I recently installed my own stereo after 3 hours of cutting, re-wiring, etc... It works great, but now I can here the engine accelerating in my speakers. I think its caused by a bad ground somewhere, but I couldn't even begin to figure it out. Thanks for any help.


Matt

 

I had that same problem in my FD and all I did was replace a set of bad RCA cables that connected from my deck to the amps.

 

Saying you have 'engine noise' is kinda like saying my car runs bad...
It could be anything.

But most often in my line of work its either, a bad amp/deck, bad RCA's, bad power/ground connection, shorted speaker wire and/or input mismatch (gain to high) Grounded speaker I have seen once.

We need more details of whats in it?

 

my crown vic did that. I was using the stock wires. when I changed to high grade wire it went away

 

Also, if you happen to be using an amp with RCA inputs, keep the power wire and RCA cable seperate.

 

It may also be your plug wires. You need a shielded plug wire or you will get interference. Ditto on the spark plugs.
hanman

 

It didn't do it with the factory deck.. I put in a nice deck (alpine), and ran new speaker wire to the back and front speakers (using good speaker wire). I made sure all the connections were tight and not grounding out on anything. Its like a slight whining noise (like if your on AM radio), that gets higher when I accelerate.. of course I usually play my music loud, so it doesn't bother me too much.

 

What did you ground the deck to?

 

So its just a deck and 4 speakers? Shouldnt have any noise with that at all.

The ant grounds when plug up make sure the other ground is solid and then try unpluging the ant to see if it goes away. If it does you need a ant ground isolator then so be it. But I dont think I have ever needed one

 

I used the ground from the cigarette lighter... seemed good enough.. I can try another ground, but pulling the @#$ stereo out again will suck (after spending hours getting it to fit right).

Matt

 

oh god,dont use the cig lighter ground.just ground it anywhere back there,use a self tap screw with a 90 degree extension on a drill to get it in.chances are thats your problem,also DO NOT go out and buy one of those blocks that go on your ground wire to help stop the engine whine,all your doing is quitening the problem,your not fixing anything that way.there should be 0 noise with that deck.

 

Being in the car stereo business for several years I have found that "engine noise" is due, in part, nine times out of ten to a poor ground- even chassis & engine grounds.

 

Soiunds like the whine is from your alternator. Try power from a different location that might help or get a noise supressor for your alternator. Want to make sure it is take the belt off and the noise will probably be gone too.

 

I grounded my head unit to the cig lighter with no problmes so it's probably your plugs or plug wires, depending on brand/quality etc these can cause a lot of annoying noises. I agree with Mike-P-28 that you shouldn't have any noise like that to begin with usually noises like that only occur when you're running an out side amp. So maybe it is your ground after all or a loose connection.

 

Same for me too, anything like that has always been a bad ground somewhere...Not neccesarily anything you grounded, maybe bad wires (RCA) or something...

~T.J.

 

I USED to own a bad bazooka tube (it was free)... it turned out to be a defect and made that noise... I tried grounding in multiple places--it made the same noise.

Right behind the frame for mounting the deck--if you slide your fingers on the passenger side of the frame (the skinny part), you should find a hole in the metal--i think i put a screw there to ground my deck--works great...

 

Ok.. I'll check the plug wires and such... They are actually in pretty bad condition.. I'll also re-ground the stereo and see what that does. I'll tell you though, its sure nice having a decent stereo in that car (althought the factory deck worked great). One other question.. I thought the speaker cut-outs in the back were supposed to be for 6.5 speakers.. All the ones i've tried don't fit, they are too big. I kind of half-*** rigged them in there for now, until I can cut away the metal.



MATT

 

If its a 1st Gen, I was almost 100% positive that they were 6.5" cutouts...I dont know though...

~T.J.

 

I'm stripping the back area for the next genesis of my box so I just measured the cutouts...5" wide and 2.5" deep...effective magnet size can't exceed 3.5 - 4" diameter, though because of some strange metal bracket/support for the inner sheetmetal...I suppose you could grind that away, too to get the full 5"...FYI

 

I think the hole in the back for a series 1 is smaller than the rest of the 1st gens. At least it looked smaller in my friends, compared to mines(series 3)