plugged in correctly as he had an issue once with a similar issue with his antenna.

I guess ill try to make sure everything is hooked up correctly this weekend and if that doesn't pan out well ill order these filters and hope for the best.

Thanks for the advice and links..

 

you should also run either the power or the RCA's on the other side of the car the only acceptable way for them to cross is on a 90degree angle otherwise you will pick up some noise noticeable or not there will be some

 

Yeah i tried to bring the RCA's up the middle of the car but that didn't work out to well. Since it was raining off and on i just ran them up the passenger side since I had it all open already.

I may just try to re run them down the drivers side this weekend if the weather is nice to me. I might as well try that as its free and if that still doesn't work then ill get the ground loop suppressors as Addition recommended.

 

If this is indeed the case, what about running your RCAs next to the sheet metal in a unibody car? Technically every piece of sheet metal in that car is one, huge, conducting ground.

ETA: For the OP.... What have you done to track down the source of your noise? Did you unplug your RCAs from the head unit to the crossover? After doing so, then test for noise. What about unplugging the RCAs from your crossover to the amps and testing for noise? Until you track down the source of your noise, you are just going to be spinning your wheels.

ETA2: If you have a Pioneer Head unit, you could have blown the Pico fuse on it. If you hot swap RCAs with the radio on, it is guaranteed to blow on you. Heck, I have seen it pop in some instances where an amplifier was swapped out with everything turned off in the vehicle. Regardless, if you blew that pico fuse, you will get noise and it is real common with Pioneer head units

ETA3: Here is a link for the Pico fuse fix: http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showth...=pico+fuse+fix