System Noise?

[caintrain 0]

System specs: Fi BTL 15"

Rockford t1500bd

pioneer deh-p6000 ub

Olds intrigue

I cannot figure this out, when my friend turns his sub off at the head unit and plays music, his sub will play but not to the beats of the music, sounds like humming. I thought it was gain set too high but after adjustment there was no change. these exact same wires ran his BL and hifonics amp with no noise.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[cheese20323 13]

My brother has the same problem but he needs to turn on the car so there could be sound.

[caintrain 0]

My brother has the same problem but he needs to turn on the car so there could be sound.

What do you mean. this also happens while he is driving, his voltage does drop. ALOT. but he is in the process of getting a kinetic and doing the big three.

[Randal Johnson 544]

Check and doublecheck all your grounds.

Make sure your rca cables are ran opposite side of vehicle from power / speaker cables.

RCA cables good Quality and better connectors (tight connections to devices)

Charge batteries even though they show full charge on a meter.

Edited July 3, 2010 by Cablguy184

[Notorious97200 339]

Little advice : make sure you turn off your Pioneer HU before moving any rca's or playing with wires.

[Randal Johnson 544]

^^^ very true. I had to have my ground traces repaired / replaced.

[caintrain 0]

Thanks Guys.

I will check that he ran everything correctly and get back to you.

I know his grounds are great(alot of time spent grinding paint.)

Good advice for the HU.

Also i think he ran crappy scoche rca's from walmart, how big of a deal is this.

Edited July 3, 2010 by CainTrain

[cheese20323 13]

My brother has the same problem but he needs to turn on the car so there could be sound.

What do you mean. this also happens while he is driving, his voltage does drop. ALOT. but he is in the process of getting a kinetic and doing the big three.

No my brother has too turn on his car in order so there can be music from the speakers. But from time to time the music goes on with the car off.

[caintrain 0]

My brother has the same problem but he needs to turn on the car so there could be sound.

What do you mean. this also happens while he is driving, his voltage does drop. ALOT. but he is in the process of getting a kinetic and doing the big three.

No my brother has too turn on his car in order so there can be music from the speakers. But from time to time the music goes on with the car off.

LOL, ok I got you now.

[jcarter1885 995]

Little advice : make sure you turn off your Pioneer HU before moving any rca's or playing with wires.

x2 but I would do this with any HU, I messed up my JVC awhile ago by not turning it off before messing with things. Just trying to be fast instead of taking my time and doing it right.

[nick9892 0]

Had a very similar problem, such a stupid thing, but make sure your remote turn on isn't ran on the same side as the power wire, that's what happened in my car, second I reran the remote turn on the thumping was gone

[sandt38 448]

The most common issues for noise are grounds and bad RCAs.

Today's high low level voltages really do a great job rejecting noise, so we rarely see issues arise from running RCAs next to power. In the past I always ran them down the opposite sides of the car, but nowadays i bundle all the cables together. But sometimes we see issues with RCAs separating internally at the connector. Run a spare set of RCAs to the amp, just to ensure they are not the issue.

Grounds are the most common issue. I know you said you spent a lot of time cleaning, and I do as well, but ensuring the ground is on a solid piece of stock is important. Also, star washers that bite into the steel is important to aid in good contact. Make sure that the amps are all grounded in the same place. If you have multiple amps and multiple grounds, you could very well be creating a ground loop. Finally, remove the HU and create a good ground for it. I always create a new ground to a solid point on the chassis. My usual location is on a brake pedal mount bolt. As important as brakes are, you can be certain the way the pedal is mounted is very secure, and it should be an excellent ground point.

Internal low level fuses can be an issue. Hotswapping can pop the Pioneer "pico fuse". Pioneer isn't the only manufacturer that fuses the low-level, but theirs seems to be the weakest.

[caintrain 0]

Thanks for the advice, i should see my friend today and we will try all of this stuff out and I will let you know how it goes...the only funny thing is these exact same wires ran his BL on a hifonics amp with no humming noise, literally just switched the amp and the sub. Any ideas on this?

[sandt38 448]

If there was no noise before and there is now with nothing changing but the amp logic would dictate that it is either an amp issue, the RCA got damaged upon R&R to the new amp, or the pico got popped on the swap, or that the ground terminal may not be quite good at the amp.

But whenever I do noise or any other diagnosis I always try to start with the most logical things as if it were a brand new installation, and nobody had every touched anything before. By starting with a totally clean slate you know you have exhausted any outside possibilities without having overlooked them. My initial order of operations would be grounds, RCAs, pico, then amp.

I have been a mechanic for decades now, specializing in driveability, computer, and electrical diagnosis and I am the guy that cars come to when they can't be fixed. So I often wind up working after someone else. If they give me the history of things they check I just toss it out the window. I always want to start fresh, so as not to overlook anything. You never know if someone else only half-assed checked something... and wouldn't it suck to overlook something that was already overlooked because you assume it was properly checked?

Be thorough.

[caintrain 0]

Good Advice, time to do some digging....thanks.