Alternator Whine

[bobross]

How fuckin annoying... I have an inermitant whine comming threw the speakers when listening to sirius. I am currently running an Alpine unit with an aftermarket sirius adapter. The whine is comming from all speakers and *only* happens when listening to the sirius (radio & CD are ok).

The adapter was installed with the radio by bestbuy. When i first had it installed i hadent activated it tho i could hear the whine on the 1 free channel. I brought the car back and had them look at it. The installer got in the car, took the antenna (at that time not run to the trunk and just sitting on the floor of my passanger side) and put it on the roof. For whatever reason the whine went away.

Anyways i have since run the antenna nicely to the trunk and i still have an intermittant whine that i cant seem to relate with anything else in the car.

Any ideas?

[DaN]

Where are the wires running?
Are they kept away from high current wires like the battery/starter cables, etc?

[bobross]

Wiring between the headunit and the sirius box run out the back of the hu and down to the passanger side footwell behind the glovebox..... is there anything down there?

[bobross]

No ideas? :(

[StereoInstaller1]

Greg, virtually every bit of your cars' electrical power runs between the underhood battery location and the rear mount location...get your wiring away from the passenger footwell and runningboards...that should help.

The antenna changing whine due to its location is BS: it is an entirely digital signal, and thus cannot be affected by AC noise.

Luke

[bobross]

Thanks for the reply luke. Do you think it would make a difference if i put the unit directly in the glovebox? Is there any kind of wirewrap that could help the situation?

thanks again

[rs4pro3]

Some audio stores sell a unit called a ground loop isolater that plugs in between the RCA's of your head unit and an amp or other device. In my car I ran the wires down the P-side also, and just purchased one of these devices and the alternator whine is gone.

[StereoInstaller1]

Ground loops are caused by the difference in ground voltage between 2 components that share an audio connection. Amps and deck, sure. I would not expect to find such an issue with the Siriu box though.

Greg, just for fun, put that box and wiring on the drivers side and check your noise again. The ECU makes a bunch of RF noise too.

Luke