Im new here having just bought my second magna. A 2000 Tj Magna Advance in Gold. :D
Im having a big problem with the setup I removed from my camira old station wagon.
Having transplanted the setup into the magna there was a high pitched noise coming from the speakers which was never there before... I wasnt too worried about because i couldnt hear it at high volume lol I hooked up my power ant. yesterday afternoon and it works great but now i have alternator whine whine the motor is running, could this be becuase i have my amp screwed into the Power Ant bracket? I drilled some new holes and screwed it through the carpet.
Any help would be much appreciated as this is really bugging me cos ive never had this problem before with this same setup. My setup details are on my profile :)


P.S the unknown brand amp is not currently in the car. I have only the one amp running, HU, stock fronts, pioneer 6x9s off amp, sub off amp.

u didnt run yur power wire and yur rca's in parrallell did u ??

Altenator whine is usually caused by RCA cables running near power cables or near the Magna cpu/electornics, try relocating ur rca cables. Run them through the centre of the car and try to avoid going behind the dash as it's very noisy back there.

Speaker cables dont induce noticeable noise

Also ensure ur ground on ur amp is as thick as the wire going in or thicker. Short. And mounted to bare metal (sand back if you have to)

Clean ur battery terminals if corroded.

Good luck, welcome to the forums.

Peace

Tim

I have two set of rca`s running of the back of the HU, one on the REAR set for my rear speakers and the other off SUB set of rca`s, both set of cables run down the drivers side, under the back righthand side of the seat and into the boot. Power runs from the battery to the fuse mounted on the engine mount, then through the firewall . i used the middle grommet because it was easiest to get to. power then run down the passenger side under the rear seat into the boot. my ground was attached to a sanded part of the rear tail light bolt. Now i have it connected to a bolt for the power Ant bracket.

I have a feeling that the ground might be poor there. Try sanding it back to another point. baby restraints are easy. Or put it back to where u had it before.

And I hope ur planning on investing in some front splits.... :) And move that amp onto them instead.

Ok so i take it through the centre console area the rcas are alongside the power?? Try relocating this away from the power lines. Dont run them side by side, cross perpendicular if they have to.

I have taken a few pics of the cable setup. ill try to upload em for ya`s to have a look at.

Cool just shrink em in paint and upload them (at the bottom of the reply to thread section)

What size ground/wires have you got?

heres the pics. I took pics of HU, Cables Ground location and thickness of power and Earth.

Ground loop Isolator should resolve the engine whine..

heres the pics. I took pics of HU, Cables Ground location and thickness of power and Earth.

is that screw you have the earth on even screwed down? If be doing a bit of sanding underneath it as well like tim said

What are the green and blue wires for? Seem to be goin into the rear amp outputs.

Hard to see ground from there too. Is it on the chassis? bare metal?


Ground loop Isolator should resolve the engine whine..
:P band aid fix

There is no engine whine problem that cant be resolved with proper wiring. Harder on cars with alloy bodies. But even these have good grounding points if u know where to look.

Also easier when using high voltage pre outs. 4+volts and reasonable quality RCA's.

Peace

Tim

What are the green and blue wires for? Seem to be goin into the rear amp outputs.

Hard to see ground from there too. Is it on the chassis? bare metal?

they look like the rca leads

the green and blue jobbies are indeed the RCA`s, the green fella`s are Fusion and the blue are CS brand (Cheap ****). the bolt is bolted into the power ant bracket, which i guess is inturn bolted to the frame via the floor panel.

Yep they do.... recognise the fusion

Try moving them away from the power lines before you play around with anything else.... Just move them as far away as possible to see if it fixes anything up.

After you do anything test it straight away to see if it makes it better or worse.

yeh im not sure about the power antenna bracket, but I know the std antenna's are only really thin metal which probably wouldnt provide a suitable position for a ground. I suggest mounting directly to the chassis.

Try the baby restraint option, just need to find a bolt that fits and some sandpaper.

Im heading out now to try and move the RCA`s around, i dont have alot of room to play with, Im pushing it getting them over that far :nuts: and also gunna try to locate a better ground source. might also try and reground the HU aswell. Ill also undo the cable tie i have securing the RCA`s to the fusebox???? on the drivers side footwell wall.

Yep they do.... recognise the fusion

Try the baby restraint option, just need to find a bolt that fits and some sandpaper.

Would An M8 Bolt fit in that hole? I have plenty of those from when i rebuilt my camira motor about 3 times lol

I used them in my 87 Holden Astra as no matter where or how much you fiddled with wiring it still doesnt go away.. Not had a problem with my Magna so I don't use them..

So they are not a Band Aid fix,Just a last resort if all else fails.

Ah i forget the size, undo the baby restraint in the middle and check that bolt. There are three holes on the underside so take ur pick.

Yes definetly try and keep ur rca's away from the fuse box and all the electrical bits. Try and switch ur unit to Auxilary or stacker (a blank channel) and turn the volume up. Turn on the engine / sometimes just need to put it to Acc to hear the whine. Then test moving around the rca leads at the fusebox to hear how much noise is there.

hhhahhaha, good to see another magna member with alternator whine! hahhh...

ok, not coool, i fixed mine...eventually.:doubt:

You should go through and find out what's causing the whining too...whether its your RCA's headunit, amp or gremlins.

Personally, I think its a ground problem with your amp also. Is it just me or does that bolt look like it's not very tight lol. Anyways, listen to what all the other people have said about changine ur ground point.....the threaded hole where a bolt looks like it could fit, under the parcel shelf seems like a good place to put it.

oh and use 4gauge wire for the ground cable if u want your burger deep fried with extra tomato sauce/. :nuts:

oh, yeah, keep the rca's as far away from anything that looks suss. including me :P

Keep ur children as far from him as possible too.... :P

Keep ur children as far from him as possible too.... :P

i think its KB u'll have to worry about with regard to the safety and well being of little kids! :nuts: :bowrofl:

anyways, heaps there for u to do, dance, think and talk about pioneer_magna....

ok, no more spam for u :redface:

well, unfortunately guys, we had to remove the whole system :rant: because i just could not track down the source of the noise. i removed everything but the HU and tried just that.. noise was still there and it was worse with just the front speakers hooked up. the HU ground is bolted to a bolt under the cupholder location, so it should have a good enough ground there..?? Anyways, im starting to think now that maybe the HU is stuffed(brand new two days ago) somehow. it makes alot of noise when playing a cd too, passes alot of noise to the speakers when the volume is on 0. Im am so confused by this, we even spent 5 hours putting the system back in the camira and damn near blew the front windscreen out, so we know the system works ok lol

Noise could be cause by the fact that there is not alot of room behind the head unit and some wiring you had could have been too close to some of the power wires back there ???
Your Head units earth must be connected to Bare Chassis metal, not one connected to another Plastic part of the car..

Are all your Speakers amped ??
or just straight off the head unit ??
There are tons of reasons for Noise Whine..
a noise filter on your powerline may be needed as well as Ground loop isolators on your RCA outputs...
Car audio is 99% retrying and 1% luck when you get it right the first time round...
Persist, and you shall be rewarded.. and if you cannot solve it get a Pro to do it..

Try mounting the ground onto one of the screws that holds the headunit in... On the bracket there...

well, unfortunately guys, we had to remove the whole system :rant: because i just could not track down the source of the noise. i removed everything but the HU and tried just that.. noise was still there and it was worse with just the front speakers hooked up. the HU ground is bolted to a bolt under the cupholder location, so it should have a good enough ground there..?? Anyways, im starting to think now that maybe the HU is stuffed(brand new two days ago) somehow. it makes alot of noise when playing a cd too, passes alot of noise to the speakers when the volume is on 0. Im am so confused by this, we even spent 5 hours putting the system back in the camira and damn near blew the front windscreen out, so we know the system works ok lol
well, i moved my ground from the fame on the back of the headunit to there too. Its the chunky piece of metal the wiring loom for the handsfree goes. I sanded the boobies off it and found a nut/bolt, screwd it in and soldered it....I find its perfecty OK!

did u isntall the amp into ur camira too?
does it only occur when driving or all the time?

ground lines in teh amp, or even rca tracks on the amp could be buggered....nothing a steady hand a skinny soldering stuff can't fix tho;)

I had this in my old car, auto electrics mob said it was a faulty altenator??? (I only just had a new one put in)... after a few weeks of testing i found it was just a bad earth...

I reinstalled the whole system in my 1988 Series II Je Camira wagon. HU, Amp 6x9`s 15" sub.
theres a noise there when ACC is selected on the ignition and the amp has turned on( I suspect a cheap amp causing some noise aswell) a different noise (higher pitched) while the car was driving, but when the volume is above 5 or 6 the noises cant be heard any more. theres no noise apparent from the front stage which is just hooked up to HU (highpassed at 80).
*edit* the noise was never there before installing the new headunit in this car, I was running a Sony xplod CDX-S2000S

Was anybody at Autobarn in Browns Plains lastnight at about 12am??( they had a huge sale on), if you were you would have seen/heard my car come past Aqua Je ( looks like a VL front end) Camira wagon on White 15" Sli2000 rims.

I reinstalled the whole system in my 1988 Series II Je Camira wagon. HU, Amp 6x9`s 15" sub.
theres a noise there when ACC is selected on the ignition and the amp has turned on( I suspect a cheap amp causing some noise aswell) a different noise (higher pitched) while the car was driving, but when the volume is above 5 or 6 the noises cant be heard any more. theres no noise apparent from the front stage which is just hooked up to HU (highpassed at 80).
*edit* the noise was never there before installing the new headunit in this car, I was running a Sony xplod CDX-S2000S

Was anybody at Autobarn in Browns Plains lastnight at about 12am??( they had a huge sale on), if you were you would have seen/heard my car come past Aqua Je ( looks like a VL front end) Camira wagon on White 15" Sli2000 rims.

ohwar, dude?! are u in brisbane then?!?!! hahahah

well, yeah, obviously, since you've installed in another car, then it means there's something in ur system giving you trouble.

like i said above, try and see if u can borrow someone else's amp to see if that fixes the problem. just go through a process of elimination.

is the sale still on? i want a POS 8" to play with :D

help

cant get rid of the engine whine

just ran shorter and bigger ground cable for both amps only getting noise though the front spk

its not the RCA i hope (stinger helix rca's) rca down the driver side, power cable on the left

they do not cross anywhere

help

cant get rid of the engine whine

just ran shorter and bigger ground cable for both amps only getting noise though the front spk

its not the RCA i hope (stinger helix rca's) rca down the driver side, power cable on the left

they do not cross anywhere

do ur rear speakes whine? are they amped or off the headunit? whats the ground like for headunit and amp(s)? try with diff amp, headunit, and RCA to find what's causing it.

no the rears are fine off the head unit which is grounded


have ground the amp with 4ga only 8ga power

all my other amps are mono blocks

the battery has dual 0ga ground

go through each part systematically to find out what it is.

Connect a cd player up to ur amps with your current RCAs
And try Headunit with Fresh RCA's routed differently
And try a different amp....

long and boring i know:doubt: what headunit is it?

pioneer p1y

re-route rca's try to avoid going behind the dash as it's noisy back there.

The power line isnt the only source of interference

rca go straight down from the HU then too the foot well behind the pedals (my last rca where there with NO problem cheap ones from jaycar)


then down the right hand side

here is a pick of how my rca run

have moved the remote(blue wire) already

yeah u might be getting some noise through there still if all other avenues have been exhausted.

Easy way to check is to move them with the engine/acc on so you can hear the interference. Then move the RCA's around to see which spots are better/worse.

I avoided running near the front of the car, so went from the headunit straight through the centre console area then under the left front seat to the left cable channel.

Just avoids that front section completely.

My sterio has engine noise sometime, (when its down low enough anyway lol )

Tell me if you thing this would be the problem

I have underbody neons, but not the normal type, the ones with transformers in them. On the box they say not to put the transformers near the ABS, cos it stuffs it up or something, anyway, i put them behind the dash as far forward as i could get them.
But the way they are wired up (like it said on the box), is that they are connected to the battery (of corse) directly, there is a switch on the main control box, but the transformers are on all the time, (cos they emit this high pitch sound when your really close). Do you recon this would produce some sound noise.
I was thinking of putting a secondary switch in so that the transformers are off unless i turn the switch on. Give me your oppion, i just don't wanna rip out my dash for nothing.


SUBishi,

Ps. when the car is off it sounds good though, shame about the boot rattle :confused: (those of you how when on the 4 may cruise will know what i'm talking about lol lol )

Interesting thread guys... I'm sure this is a problem which pi$$e$ a lot of people off. Here is what I did. I used two ground wires from the head unit... one was grounded to the closest possible point on the chassis and the other ground was fed to the ground on the amplifier. Give this a go. I don't know if this will solve the problem for you, because I never had a noise problem in the first place. I'm just assuming this was the reason why I haven't had this problem.

Interesting thread guys... I'm sure this is a problem which pi$$e$ a lot of people off. Here is what I did. I used two ground wires from the head unit... one was grounded to the closest possible point on the chassis and the other ground was fed to the ground on the amplifier. Give this a go. I don't know if this will solve the problem for you, because I never had a noise problem in the first place. I'm just assuming this was the reason why I haven't had this problem.
Some how i don't think has anythink to do with it.
As you are just extending the wire length, which increases the impendence, thus making it hotter and not working as well.
Plus all my speakers are amped, so i don't think its the head unit. mmmm. man sterio problems are gay, its a pain installing the bastard then trying to fix them :rant:

tim

i have try that with no luck its starting to really piss me off

when i unplug the rca from the amp (front spk) the noise stops so is it the rca or the old amp??? or do i still have a ground problem

HELP pls

Yeah you're probably right... I thought I would suggest it anyway since that's what I did and haven't had a noise problem. However, I understand that, in theory, extending the wire length might increase the impendence, thus making it hotter, but still, if someone is willing to give it a go, then give it a go, just for curiosity. It shouldn't cause any damage. I suppose the final solution is to get the best quality everything.

I suppose the final solution is to get the best quality everything.

Actually, now that I think about it, a few of the guys here do have quality systems but still have noise, so I probably should retract that comment... Well i'm an idiot... we're all idiots... so where's FHRX when we need him. He should be able to answer this one...

ok i got lost back there :confused:

Anyway like all problems, it's a case of breaking it down into manageable parts.

Easy way to test if it's the headunit or the rca's. Disconnect the rca's at the amp.

Is there noise? If yes it's amp related.

Plug in another source at the amp eg mp3 player.
Try this out. If you get no noise with the engine on when playing through this ur amp is fine.

So it's either headunit or rca's.

Pull out ur rca's run them from the headunit to the amp going directly through the middle of the car, I try and weave it through one of the headrests, where I know intereference will be negligible.

if there is still the same noise here it is ur headunit ground.

Try grounding to a better spot on the chassis.

Also if this doesnt work try placing rubber washers so the headunit doesnt make contact with the chassis. (I've never seen this work)

Try cleaning battery terminals. I dont think it could be a problem on the power side.

Headunits can be faulty, but most of the time it is installation issues.

Megatron - I still think it's a problem with the way u've laid out ur rca's. what about near the amp? do they run around the amp at all? Keep playin around with it.

Enjoi

tim

i have try that with no luck its starting to really piss me off

when i unplug the rca from the amp (front spk) the noise stops so is it the rca or the old amp??? or do i still have a ground problem

HELP pls

well, if you unplugged your RCA's and the noise stopped, then it means its coming from either the RCAs and or headunit.....was ur key on ACC or car running when u did this?

as most of us have mentioned before, try rerouting your rcas and get an external cd player or something.

edit: oh, yeah, if you could REALLY be bothered, you can measure the resistance of different ground points around your boot with a multimeter. You just need to get/make longer probe wires with speaker wire or something, and minus the resistance from the speaker wire from the end value. Measure it from the -ve terminal to ground point.

THANKS GUYS for the quick response ok its not the amp, plug my laptop to it and no noise

rca or HU it is

i have the rca running out side of the car and it still makes a noise so it cant be them if it is i want a bloody refund for my $50 each RCA

i think its the head unit hope its just the ground and not anything else

thanks again

THANKS GUYS for the quick response ok its not the amp, plug my laptop to it and no noise

rca or HU it is

i have the rca running out side of the car and it still makes a noise so it cant be them if it is i want a bloody refund for my $50 each RCA

i think its the head unit hope its just the ground and not anything else

thanks again

hey, yeah, looks like your headunit is the culprit then!! headunit ground or even worse, RCA tracks could be busted...

ok just upgraded the the ground and noise still there

soo how do i find out if its the RCA tracks or just he rca plug thing on the back of the HU

ok just upgraded the the ground and noise still there

soo how do i find out if its the RCA tracks or just he rca plug thing on the back of the HU
Pull the headdeck apart and check the rca's

Pull the headdeck apart and check the rca's

yeh, i fixed a few things in my amp (mainly RCA terminal connection to the board) myself...just need a steady hand, solder sucker and skinny arsed solder and solder iron tip lol

as for this, you're better off sending it to a technician to look at. just in case, you could try another headunit, grounded to the same point..how loud is the whining anyway?


Not cheap tho. :doubt:

Wheres the new ground for the headunit go to?

i think its the rca tracks talk to pioneer and they said its a common problem with high voltage RCA HU
the ground is near the gear lever on the chassis

So by moving/upgrading my RCA`s the noise should stop? I unplugged my rca`s at the amp end and the noise stopped. funny enough the noise was actually the CD player, when i turn my HU to AUX or Tuner and the vol is on 0 the noise is not there.

The noise was running through my speakers only not my sub, and the noise was exactly the same as the cd spinning inside the HU,(if that makes sense) with the rca`s unplugged all i get now is the normal amp hiss(mine has some fans, so im guessing thats the noise)that has always been there.

picking up the HU today NOT covered under warranty the RCA tracks where blown


i jsut read though tim old pm and he has anwsed my question

The noise was running through my speakers only not my sub, and the noise was exactly the same as the cd spinning inside the HU,(if that makes sense) with the rca`s unplugged all i get now is the normal amp hiss(mine has some fans, so im guessing thats the noise)that has always been there.
Hmm sounds like a headunit problem. Is it like a scratching noise? Only on mp3's? Or all CDA/mp3s?

thanks guys for all the help


just finish putting the HU and centre console back together and all working fine

cya

Hmm sounds like a headunit problem. Is it like a scratching noise? Only on mp3's? Or all CDA/mp3s?

Im egtting tired of seraching for this noise so i guess ill just live with it or get some noise resisters.

I only run mp3s now but the noise has always been there since i installed the unit. Im upgrading my power and ground wiring to 4AWG with a maxi-blade 60A fuse.. the big arse flat ones. Ive upgraded my terminals to Gold LCD positive and Gold negative, my battery is brand new, added a second ground from the battery and im thinking about upgrading the wiring from the battery to the motor with at 4AWG :nuts: .

The new cabling is Ice blue so it looks pretty cool in the camira, but will be hard to hide in the magna when i upgrade the amp to something that can handle 4awg.. Any suggestions?

Sooo??? Is the noise only mp3 cds or normal cds?

Chuck one in and test it...

Its on both normal and mp3 cd`s.... Im guessing my H/U is stuffed..... :cry: :cry: