Alternator Whine/Ignition Pop

[Petrucci914]

Well....it seems that my whining/popping/buzzing sound is not from my TRD Supercharger ECU. I've moved it several times and the sound is still there - I originally thought one of the wires was crossing a speaker cable.Doing research it seems to be alternator whine. There is a whining sound that increases as the car revs up. There is also a weird buzzing sound occasionally. And occasionally when I shut off my car I hear a decent level pop sound.In terms of audio, not much has changed in over a couple years.1. I have the moon 'n tunes package2. I have an aftermarket Pioneer CD Player that was installed about 2 years ago.3. A couple months ago I hooked up an iPod Aux connection (the square connection RCA y-Adapter, to a standard stereo cable with a headphones connection.All issues go away when driving, if I turn off my stereo.What to do?!?!

[Sublimewind]

99% of the time, alternator wine relates back to a ground issue, check the HU ground and the LOC ground for the unit... along with any other ground you may have disturbed in ANY of your installs... Not all grounds are the same, and a ground loop is a potential difference between, say the HU ground and the amp ground.. This is common in the car audio world..

[RePo]

It's a ground loop alright, and the fix is very easy. I had the exact same symptom with my new audio setup in the Vibe. This has happened in other car's I've upgraded, too. I bought mine on Ebay for much less, but here's the easy source.http://www.radioshack.com/prod...62214

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by RePo »It's a ground loop alright, and the fix is very easy. I had the exact same symptom with my new audio setup in the Vibe. This has happened in other car's I've upgraded, too. I bought mine on Ebay for much less, but here's the easy source.http://www.radioshack.com/prod...62214Yeah, you could purchase something to cover your problem, OR, you could simply fix the problem, which like I said is almost 95% of the time a problem with grounds in the audio stream, usually the HU.. Not all grounds are the same and they are getting worse and worse as cars are being glued together more and more every day.. You may find you may have to ground the HU back to the battery, that's usualy in the most extreme cases though..

[Petrucci914]

Which of these would work the best? One looks like it would work perfectly fine, but the other looks like it has a filter or grounding thing on it. I'm not sure if that's necessary or not.http://www.buy.com/prod/metra-....htmlh ... ...r=8-4Is that a filter on the last one? If I should go with one with the ground wire, where do I ground it to? Thanks!

[RePo]

All of these appear to be an auxilliary input made for your Pioneer headunit. These are not meant to fix the ground loop problem that's creating the alternator whine. I've gathered that you are still using an external audio amplifier, and the ground loop isolator will be located on the line level audio feed between the two to correct the alternator whine sound.

[Petrucci914]

I don't have an external amp (other than the factory moon 'n tunes one). All I replaced was the factory stereo unit with a Pioneer unit. When the sound happens it goes away when I fiddle with my existing auxiliary cable......so I'm thinking the cable just isn't shielded or something.

[Sublimewind]

Dude, seriously, before you go and buy something, try re-grounding the HU... I mean, go ahead and buy a better AUX cable, but the problem will likely still be there.. Has it been there ever since you put the HU in? If so, then it sets my thought in stone, brotha..

[Petrucci914]

It's been in there for about 2 years. This problem only started a couple months ago. Problem goes away when wiggling the AUX cable.