AZYellow02

I currently have an electrical whine (volume does not affect it) which varies with RPM... which leads me to believe that it is an alternator related issue. I have tried isolating the noise with no good results. For reference, here is my set-up:
Deck: Alpine 9815
EQ: Phoenix Gold EQ232Ti
Amp: Phoenix Gold ZX400Ti
Front speakers: Boston Pro 6.5's
No sub (and no plans for one)

The EQ and Amp are mounted in my trunk (on the decklid) and I have ran the RCA connection down the center tunnel and into the area above the fuel tank through a hole behind the driver's seat. I then ran down a clear area over the fuel tank and up the left trunk arm to the decklid. The 12V power (4 gauge) runs down the right side of the car and up the right trunk arm to the decklid (separate from the RCA's and speaker feeds [4]).

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this sort of problem and/or has a suggestion on how to solve it. I have tried running a separate RCA over the car with the top down (out of the car from the deck to the amp... thinking that the RCA was picking up the noise) and the whine is still present. Since I am bypassing the internal amp and EQ in the deck I felt it was okay to power it off of an adapter to the factory harness instead of running a separate feed from the battery, could that be the problem? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

-Clayton

bobby

go here. http://www.installdr.com/TechDocs/999502.pdf

darkknight1999

This is my personal opinion however this is how I installed mine and have ZERO whine.

The power cable runs from the battery across the engine bay through a hole in the firewall and under the steering wheel area. Once there, I ran it under the carpet down and under the drivers door sill and up into the trunk area, then onto the deck lid as well.

My RCA cables and speaker cables run down the passenger side in the same manner.

I would blame the RCA cables. What kind are they and are they shielded? RCA's are the weakest link and then you speaker cables.

Why did I run the power and RCA's the way I did? Because it keeps the power on one side and the RCA's and speakers on the other away from any power leads.

What does your setup look like? Do you have any pics?

AZYellow02

Yeah, I have kept my 12V separated from the RCA and speaker wires for the same reason. As far as the RCA, it is a Monster Cable 401XLN which is shielded.

I do not have any photos of the set-up as of yet as I have not got it completed... I am still in the assemble and diagnosis any problems stage.

-Clayton

PJK3

power off the factory harness should be fine.

since you've got noise using another set of RCA's over the top of the car, i'm going to say no on the RCA's.

where is your EQ? and is it in the loop for all this testing?

try disconnecting the RCA's from the amp, power up the head and amp, and listen for whine w/ no RCA's at all into the amp.
if no whine like this, then check the ground on your head unit.
if whine like this, be sure to check your ground on your amp. what gauge cable are you running for the ground?

AZYellow02

I have disconnected the EQ and still had the whine (I originally thought that it was the problem).

I had not thought of disconnecting the RCA's from the amp and trying to see if the noise still existed... I will do that tonight when I get home.

I am running a 4-gauge wire to the ground on the Amplifier. I have it grounded to one of the bolts on a brace that runs under the spare tire (like a rear strut tower brace - a factory part).

Thanks for all your suggestions!

-Clayton

darkknight1999

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3
power off the factory harness should be fine.

since you've got noise using another set of RCA's over the top of the car, i'm going to say no on the RCA's.

where is your EQ?

darkknight1999

When I did my install I only used 3 or 4 lead from the factory harness.

jeffbrig

How long are the wires for your amp, have you trimmed them to final length yet? My 'temp' install of my amplifier stayed in a 'temp' state for the better part of a year, and had a slight alternator whine in the right side speakers only. It wasn't a big deal because it was very slight, and couldn't be heard over normal music. The cause: I had extra length in the 12V and ground wires, and they were simply coiled up underneath the amp rack (coiled wires with electrical current running through them produce lovely electrical fields). Of course, the right side speaker wires ran right by them, picking up a slight whine.

When I finally got around to doing it 'right', I shortened up the power wires and re-routed the offending speaker wire away from them, and everything went away.

NFRs2000NYC

It is 99.99999999% a bad ground. All systems that had this problem I found had a ground problem. First of all....make sure the ground wire is no longer than 2-3 feet max. Anything longer and the negative energy takes too long to "leave" Where did you ground the amp....make sure you ground it on THE FACTORY ground. did both my amps over there and it sounds great.