I installed my subs and amp into my truck. Sounds great except for the major engine noise. I bought all real good wires (monster cable), I ran the power on one side of the cab and the rcas and remote on the opposite side of the cab. I have tried grounding the amp on all seat and seat belt bolts. I even sanded the paint all the way down to the steel and bolted it to the floor. The ground wire is only 4' long because they say the shorter the better. No matter where I put it I get engine noise.

What do I do? Please help as I am tired of hearing engine noise. I am ready to try about any thing. Let me know if I am doing something incorrectly.

Josh

 

Your ground is way to long. 3' is the absolute max. Get it around 24" and you should be ok.

 

is your head unit a pioneer by any chance? 4 ft is a little long but not the cause of the problem

 

Yes I have a Pioneer Avic N3

 

pioneers are NITORIOUS for having bad grounds... sometimes regrounding the h/u can fix it. run a new 10 ga ground for it. ground the chassis of the unit and the ground wire. see if that helps

 

I had the head unit in before I installed the subs and amp. There was no engine noise. When I installed the subs and amp there was engine noise. The engine noise only comes from the subs. Could it still be the HU? Or do you think its the amp?

 

its the H/U, Pioneer's have an inherent ground plane problem that has plagued all the Pioneer HU's.

try:

Grab a foot or two of wire and ground one end to a good solid spot on the chassis. Take the other end and connect it to the outer shell on the RCAs. just strip the end off an inch or so and hold it to the barrels with a clothes pin. If the whine goes away, the little picofuse on the board inside that connects the RCA ground to the internal ground is hosed, and you need to either replace it or exchange the HU.

 

Thanks you so much I will have to try this and will let you know how it goes. Where should I ground the HU. Should the ground wire be short as well? You also said ground the chassis of the HU as well, are you talking about the metal sleeve the HU sits in?

 

I edited with better info, for future searches

almost ALL pioneers have been having problems, I'f you cant get it fixed by regrounding the unit I would suggest returning the thing for a alpine or kenwood

 

So I got a new HU. I got an Avic D3 so its still Pioneer but its new so it shouldnt have the RCA problem. Where should I look now? I still have bad engine noise.

 

I doubt it's engine noise. It sounds more like a faulty ground. And don't let too many people convince you that the whole "RCA on one side Power on the other" is always best thing. It's just more work and BS if you ask me. Not one stereo system I've installed have I heard engine noise due to run placement..

 

Its still a pioneer... all pioneers seem to have a ground problem.. go alpine or kenwood

 

I just bought a brand new AVIC-D3 and i had this "engine noise" in my amplified system. I dont know where you live but i sent mine in the Pioneers Ohio repair shop and they repaired it for free all i had to do was pay for shipping there. I live in GA and i shipped on a thursday and it arrived the next thursday repaired and working PERFECTLY. I love my D3. Pioneer might have a problem but they will make it right for free. Call up there customer service and tell them you need to get your D3 fixed because it has "engine noise" they will gladly give you the address and all you have to do is pay for shipping there. Good luck They will make it right. Stick with Pioneer.

 

you could keep the pioneer and replace then engine maybe thatll take car of the engine noise

 

It's a hair width fuse inside Pioneer units called a Pico and when it blows the unit searches for a ground through your RCA's thats the cause of the noise.The Pico fuse gets blown when the unit has power hooked up to it and you plug and unplug RCA's. Go to DIYMA.com there's a fix if your handy with solder, It took me about ten minutes.If your not comfortable opening one up then send it to an authorized tech and wait they can easily fix it also.

James