Electrical whine?

[icychicken]

Okay. I've got an 87 Firebird formula with an aftermarket headunit (sony something or other, old) aftermarket 6x9's in the sail panels(older 609 JBL's) and a crappying 400watt amp.

Anyways, it was installed by my dad when my mom owned the car. She bought it new and gave it to me a year or two ago. He doesn't know jack about car stereo and there's this loud ass annoying whine that comes from the speakers when you turn the radio on (am/fm/cd, anything).

What the hell could it be? How can I fix it?

[jokeplayer]

Sounds like your dad ran the power wire to close to something in the engine compartment with high current flowing through it (ex. the distributor...), or he ran the RCA's down the same side as the power wire, or it may just be a crappy amp. I had a really nice Alpine that I loaned to my friend for a day and he blew it up, so he gave me some really crappy amp he had at home and it whined. Then I rearranged my wiring, power down one side of the car and the RCA's down the other and it stopped. Some amps pick that whine up, other block it. Good luck.

[Mark B]

Hey man,
I had the same problem with my 91 RS Convertable. Luckily, I worked at Best Buy at the time and they told me to get a signal cleaner. It worked, but not as good as re-routing the wires. It is a little box that you run the RCA's through and it clears up that wining sound.

Good Luck,

[icychicken]

Damn, I didn't even know this thread was still here. I'll try re-routing the wires since the car is out of commission for awhile. Thanks guys.

[powertool]

ok first off the power wire has nothing to do with the whine in you spks find out where your dad ran the rcas if they are not at least 18 in away from the power wire thats where you noise is comng from if that doesnt help go out and buy a ground loop isolator and hook it into your rcas and that should get rid of it


-Tom
Best Buy Mobile Install Tech

[Nexus6]

also,you want your ground wire as short as possible.make sure that the ground is solid.scrape all the paint off where the groud is connected to the car.if your ground is not good the amp will try to use the rca's as the ground and will fry the traces in your radio.