Hi guys I bought my car three years ago and it came with a system already installed in it.
The system includes: (sorry I dont know models#'s)

Pioneer head unit
Kenwood four channel amp
Rockford cap
And rockford components in the front


The system has been fine up until three months ago.

All of a sudden sometime when I would be driving it would start to buzz like a bad ground and then I would go over a bump or something and it would go away. Then it got worse and just completely buzzes with RPM. I checked grounds, changed ground locations, pulled the head unit and checked connections etc and no luck. Now it's completely horrible, whenever I turn the head unit on it SNAPS, change the radio station and it SNAPS (Loud snap through the speakers) Drive and buzzes like a supercharger with a microphone and if I roll the windows up it gets louder, or turn signal and it gets louder on each click of the turn light.

What is wrong???

 

Amp might have shit the bed. I had an old amp go bad and it was creating some noise.

New JL amp and all was well

Do you have access to a "loaner" amp or some way to bypass the amp?

 

Pull the ground from the amp, or the remote power line (will be the smallest of the lines going into the power side). Drive the car again. If you still get pops, you have a short in your speaker wires.

If it doesn't pop, try wiring the deck directly to the speakers, if it pops - the deck ground is shot. If it doesn't pop, the amp or cap is bad.

Pull the cap out of the circuit (battery directly to the amp, be careful, the cap will still be charged - or should be). If it pops, it's the amp. If it doesn't, it was the cap.

Rinse, repeat till you've eliminated everything except for one component. That component would be what's causing the problem.

If you can't isolate it to one component, double check all your grounds with an ohmmeter. Just because it's tightly bolted doesn't mean it's electrically on the same ground level as your battery. (if you can, make sure you check directly to battery ground, with the engine on and off. ) Rule of thumb is anything over 1 ohm is a bad ground. Make sure you're using brass screws that are threaded into the body panel - not bolts that go through the body panel. The ground is made through the thread to panel contact. The panel itself is so coated with rust-proofer, etc, that it's nearly impossible to get a good ground on it's surface (can, but it requires a lot of grinding/sanding).

 

the fact that it pops when you change stations could also indicate a head unit malfunction. the preamp inside the unit (or the internal amp if the Kicker amp uses speaker level inputs) may have gone south; try using a different head unit temporarily. Crutchfield has a rock solid return policy with free return shipping, so you can't really lose money on that option.

 

I really appreciate all of the tips and help you guys gave me. I am going to try the head unit swap first (a friend has a spare) and then go through the list of things that you all mentioned.

Again thanks for the help and suggestions!

 

Well guys I swapped the head unit out finally last night and I still have the same problem... (at least I can rule out the head unit now).

I'm starting to lean towards the amp being bad now...

Symptoms: Car makes a bad "whine" through the speakers and it goes with RPM of the engine and also gets louder when anything electrical such as power windows or hazard lights are on. The ground has been checked rechecked, relocated and still the same problem every time.

So is my thought of a bad amp sound correct?

Thanks for your input.

 

My amp did that when it was on its way out as well.

First the whine, then no left channel, then nothing in either channel.

 

Cool, well hopefully I can get this solved finally.

I just talked to a friend and he is going to let me borrow an amp tomorrow to check and see if that is the problem.

 

Good luck.

 

Someone told me it might be my alternator that might be partially bad? I hooked up jumper cables to my parents accord, ran their car and turned on my radio and had ZERO noise.

Looking at trying another alternator now...