Just wondering how you all go about grounding your headunit. I just received my new Pioneer P8MP, but don't know if I should ground the harness to harness or harness to chassis.

If harness to chassis is the way to go, where do you bolt the wire down to?

Everythings hooked up fine and I currently have my ground from the harnesses barrell connected. Must not be doing the trick...

NEED HELP PLEASE

 

I instaled my new pioneer hu last week and i just clipped the ground connector piece off and just hooked the black ground from the HU to the black ground coming from the harness. Also make sure your yellow(battery) wire is attached. Good luck

 

I have seen a few harnesses that had problems right out of the package. It is rare but happens. Also be sure that your connections are tight. Next check for any blown fuses. Should be one of those things mentioned causing the problem. It could even be that the harness itself has a wire in the wrong pin location.

 

yeah on my harness my speaker wires are switched. When i fade the sound to front the front right speaker and the back right speaker work? Wierd.

 

What's odd is that I had an old Rockford Fosgate 9100 HU installed before hand and no alternator noise whatsoever! Now, no matter where or how I ground my Pioneer HU, I can't stop the overwhelming alternator noise. I do have all my amps (3) grounded to different areas of the truck. Dunno why, but never ran into a problem with it. So I think I can rule that out.

I'm about to the point of taking it to a car audio shop and tell'n them to fix the problem. To h*** with the 100 bucks it'll prolly cost for labor, I can't stand the noise.

I have tried grounding to the cab floor, the actual truck frame, the (-) battery terminal, and the harness itself. NADDA! I've called Pioneer two times, the first time he recommended the (-) battery trick, failure. The next call, I get a gal who tells me to buy a noise filter for the power line. Would this be a remedy? Keep in mind, the alternator noise is VERY loud.

One last thing, would a blown fuse cause this? How? If it was a blown fuse, then there'd be no power at all to the HU. Irregardless, what ones should I check?

EDIT: When I turn the key to "accessory", just before ignition, I push down on the gas pedal and the noise goes away. Why does it go away then? I have no idea...

Thanks fella's

 

so you are getting power to your HU? If so when you crank the truck is this when you are getting the whining noise? If a bad whining noise, it could be your RCA cables and power wires to your amps. Did you separate these when you ran your wires? If not separate these and see what happens. Your original post made it seem like the HU wasnt cooperating. This whining noise wouldnt be caused by the HU; i wouldnt think. Where is the whining noise coming from: speakers or subs? But again the ground from the HU should just connect to the black/ground wire from the harness. Did you buy an aftermarket harness that connects to your Ford original harness? Im pretty sure you did; just making sure.

 

yeah, i'm getting power to my headunit. the thing is, the alternator whine is very loud.

i disconnected my RCA's from the HU, and the noise was basically non-existant, barely audible when i put my ear up to my tweeter. what is funny is why this headunit causes this noise, when my other aftermarket headunit did not.

the whining noise comes from the speakers and the subs. and yes, i am using aftermarket harnesses

-karson

 

if you still have some noise when you disconnected the RCAs from the amps, then the problem sounds like it starts with your amps and the signal from the HU just adds to it. Have you tried changing the "big 3"? Anytime I have run into alternator whine, it has stemmed from grounding issues.

 

check your ground like Rider said and if that doesnt work recheck your RCA and power. If these are run next to each other it will cause distortion and a terrible whine.

 

New GOOD grounds, try connecting them all together(HU and amps) and try grounding the negatives on your RCA's. See if that makes any difference.

Alternator wine is a grounding issue 99.9 percent of the time.

 

well, i think i know what's the issue here. the preamp grounds in the headunit itself are shot. i figured this out by connecting another wire to my ground to the HU and put the other end of that new wire around the RCA's and the sound DRASTICALLY reduced.

i guess pioneer's are notorious for bad soldering on the internal grounds. beings i bought it off Ebay from an unauthorized dealer, i hope they accept the RMA for a exchange. that is, if no one here wants to send me their Pioneer P8MP receipt

has anyone here had to deal with RMA's from unauthorized dealers? all the guidelines were followed other than having it professionally installed, which really would have made no difference in this case.