Hey all I'm new here and was hoping to get some input on an audio problem. I have an '01 Honda Accord LX with a Pioneer HU, Infinity speakers all around and an Infinity 4 channel amplifier in the trunk powering the speakers. The power wire was run on the driver's side and the RCA cables, signal cable, and speaker wires were run on the passenger side. The problem is that when the car is on I can hear the ticking of the engine and a whining noise when I acclerate that matches the RPMs of the car. If the car is off and in the ACC position it sounds fine. It does this with the radio, CD, or iPod. From what I've read so far the most common cause is a bad ground. The only thing I could find in the trunk was the place where I believe the fuel pump is also ground. I used the same location for the amp, could this be causing the problem? If it is where else can I ground an amplifier in the trunk? If it isn't the ground then what else would cause this issue? Any help is apprecaited as it is so annoying that I no longer turn on the stereo.

 

You have to sand the paint off to really get a good ground there. The bad ground could also be at the headunit, try making a fresh new ground for the HU. Not sure about this one, just a guess but if you have a bad ground from the battery to the body I would imagine it could also cause alternator whine. Also your amp power wires aren't the only ones, there may be some nice sized power lines near your RCAs at some point inducing the whine. Could also be the RCA's themselves, alternator whine can be a serious chore to pin point. If all else fails you can try a ground loop isolator, but this is more of a band aid than a solution. Good luck.

 

Forgot to mention I did sand the paint down today, no luck. The HU ground is the factory one and there were no issues before I installed the amp. I read that I could try running RCA cables outside the car to see if it still does it to pinpoint whether or not it's the RCAs. I'll try that after I try checking the ground on the battery. Thanks for the info.

 

Yeah that's an easy way to pin point it to the RCA's, most of the time it is caused by the RCA's. I've even heard of RCA's themselves picking up alternator whine, so I would just try another pair, will also save you from having to reroute the RCA's just to test.