I installed a CD player...hooked everything up but the ground...it comes on, plays CD's and everything. Also...my front speakers have a little "buzz" when there isn't any audio coming ffrom the speakers. Any idea's? Just thought that it's kind of weird...

 

Do you have the antenna plugged in? Most radios will ground themselves through the antenna grounding.

 

yeup, it's plugged in and the radio and cd player works fine....just not sure how it's grounding itself..

 

Through the chassis of the radio probably. If you truly "mounted" the unit, then you bolted it in, and it's using said bolts to ground itself. The buzzing is because this grounding is not ideal...hook up a nice solid ground wire and the buzzing should cease.

 

It's grounding through the antenna. It'll burn up pretty quick like that.

 

The antenae itself grounds to the chassis at the fender I believe. Not a great ground, good enough though. If you have a high powered deck or add an amp, you could have noise problems.

Juan

 

Well....I grounded it....but it still buzz'z........oh well..as long as it plays I guess...and dosen't blow up...

 

the question is...... at what volume are you putting it to get the buzz cuz my stock stereo buzzes but at full vol and no audio...

 

when the volume is on like 1 you can notice the buzz alot....but when it's louder...you can't.....

 

hmmm . what did you ground it to. if it was teh body did you scrape all the paint off to make a good ground?


also, are your audio and power wires run seperatley. seeing that you grounded it and it still gets the buzz id say its a interference prob now?

 

Nic, how would that burn up the radio? I never heard that before.

 

I think he meant the antenna reciever wire would burn up.

 

That could happen if the cable was in bad shape, the bigger problem would come in if there was ever an amp on the unit. With the bad ground at the HU and (hopefully) a good ground at the amp you'll end up with a difference of potential on both grounds. Not only would this (more then likely) be a noise install, but this CAN damage the HU. Keep in mind that on most amps the power ground and RCA ground are at the same potential. So with to the RCAs plugged in at both ends the HU will have two different grounds. In this situation you can end up with as much as 4-5Vdc develop between the two "grounds". This can cause the small ground trace between the power ground and RCA ground in the HU to burn open or damage the feedthoughs for that "ground". A LOT of the newer HU are using small 0.5-1A SMT fuses in their units to protect the PCB from this damage.
The problem for most people is that these fuses are not easy to replace. You have to take it to a shop to repair the unit, or you buy a new one.

 

Damn! Well I gotta say, CaysE, that I like NEEDAZ's explanation better. (just jokin around)

Thanks NEEDAZ! Wow; I never would've realized that the deck would see two grounds. Thumbs up for that great explanation, and I'm glad I always wire up the ground for my head units!

 

I wasn't explaining anything, I was clarifying Nic's comment.

 

You have to remember that I fix this stuff, along with other related side work. So when it comes to 1001 ways a car audio unit can fail, I've seen it. I've also done failure analysis work, so knowing what caused the problem is second nature. If I'm doing good on my numbers I'll still do some "testing". With this problem it became VARY common on the Pioneer DEH-P6400 HUs. So I setup a test using a 0.25 ohm shunt as a bad ground on the AMP (not the HU but same principle). There was around a 4V difference from one ground to the other in the HU, one of the feed-thoughs started to glow, then open and there was vary distorted output (humming like a bad ground) from the per-amp outs. So yes, a bad ground CAN damage the HU, even if the bad ground is at the AMP. I see a HU with this damage probably every other day.
Now, back to the post. 84customZ28, are you amping the speakers that are buzzing? What brand HU is it?

 

Now, back to the post. 84customZ28, are you amping the speakers that are buzzing? What brand HU is it? [/B][/QUOTE]


Nope, I'm not amping anything. The head unit is a cheap $85....can't even remember the brand....just want something cheap till I decide on a real nice one. Is it maybe because of the brand? You know..you get what you pay for...

 

Could vary well be that. You should still be able to get rid of the noise, but some of the cheaper HU's are more susceptible to it.
If you unplug the antenna is the noise the same?

 

I'll try it out and let you know