ipod2car clicking noise

[jak219]

I installed the ipod2car in my 2006 vibe. It installed easily, and worked great, except if the volume on the car stereo is turned up there is this annoying soft periodic clicking of one click, then three clicks "click; click-click-click; click; click-click-click" . It is more apparent when the ipod is disconnected. Has anyone else come across this?Thanks.

[ragingfish]

Do you have any other aftermarket electronic equipment installed?

[jak219]

No other aftermarket stuff installed. Just the ipod2car.

[ragingfish]

I'm not entirely familiar with that device. Is it just plug and play with harnesses? Or did you have to do some wiring yourself?

[jak219]

The only wiring required is a connection to +12V and ground. The rest of the wiring is contained in a harness that plugs into the back of the radio.

[ragingfish]

Where did you connect your +12 and ground connections?

[jak219]

I tapped out of the wires going to the radio for +12V and ground.

[ragingfish]

try moving your ground to the chassis. i know that's opposite of the norm, but sometimes a different ground point yields different results...

[jak219]

Thanks. I'll try that.

[jak219]

No luck grounding to chassis.I noticed that the clicking is in sync with the time display. When you press the rcl button, it displays what the radio thinks is the CD play time. The ipod2car sends alternating 1:00, 2:00, 1:00, 2:00, which is right coincident with the clicking sounds. I'm going to try a different make of ipod adapter. Any recommendations?

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by jak219 »No luck grounding to chassis.I noticed that the clicking is in sync with the time display. When you press the rcl button, it displays what the radio thinks is the CD play time. The ipod2car sends alternating 1:00, 2:00, 1:00, 2:00, which is right coincident with the clicking sounds. I'm going to try a different make of ipod adapter. Any recommendations? Interesting.Something screwy with the unit then, yeah. I have an iPod adapter in my G6, and you can hear the seeking of the hard drive heads over the data link...not sure why, it's annoying, but I deal.Anyway, as for the Vibe, I can't recommend anything personally, but others can.

[Whelan]

The best place to ground is against bare metal. Painted metal is not always the best as it insulates a bit. But bare metal is really the best choice. Find where the stock head unit is grounded and just attach it there. Or find a bare metal support bar for the dash and go there as well.Sounds like it is def. a grounding issue.

[Gemo]

Somehow the clicking (from the time display) noise is getting coupled into your ipod, so the question is how/where.Since changing the ground doesn't seem to help, next I'd try (temporaily) shifting the 12 VDC wire to another 12 V supply and see if this helps reduce the noise.If it does you can either use that new 12 V connection or use the radio 12 V supply but including a filter of some kind (such as a choke and/or filter capacitor). These filters are typically available from car radio shops.Another idea is to make sure the wiring for the ipod connection is seperated from the radio and it's wiring as much as possible to reduce any stray coupling of the noise into the ipod wiring. Some kind of 'metal' shielding may help (?).One other thought - the time display clicking noise may be being carried on a wire that dims the display at night ( I presume the Vibe radio has something like this), so check for that and either seperate that wire as much as possible from your ipod wiring or put some filtering on the "dimmer" wire (as close to the radio as possible.Hope these suggestions help.

[jak219]

I tried different grounding, and different 12V supply. I'm guessing it is due to bad circuit design inside the ipod2car or bad cable shielding. I'm buying a different make to see if that changes anything.http://ipodcarparts.com/pontia...650ecThis one has RCA inputs too, in case I ever ditch my ipod for something else.