alternator whine gone but no 12v to unit

Here's the setup.  I have a 2000 Honda Accord V6 with a pioneer Z3 installed up front.  I have a kicker 4 channel amp for the inside and a mono block amp in the back pushing a 12 inch L7.  I always had a issue with alternator whine.  I know about the internal ground issue with pioneer but I had the whine even before the pioneer.  (Kenwood and Sony too).  I have the 4 channel amp hooked up through the speaker level inputs and the mono block hooked up through rca's from the Z3.  I still had feedback (not too bad) and tried this.  I got this from someone over at avic411. See below.  Now the whine is almost gone but Im not getting enough juice to run the Z3 when the car is not running. It would not turn on until I start the car.  The power wire is connected at the distributer with the main wire (0 gauge) from the battery. Do I need a new battery or am I doing something wrong??  Sorry for such a long question.

***this has been covered before and verified that it does in fact eliminate all hissing, buzzing, whining or any other sound not normal for stereos. ***

This is what was emailed to me from Memphis techs and it worked for me:

What we were suggesting was:
Tap off from the 12v power lead (constant power) and the ground <<<<<at the amp,
and run those wires back to the head unit. Since the remote turn on lead is going in the opposite direction (coming
from the head unit to the amp), take it and twist it around the 12v and ground coming from the amp back to the head unit.

The purpose of this technique is two fold;
it allows your head unit and amp to theoretically MATCH the 12v constant and the ground.
And since you're twisting those wires back to the head unit around the remote turn on, it helps cancel noise as well.

So, just to clarify- your head unit will no longer be connected to 12v constand and ground in the radio harness:
it will get it's 12v constant and ground directly from the amp. And since the remote turn on is running the same path
as those wires will be running, it's a good idea to twist them (or braid them) around one another.

i have had that problem be for as well first one was i used cheap RCA wires all i did was put some new ones on and that fixed it. i also had a problem with an old hot rod we tryed every thing well it ended up being the spark plug wires changed them out and the wine was gone.

soundnsecurity wrote:

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i think i read somewhere that kicker amps have the same little micro fuse in them that poineer has in their radios. if this fuse blows you will get ground noise. could be your problem so if you can maybe try a different amp if you can get your hands on one. it sounds like your amp and radio are getting the same bad ground now either due to a bad ground or the fuse i mentioned is blown inside your kicker amp. this would cause your radio to see a voltage drop which makes sense since you can only run it when your car is running and the the alternator is charging.

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This does makes sense.  I tried another amp today and i still have the same problem.  Also regrounded the ground wire.  Could it be that the battery is dying that's why it's not holding enough juice to run the radio when the car is not running.  (the radio will play for about 3-4 minutes then die)  Another thing is that if i hook up the pioneer  to the power wire from the harness, it runs fine.  So im inclined to think that it;s the battery