Stereo Head Unit Alternator Whine Noise Filter Fix (Power Wire vs. Ground Loop) (Scion tC2 / tC2.5)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ส.ค. 2019
- 🛒 Product link(s) at bottom of video description.
► 00:55 - Factory Amp
► 04:15 - Summary of My Attempts
► 05:35 - Noise Filter & Ferrite Core Magnet Fix
🎥 Removing the Head Unit: • Kenwood KSC-SW11 Compa...
I spent almost two weeks trying to eliminate what I though was a ground loop issue causing alternator whine. I thought it might have been caused by the factory amp under the drivers seat, but the issue was instead noise in the factory harness power wire getting amplified by my newly added DSP (digital signal processor). This issue can happen when adding a DSP, a new amp, or even just replacing the factory head unit. Here's how figured out the problem and then solved it. I will eventually add a review for the DSP I mention in this video when I have time.
🛒 30A Noise Filter: amzn.to/2oaewvn
🛒 Ferrite Core Magnets: amzn.to/30R7BEn
🛒 Trim Removal Tools: amzn.to/2wrX2yt
🛒 Stanley 201-Piece Tool Set: amzn.to/2Y3eLpZ
☕ If you find this helpful, you can buy me a coffee at ko-fi.com/vampyrex13. - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
Thanks for the thorough video explanation. After different solution attempts at my alternator whining noise the suggestion of an inline power noise suppressor worked like magic. Now if only I could get a similar solution for my tinnitus.
Yeah, I tried stuffing ferric core magnets in my ears. They did not suppress my tinnitus at all.
@@jdlech did you try the cotton bud method for the drum delete? Works well 😂
Thank you for the video. This helped solve my radio issue. 🤘🏻
Thanks for the detailed video, noise issues such a pain.
Bought this exact one worked awesome thanks for the tip and great video
You’re supposed to splice these into whatever’s causing the noise if the radio isn’t causing the noise then you don’t hook it to the radio. My Noise was caused by my Cerwin Vega 400 watt amp for my 3 way components so I bought one of these. I got the 50 amp version comes with eight gauge CCA power wire so I opened it up desoldered wire and added pure copper with 4 gauge because my amp has 4 gauge. You don’t have to go up to 4 gauge for that size but I might upgrade one day and you don’t have to upgrade to pure copper anyway cut the power wire in half to whatever is causing the noise like a DSP etc., and put one of these between the power wire I use screw down wire couplers for each side completely solved my alternator wine. There is zero noise. My friend has 1000 watt amp and his alternator wine was coming from his amp also so I bought 2 more 50amp isolators upgraded the wire again and ran them in parallel with two 50amp fuse distribution block it fixed his problem. My cousin had the same problem, but it was coming from his radio and his DSP so we ran isolators to his radio, and his DSP solved his problem as well. Hope this helps someone.
Working on finding my whine right now. All I see online is how it is always a grounding issue. I think it is typically a power lead noise issue. I am currently trying different ground connections to see if it affects anything.
Good luck! I am still whine free with this solution.
What was it?
@@rondjeee I ditched the LCQ-1 and went with Zapco LOCs. No matter what I did, even with help from Audiocontrol, I could not get rid of the whine. I sold the LCQ-1 on eBay.
Awesome 👌 thank you for sharing 😀 I need to do this.
hey partner I tried this I am still getting the noise? red to factory red and yellow to the back of the hard unit red wire?
the yellow would go to the yellow behind the head unit? memory.
Message me on Facebook. The link is at the top of my channel's main page.
Great video. Well made.
Have you tried using the wire they use for welding tools for a ground wire from your alternator to ground. It’s a common occurrence with older Chevy Silverados and the fix is using that type of wire. It has hundreds of tiny wires instead of the thicker common core wire inside a typical grounding wire on an alternator.
I couldn't find any locally when I added engine grounds. I may eventually do that, but it's not a priority at the moment.
Yea right, the wire commonly found as an earth wire on most MIG, TIG, ARC, MMW welding machines? Approx 20 mm o/d, has a thin insulating plastic coat easily peeled back which exposes many very fine durable wire strands like 0.03mm. P E A C E
@cha-ka8671 I have an older Chevy Silverado with this issue, can you provide more details on your fix!
@nickspy it's what's called 1/0 AWG I installed it in my truck and tbh it didn't seem to make a difference that I could tell. Using the amplifier install kit that came with 17' of 4 gauge would've been sufficient. I picked it up at my local auto parts store. Goodluck.
Would using the noise filter’s different gauge in the wiring not cause a fire risk? My filter just came in but the wire is considerably larger than the wire going into the stereo.
No, it's the other way around where if you use too small of a gauge wire that you can have a fire risk.
is it better to put the ground loop isolator on the "hot" wire or on the "accessory power" wire for the stereo to eliminate the alternator whine?
Accessory wire.
Hey i have an engine noise too in my Mercedes c220 after replacing the original Display with an bigger Android System. I have already install an ground loop isolator to the aux Cable. It helped a little but i have still little noise and engine noise. Do u mean this high Power noise Filter can help me ?
You won't know until you try. I did all the basic tests and fixes to eliminate unwanted electrical noise before testing this out and having it work for me.
Hi wanted to ask a question, since my speakers are connected to an amp rather than the head unit directly should i run the mentioned filter with power cables of the amp or head unit? Thanks in advance
You want to start at the head unit first because that's the signal that you're going to be amplifying, and if there's engine noise present there, then it will get amplified as well.
Will do thanks man!
Did you cut both red and yellow wires for the inline noise suppressor? How did you connect it?
I only cut the power wire in half. The end from the battery goes to the red wire on the suppressor and the end that goes to the radio to the yellow wire on the suppressor. Then I connected the black wire the suppressor to ground.
I might need to get this, mine is a little different only on Front RCA's I hear a random tick/crackle sound every 15-30seconds, even with music off (mute). I have a DEX-P99RS
Stage 4 HU, which started about 6 weeks into the installation. I hear it more when my AC is on.
I hope it fixes your problem. Let me know.
Hi Derrick , I’m facing a similar kind of issue on my Mazda cx5 .When I accelerate a strange sound comes .How do I know regarding the amp which I need ? Also didn’t understand the magnet bit ??
Before you go this route, have you done all the proper troubleshooting for your aftermarket amp? Checked your ground connections? Made sure your power wires aren't running along side your audio cables? Using high quality, shielded audio cables? As for the magnets, look up ferrite core magnets on audio cables online.
Thx man. Great video. I've got the whine bad after installing a full system, will have to try this.
Did you already try centralizing your ground points or running power directly to the battery first? I only did this as a last fix once I did all the basic troubleshooting steps and none of them worked.
I fixed the issue. I had my RCAs routed next to a few power cables and the harness for my brake and turn signal lights. I moved them and insulated areas where they crossed over near any vehicle wires and it's all good!!
@@knobleindustries8106 ah, that's one of the first things you need to do and I'm sorry I didn't recommend checking that you have your power and audio wires separated from each other.
Nice video Derrick. Thank you... I just bought the noise filter but I don't have an amp so where does the yellow wire do? In a 2004 saturn ion 2, The yellow wires on my factory harness aren't meant for the noise filter?
I still heard that lol but good information 💪🏼
Did you tape off the ground and red power wires coming from the head unit after installing the filter?
No, this is installed inline.
Just ordered both the core magnets and the inline noise filter! Hopefully this works 🤞
Let me know how it works out. What did you add to your system that you have whine now?
@@VampyreX13 I'm not sure at what point I started having it, but I've done practically everything I could to get rid of this noise. I have even ran the ground and positive wire from my rear batteries (which is where the three rear amps are connected to) to the head unit in front. I have noticed when I disconnect the rca's from the head unit that it will drastically reduce a hissing noise that I also have. I previously thought it was my head unit from Amazon but the issue continued even with a pioneer stereo.
@@thinshadow6669 while my setup is not that complex, I feel your pain. I did even more troubleshooting and rewiring then I let on in my video. Everything from centralizing all the grounds, to isolating all the grounds, and running dedicated power and ground to the battery. I even pulled all the power wires out of my DSP harness wire wrap so I could run them separate from the audio wires even though the audio was already high level outputs. It wasn't until I started messing around with the power line feeding the head unit, and in turn my DSP, that I started making any progress. I hope the 12V noise isolater works for you as well since it sounds like you isolated the issue to your head unit as well. Also, have you tried inline RCA noise filters at all? I didn't see that mentioned in your reply. I couldn't use them since my setup has no RCA outputs aside from my subwoofer.
@@VampyreX13 Exactly it is very frustrating to do everything you can and still have the issue. Yes I have used a ground loop filter from installgear in Amazon, which had many promising reviews but no luck whatsoever for my system. I have regrounded my set up many times now so I thought I could rule out a bad ground. I even made an Amp rack from abs plastic thinking my Amp and epicenter could be picking up a noise from the back seat of where they're mounted and distributing It to the other amps through the distribution blocks, but still no luck.
@@thinshadow6669 wow, yeah I know that process is a pain. It took me two weeks to realize that maybe it's the power. Let me know if putting the noise filter on the power line fixes your issue.
How do i know how many amps i need for this ? I have a jeep wrangler basically i only change the stick radio for kenwood 8 inch panel. Im confuse about that please
If you look on the back of your radio, they usually have a fuse on it. Get a noise filter at least equal to that fuse's rating.
Thank you so much .. its a high pitch noise and hurts my ears .. but i put an instalation in my car with 2 emplefaires 1 fore speakers and one fore big woofer .. wil this solve the problem ? Thank you
It should help if the noise if from interference on the power line. I can generally hear high pitch whining sounds, so I know the pain. There's virtually no whine after I installed this.
@@VampyreX13 thanks !!!
If you have shielded rca cables, can you run them next to power amd or ground cables? Is it safe to do so since the cables are shielded??
If you have good quality, shielded RCA cables, you should be able to run it along side the power wire, but I prefer to stick with best practices and keep them separate. That way, if there is some sort of noise is introduced to the system, it's one less step to troubleshoot.
@@VampyreX13 i ended up changing my rca cables and moving them away from being run with the 0g power cable and it solved the problem. Either it was due to running along side the power cable or it was bad quality rca cables. They were nvx brand shielded rca cable that i got in 2016 or something. I swapped with amazon brand rca cables.
@akuma4u if you have an amp that needs 0 gauge cable, then that's probably too much power running next to an RCA cable. If you're were running a smaller power wire, then I think it would have been okay. But again, I always like running the power and audio opposite of each other. Glad you were able to figure out your issue.
I’ve been having this same issue while accelerating and would get this whine noise but now I no longer have audio coming from the speakers and the whine noise is gone, I’m not sure if I need a new fuse or if its the way how the amo is grounded etc🤦🏽♂️
Fuses are a good start, and if it is a fuse, you'll want to check and see why it blew to begin with. The factory amp is grounded to the chassis just under the drivers side seat and the factory radio via it's frame as well the the ground wire in the harness.
I just installed speakers, amp and sub to my factory head unit in a 2016 Canyon and had 2 noises. One rpm related and the other just a constant buzz. I moved the amp ground and the rpm noise went away but the constant buzz is still there. Do you have Any idea what I should check now?
Do you have the audio and power cables separated from each other?
@@VampyreX13 Yes. The power line from battery to amp is away from all audio/speaker wire except right at the amp.
@@markpotter2485 is it like a bad ground buzz? Do you have another set of audio cables you can try just to eliminate them as a possibility. I had a bad set of cables do something similar.
@@VampyreX13 yeah like that... just a constant tone buzz. I dont have any extra audio cables but I suppose I could try another set. First I think I will add another ground to the head unit and see if that fixes it 1st.
Change your alternator ground cable with a Welding Cable lead. It has finer strands of copper cable. It’s a commonly used fix for older Chevy trucks which inherently have grounding issues. Some electrical magic having thinner wire I suppose 😂
Having an issue myself I have a aftermarket stereo and amp powering the speakers first when I'm moving the remote wire or rca cables I have a noise when the radio is in the acc position it goes away then I move the wires a certain position and I have a whine when the car is all the way running as rpm increases what wires shouldn't be ran close together? and would this solution work
Make sure the audio wires are separated from any power wires and make sure you're using good quality RCA cables. Also make sure you have a good ground. Maybe try grounding the amp(s) to the same location. This noise filter may help, but you want to make sure you do all the basic troubleshooting fixes first.
@@VampyreX13 another thing my radio still works without being grounded what wrong with that
@@2koolforyou88 Your radio is being grounded through the chassis and your radio harness ground. If you don't have a multimeter, I would grab one.
@@VampyreX13 I have one
@@VampyreX13 I just bought this noise filter now where does the red wire goes to
Nice video.
I added Bluetooth to my original Casette Player and I ended up with this alternator whine.
I tried to:
- Take power from inside the Casette Player.
- Filter with all sort of capacitor combinations.
- Put a Switching Power Supply without ground isolation.
The next step is to use small Coaxial Cables for the Audio Wires.
I'm not sure how your Bluetooth is wired up, but make sure that your power and audio cables are separated.
@@VampyreX13 I know this is a year late, but it could be a overlooked ground loop...
@@xtremediy1815 That's always possible. When I did my troubleshooting, I actually isolated everything from the chassis and did a central ground, and that made no difference.
Lowering the gain level on amp eliminated almost all of the whine but at the sacrifice of some output.
Did the whine still come through speakers with the Stereo powered off?
No. It shouldn't make any noise with the stereo off.
Getting it tomorrow 🤞🤞 *edit* didn't work going back to the factory Bose stereo with fm transmitter.
I hope it fixes your problems.
Is this the power or the constant power? On mine the constant power is yellow
The regular power is red.
I connected to the yellow constant power, the thicker wire usually referenced as pin D on the harness.
Hi I have a alternator whine coming from one of my rear speaker when i give it gas. Can it be a ground issue or a bad amp ( also one channel doesn't work on my 4 channel amp)
If 1 channel isn't working and whining is only in the rear, it's most likely the amp.
How to i verify that it is the amp and not a ground connection
@@jesuszuniga1257 disconnect the rear speakers. If the front speakers play fine, then it's not the ground.
So if the front speakers play fine with the rear speakers disconnect then I should get a new amp
@@jesuszuniga1257 considering you have a noise in the rear and 1 channel out, yes.
Can the ferrite magnets be placed on an amp power cable? (4 Gauge)
What about RCA cables?
I don't know if they would make much difference on an amp power cable. As for RCA cables, I found that it affected the audio quality.
@@VampyreX13 affected it negatively?
I’m not sure what to do because there were two whines before, one from the radio and one I couldn’t pin point. I was able to get a warranty claim to swap out the aftermarket radio for another one. One of the two whines are gone now but this second one I cannot pin point. However when I shift the wires in the trunk (physically move RCA’s in a different orientation from power, I hear a much reduced whine.
Yes. I don't remember the results, but I didn't like it so I removed the magnets. Do you have the RCA cables separated from the power cables? Are they properly shielded?
@@VampyreX13 they are shielded however I realized the best buy guy that installed the amp has the last 1 foot of cable leading upto the trunk zip tied together. The rca’s, power, ground, and speaker wire.
I also realized however that my usb cable when disconnected removes a lot of the whine. I might add a magnet here
Let me know what you figure out.
Bro. I installed a boss audio radio cd /radio/ bluetooth. The stock amp in my camry is not used. No rca jacks are used either. It whines in bluetooth mode. What can I do?
Is your phone plugged into the car and charging the same time you're listening to Bluetooth?
@@VampyreX13 I have a lhone charger plugged in the cigareete jack but no phone is hooked up. Should I see what happens if i take the charger out?
@@Dibran9mm unplug any external electronic devices first. Does it whine when the car is off? Does it only whine when the car is running? Do you have any aftermarket LED headlights? Does it whine when they're on? You want to try to eliminate any external factors so you can test just the stereo system. If you still can't find the problem after doing all that and you're sure that you don't have any wiring issues, you could try adding the filter in this video.
@@VampyreX13 it whines when I press gas pedal the most
@@Dibran9mm I would try the filter and see if that fixes the issue.
pretty sure grounding to that bolt does nothing thats why you still have the noise, I could be wrong, I have a similar car - corolla, and am trying to find the best ground for my head unit
I had originally ran a wire to ground directly to the battery while doing my tests and it made no difference. With this current setup, I've completely forgot I even had any alternator noise at all.
Sam steeno did you find a fix yet ? I have the same issue and same car.
Hey Derrick, first of all...........Thanks for the video. After watching your video, I purchased the 30amp filter, and it improved some. I looked at more TH-cam videos, and some suggested running a grounded wire around the RCA outputs behind head unit. I can still hear it. I'm dumbfounded at how many things I've already done, and still hearing that darn buzzing sound in my speakers. I don't really use the radio. 95% of the time, I am using a USB flash drive with my music on it. I've also seen some TH-cam videos where they install a 3.5mm ground loop noise isolator. But, I don't operate anything requiring a 3.5mm filter. I am stumped, dude. Is there such a thing, as a USB Filter to run before my flash drive ? LOL I think I've tried everything. If you come up with a solution to stop audio noise 100%, keep us posted. Thanks man
I'm assuming you've done all the basics such as running the RCA cables separately from the power cables. Have you tried connecting bare minimum while testing? I've seen one car where the radio antenna was actually causing interference and another where the attached USB input was problematic. Try disconnecting everything you don't need to run your basic stereo setup and add components back in one at a time. Since you use the flash drive, maybe see if you can bypass it temporarily and Bluetooth music from your phone for testing purposes.
@@VampyreX13 Hey Derrick, first of all......thanks for replying back. Yes, I've done all the basics as far as running power line, opposite of RCA cables. I haven't tried connecting bare minimum while testing. I guess that will be my next diagnosis. I hear the buzz, more during the audio boot up. Before the actual music comes through the speakers. Don't get me wrong, the filters and running bare wire around the RCA jacks on the head unit, have quieted it down. But, Car audio systems should not have any interference at all. I also found that it isn't the USB drive causing the interference. It made the same buzzing sound, with radio selected. Thanks again
What if its just static noise? my car has that problem and I suspect is the power wires :S
I don't know about static noise. Do you have any aftermarket audio equipment installed? Make sure the power and audio lines are separate. Maybe disconnect the antenna and see if noise is coming in that way?
have a problem with my subs, everytime i accelerate my car it will make thumping noises, but when car is still it wont male the noise
Make sure your amp's ground is good (sand the location clean so it makes 100% contact with metal if it isn't) and confirm that your audio signal wires are not running along side your power wires.
Derrick Aquino thanks ill do when i have some time and let you know if it works
I hear a whistling sound coming off my car speakers when the key is on (acc). And after the engine starts, the speakers make unbearable screeching, high pitched sound. Music still can be heard on top of this noise but trust me it’s irritating and i miss listening to only music. Does anyone know the problem?
That sounds like what happened on my Caddy. I haven't had time to track that issue down since the car's been at the shop, but as with yours, I suspect some sort of short or loose wire at the head unit or speaker.
I use a 360.3 DSP and I get whining noise from my vehicle as well, what does that core magnet do?
I still had a little noise even after installing the 12V noise filter. The ferrite core got rid of any remaining whine.
Derrick Aquino you hook all that up to the factory power wire
@@mondo82111 you install it inline with the power wire that goes to the head unit.
Derrick Aquino ok thanks a lot man, good video 👍🏾
So is this done Under the seat
Help
@@redlight6525 it's installed between the factory harness and the radio.
Does using these take away power from the amp
No, this should not take any power away.
Put a ground wire in the middle of the RCAs
To battery
The alternator is not causing the problem. What you are hearing is electrical current. It's your coils firing and returning to ground and the voltage spikes contaminate the radio circuit. Put a diode in the return.
So you're talking about using something like a 1N4007 diode on the ground then? Where would you install it at? I'm not sure I would want to mess around with the ground for the coil packs due to the engine bay heat and there's too many grounds between the radio harness, headunit chassis, and factory amp harness / chassis to isolate.
@@VampyreX13 lol, The ground for your radio.
The problem with that is that the radio is grounded through the chassis, the radio harness, possibly the antenna harness, and the factory amp via the chassis through the amp harness at a minimum. I don't think I found any other grounds, but that was still a lot of grounds to try to isolate to prevent a voltage spike contamination. The noise filter actually did the trick though.
Thank you brother _ I hoping this will solve it and I am going to use the 30 amp and magnets - cheers- I also found out the fucking installer didnt put the ground to the headunit on the headunit chassis
I hope so too. Post up your results.
What you learn from this video: Pay a professional to do it LOL.
Trust me, I get into rabbit holes sometimes. Most of the time, I can power through and I learn something new. Occasionally, it's white flag time and I'll get help or pay a shop.
Simple suppressor From the source of power A simple suppressor at the source of power will clearly and obviously solve all noise
Alt whine is a pita!
I know, right? I spent weeks trying to fix my issue until I found this solution.
I have 460 watts on the back and it's so Squeakey and fuzzy
Sounds like you may need to check the quality of the audio cable and it's routing. It should be separate from the power lines.
BEST SPOT TO KILL THAT WHINE IS AT THE ALTERNATOR WITH A SINGLE 150AMP FILTER. KINDA PRICY THOUGH...
I for the life of me cannot figure this whine/buzz solution
It's frustrating when it happens and you've tried everything to fix it. This filter was a last resort for me, so I'm really glad it worked.
My whine goes away when I gas the car. So anytime it idles, the noise gets worse! So annoying.
That's weird. That's the exact opposite of any experience I've had with engine noise in the audio system.
Did you figure it out? I have the same problem with a Kenwood head unit, Amp in trunk. Noise goes away the faster you go. I do have the power on wire for the amp routed with the RCA wires to the trunk. Im going to try moving that next.
Definitely separate the RCA from power cords and possibly get higher quality, shielded RCA cables.
@@VampyreX13 I have the amp power hooked up straight to battery under back seat. Only wire I have going up to the front of the car is the Amp "Turn on" wire. Would you say thats probably it? I have good RCAs.
Doubtful since that's just providing power to turn on the amp, but always worth separating it out for the troubleshooting process.
Dude, you might try vacuuming the car a little before showing it to the world. .
I can never get the carpet as clean as I want to even if I use the vacuums at the car wash. They always leave behind specs of white. As for the area between the door and seats, none of the vacuums can reach in there, so they often get missed and forgotten. I didn't realize how bad it looked until after I was putting together the footage, but time is too limited to re-shoot. If you have any recommendations for getting into that area aside from using a damp towel, I'd appreciate it.
Michael Dautel vacuum deez nuts
If you work for a living and have a daily driver it probably looks like this for most of us. He doesn’t have to make this video, he’s doing it to help others. Maybe trying being grateful for the vid instead of being a whiner about a little dirt.
Thank you. Yes, it's daily and my time is limited on the weekends. Trying to film everything makes some of these tasks take 2 or 3 times longer than normal. I always have a backlog of projects I'm trying to find time to do.
I love dirty carpet !!!!👍👍👍🤭😁😁
I don’t know why but every time people show videos of there cars,there interiors disgusting I would never show my car if the inside was nasty yuk!!!!!!!!!
Yeah I know, it was a mess when I did this video but it's too late now. I'd rather leave this video up online with the information it has then to remove it.
You don't want to see my car then. This car is spotless compared to mine. I'm sure you, mark, has some sh*t qualities yourself. Some worse than a dirty car.