Engine Noise with 640 watt amp

hello,

I am very new to electronics so please be nice! :P

I have a '99 Corolla Sedan and have installed a panasonic head unit successfully(its awsum! xD). A few days ago I thought I would buy an amp for my car, and thats what I did. It's a Powervox 640watt pb-488(ebay ;)). Here is the link. I also bought some 8 gage power and speaker cables.

We decided to install the amp under the passenger seat, becuase it would mean less wiring. I re-wired all the speakers with new thick 8 gage wires. I took the power for the amp directly from the battery terminal, with a 60amp fuse near the battery and wired it through the firewall and under the carpet.(Is this the right way to wire it?) I connected all the wires to the amp(pre-amp out, speakers, power, ground, remote) and it works! xD. When I started the car I started hearing engine noise from the speakers(which is really annoying). When u rev the car the noise's pitch gets higher.

I think this is because all the wires are running the same way to the amp. How do I stop the engine noise from happening? Is there some sort of engine noise filter or something?


Please help me,
thank you

do a search for alternator whine and amp noise. all of your answers are already posted.

Your link leads nowhere!

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Link does not work!!! lol

And did you seriously run 8 gauge speaker wire??? lol

How did you ground the amp??

Does the noise go away when you disconnect the RCA cables??

and did you get those power wires from ebay for really cheap because if you did than they are real 8 gauge wires

Sorry, I don't know why the link doesn't work.

Here is the link for the amp: https://cgi.ebay.com.au/dll?ViewItem&ih=019&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=290065214590&rd=1&rd=1

Here is the link for the wires: https://cgi.ebay.com.au/8-Gage-Power-Cable-Amplifier-Installation-Wiring-Kit_W0QQitemZ280067235412QQihZ018QQcategoryZ102568QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Sorry about that ;)

1.) I grounded the amp by connecting it to a screw which goes to the chassis
2.) Yes, the noise does go away when I disconnect the RCA cables.
3.) I don't know ;)

Thanks

Really sorry! Those links don't work either!

after "https://" add "cgi. ebay" and delete the extra "/"

Sorry, but they dont seem to work when I copy and paste :S

They don't work, becaue ebay auctions are specifically filtered out by the12volt servers. You didn't REALLY read the forum rules, did you?

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

ok let me try to break it to you easy. 

#1 you should run the power wire & remote wire on the oposite side of the car as the RCA cables

#2 engine noise is either caused by not doing #1 or a bad ground.  Ground your amp to the floor board of your car.  You should use some type of self tapping screw and a star washer.  you also need to scuff the area where you are grounding the amp, it should be bare metal.

#3 if you have completed the first two steps and are still experiencing engine noise you can try changing the RCA cables.  Hopefully you have a good pair of RCA's, (probably not)  anyway, if the RCA's have a wire attatched to them (most good sets will have this) try grounding this wire on the radio itself.  there is probably some screw you can loosen up to attatch the wire to the deck.  if that don't work, try grounding the wire to bare metal somewhere under the dash.  DO NOT USE THAT WIRE AS A REMOTE WIRE!!!  That is not was it is intended for!

#4  if you completed steps 1,2&3 and you still have a problem, you have 2 options.  A: bring it to a professional or B: go buy a ground loop isolater.  connect the ground loop isolater behind the redio to your RCA jacks.  Ground the wires coming off the ground loop isolater to the chasis of the radio and a ground.

Good luck!

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Jared Nixon - A.K.A Jsmoke
3rd Coast Customs
Lake Charles, Louisiana

haemphyst wrote:

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They don't work, becaue ebay auctions are specifically filtered out by the12volt servers. You didn't REALLY read the forum rules, did you?

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Must've missed that

Sorry

Do the normal speaker wires have to run opposite the power and remote wires?

Um...try regrounding your head unit...make a new solid ground for it...bare metal.

And I would suggest rather a nut and a bolt for a ground and sand away all paint to clean bare metal

Do you think its the way I connected the power to the amp?

I just connected the wire directly from the battery to the amp. Is this the right way to do it?

I suggest reading the grounding sticky threads at the top of the forum listing.  Those threads are there to help with thse sorts of problems since they come up over and over again.  Please read them, then come back and ask questions if you don't understand.

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Sorry, this might be a stupid question, but what is a HU?

HU = head unit (your cd player)

you could also have a bad ground within your CD player.  Pioneers decks have been notorius for this.

Yes, my cd player might hav a bad ground :(. I just connected all the wires from my factory toyota HU to my new panasonic one.

I asked a friend and they said to test the RCA cables with a mp3 player or something like that. I used a 3.5mm jack to RCA(female) converter, and then used the RCA cables which I used to connect my HU to Amp. I turned on the car and there was no whine! .

So do think its my HU ground? Btw: It's a Panasonic CQ-C7300W

ok, I re-grounded my head unit to where my amp was grounded but the noise still comes! ARGH!!!

I have sanded it VERY well, its bare metal.
I used gold plated connectors and a nut and bolt.

Please Help Me!

You can also try grounding the outer portion of the rca's at the deck/amp.

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My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

Did you read the grounding sticky threads?  Did you measure your amplifier ground return resistance?

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how do u measure the resistance? I have a multimeter btw. :P

Are you using the ring terminal that came in your amp kit?
use those and the self tapping screws that came with it and ground to a new spot, not where another bolt is.
See if that helps

With a subwoofer Ive never noticed any induced noise in the signal from running the power or ground close with the RCAs

does this 'whine' increase when you are driving or using anything else in your electrical system (headlights, wipers etc)

try turning your gain way down on your amp and see what happens

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had the sam problem in my 96 chevy its was caused but bad RCA wires..........i went and got a new pair of RCA'S and it worked fine soo .....id go get a new pair of RCA's

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this is a possibility but just saying to go get a new set isn't really good advice....what if he goes out and spends 50 bucks on a nice patch cable and the noise is still there???

Gotta diagnose the problem before buying stuff

When I reduce the gain to minimum, the whine is very minimal but still there(and i cant here the music!).

Here are some links to the RCA cables I used:

1: Link 1
2: Link 2
3: Link 3
4: Link 4

Please advice me if they r bad quality

so wats the verdict?

Those look like the unshielded cheap radio shack rca's. My suggestion would be to run the rcas on the outside of the vehicle away from power wires to see if your still getting noise. Also test for alternator whine. To do this turn the volume all the way down on your hu and then rev the engine if you hear the whine unplug the rcas repeat the process without the rcas plugged in if the sounds goes away you most likely have a ground loop. also how are you running your rcas and power? On different sides i hope.