When I use the CD player I am getting engine noise coming out. The pitch changes with the revs. How do I get rid of that noise, it is driving me crazy.

Thanks

 

You have a ground loop. Do you have amplifiers in the car as well or just the cd player? If you have just the cd player, run a new ground for the radio over to a bolt near or behind the passenger side kick panel that goes right into the steel chassis. Use 14 gauge or thicker wire. Scrape the area, then use a star washer to ensure a good electrical connection. This should solve your problem.

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I am running an amp with the CD player. The ground for the CD player is attached to a piece of metal in the dash itself. My amp is grounded in the trunk area. Do you think I should still run the CD player ground to the kick panel since I am running an amp? One more thing, Could the type of wire have anything to do with the problem? I ran stranded wire but the individual strands are pretty large.

 

If you have an amp, I suspect that your problem lies with that. Re-ground the amp and see what happens.

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It could also be alternator whine. This occurs when you have power lines going to your amps running parallel to the RCA wires (or speaker wire if it's only coming out of one speaker). To fix this move the wires as far apart from each other as possible and if they do have to cross make sure they come together at a 90* angle.

 

Every time I put a Sony into my ride, that happens. Maybe not your case, but just a thought. Also, Camaroguy is right. Even if you run the best wires in the world, you can't run 'em next to power wires. That will always cause engine noise.

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Actually, that shouldn't create more than a very minor engine noise. I've run power wires next to rcas in dozens of systems and have rarely had any problems, even when using very cheap Radio Shack RCAs. It's possible, but if you're getting that loud, obnoxious engine whine, it's almost always caused by a ground loop, which is usually because one of your pieces of equipment is poorly grounded.

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When I ran my wires, I ran the power and remote wire down one side of the car and the RCA cables down the other. These cables only meet up at the amp. I grounded the amp to a factory ground in the car so I figured that would be good. It is so cold here I can't do much right now. All I really know is that the noise changes with the speed of the motor

 

What factory ground? There is no factory ground on the car that is suitable for a high current amplifier. The amp should be using grounding cable that is equal in size to the power cable, and should be terminated directly to the chassis.

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new equipment shouldn't pick up noise,but in any case a good power supply noise filter should take care of all noise problems.

 

New equipment is just as succeptable to a ground loop as old equipment. Quality equipment (not necessarily new) usually has good noise filters on the power line, but they only filter the noise from the incoming power and are not able to eliminate the noise that results from a ground loop.

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That sounds like power noise coming from either the alternator or ignition system. My car had a little bit of this, and heres how I fixed it. I went to radio shack and bought a 15 amp power filter, and wired it to the back of the radio and the ignition power wire, not the constant. This fixed my problem.

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[This message has been edited by Ward (edited January 01, 2001).]

 

Also, you can get capacitors that mount on the BAT terminal of the alternator, then ground the other end. This should loose most of the noise.

If you have the signal and power wires seperated, then your off to a good start. Adding an inline filter to the RCAs will also be a good idea. It helped me.

Also, it's true that if you have cheap equipment, there is no way to get rid of the noise. What do you have?

 

Before you go buying all of these filters, just fix your ground!!! I said it above a bunch of times that it's your ground, but you haven't said yet whether you fixed it. The way you described above how you grounded your system, it's a wonder that it works at all, and I'm not the least bit surprised that you've got a ground loop that's causing your noise. Ground your amp properly. Those other gizmos are band-aids, not a cure for the problem.

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Thanks for all the input guys.

Jim, I will re-ground my amp to the frame and see what happens. I do have one of those filters described above. It isn't installed on the current setup, but if my ground doesn't fix the problem then I will install the filter.

By the way I have a Sony CD deck and the amp is just a small Fultron 35 x 4.

Thanks for all your help, and I will reply as soon as I try the repair.

 

Dave, if you need more information on proper grounding, please email me and I'll help you out. Improper grounding is the source of 99.9% of all electrical related problems, and quite often it is very easy to overlook.

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I got the problem fixed, I ended up re-grounding the amp and used a star washer to ensure a good ground. There is no more engine noise and I am a happy camper.

Thanks to everyone who responded, as my music is much more enjoyable now.

 

Glad to help.

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