Alternator whine

[CorvallisBMW]

After doing my best to separate the speaker wires from the battery cable all along the passenger side of the car, I still have some whine in the stereo. It's better than before but still annoying on low volume. The cable and wires still cross up by the front speaker, and a bit in the back under the rear seat. Not much I can do about those, there isn't enough slack to move them any further apart. My question is: Are there filters or something else that can be installed somewhere in-line to reduce the whine? Thanks r3v!

-Corvallis "electrically retarded" BMW

[BUBBASGOPED]

Are you using the HU harness for ground?

[CorvallisBMW]

ummmm... ask Luke. He did it all lol. Maybe he will chime in here.

[z31maniac]

Sounds like Luke sucks at stereo stuff.

lol

[CorvallisBMW]

The problem started when I relocated the battery to the trunk; when Luke did his work originally it was all fine and dandy. I managed to fuck it up lol.

[cramer]

Check your battery install. Make sure your new grounds are all good. This would also apply to how you grounded the engine bay wiring in spot where the battery was.

Also, noise in your stereo will be picked up by the low voltage (RCA leads from the deck to the amp) wires not the higher voltage speaker wires.

[soupiemelody]

Sounds like Luke sucks at stereo stuff.

lol

Luke is an excellent installer. OP, After checking that all wires are separated. check that you have solid grounds. Also if you rca cables arent shielded you'll here whining. after all that you may try one of these:

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_i469_noise-filters.html

[CorvallisBMW]

Thanks guys, I will thoroughly check all my grounds today. When separating the speaker wires from the battery cable I didn't see any RCAs, Luke must have run them along the driver's side rocker. I'm leaning towards that not being the cause at this time.

[CorvallisBMW]

I checked and double-checked the grounds on the battery, strut tower and engine. All appeared fine but I hit the surfaces with some emmory cloth and contact cleaner just to be 101% sure.

RCAs definitely run along the driver's side rocker, could they be picking up interference from the battery cable along the passenger's side? anything else I should check on?

Do those filters go on the RCAs just before they enter the amps?

[StereoInstaller1]

Here is some of the wiring being run in this car:

[StereoInstaller1]

Darin, I will give you a call later, we will figure out what happened.

[CorvallisBMW]

Sounds good, I've got lots of time to kill at work :)

[CorvallisBMW]

I did some poking and prodding last night as an experiment. I tried unplugging the front RCAs, rear RCAs, subs, etc.. Each time i unplugged a set of wires the noise would get better but was still present. I also tried hooking the RCAs in to my iPod and again there was noise, but quiet (only 1 channel attached). This leads me to believe the problem is in the RCAs somewhere and not the deck.

I'm leaning towards just buying 3 of those filters and throwing them on. Anything wrong with that idea?