Thanks Keith from Clarion,

He had EVERYTHING to do with this.

----- Original Message -----


From: keithp@Crutchfield.com

To: Rob

Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 10:35 AM

Subject: Newest Round Of Information



I’ve done pretty much everything I am going to be able to on my own at this point, and I want to let everyone know what I have found.

My test setup was this - I had the sub set up directly beneath an alpine radio, using speaker level connections (no RCA jacks) and sharing the ignition power, constant power and ground of the radio. I tuned the radio to a station where the stereo indicator on the radio would flicker occasionally, and I had just a hint of high end static. As soon as I powered the sub up, the station faded and stereo indicator was gone on the radio. Strong stations seemed to be affected little, or not at all.

First thing I did was steal a ferrite core from a Sony XM Radio (because the Clarion ones still aren’t here, that’s a different story) and tried it on different places in the wire. I got the best results from having it located all the way up by the plug that says SOURCE (but still between the amp and source plugs). The closer I got it to the sub itself, the less it seemed to do.

I found that moving the wire loom around was making a lot of difference in my test setup, so I played with that a while. I discovered that if the wires got anywhere near the bottom of the sub where the speaker is, the noise would increase dramatically. When I routed them directly away and up, the noise was minimized. Also I found if I made one loop, as big as my fist, in the wire, reception would improve fairly dramatically. More loops made the situation worse.

I also removed the ground from the harness and applied it directly to the body of the radio. Doing this was the ONLY way I could ever get the sub to turn on without affecting reception at all. This still seems to me to be the best solution, as when doing this, and not doing anything else that I will talk about in this mail (other than keep the wires from under the unit) the reception was no different with or without the sub.

I have had this setup running for three days now. I received one report that the fix worked for awhile, then the noise came back in. I have not experienced this.

OK, now its gonna get weird. I want to tell you some other things I found on the off chance that it could help one of you. I was playing with different grounding spots and I discovered something I cannot explain. I connected a 16” of wire to the ground lead of the harness (without disconnecting the ground from its existing point). Before I could attempt to touch the other end of the wire to anything, I noticed the reception improved noticeably. It didn’t matter where I positioned it or moved it to, the reception was better. I cant explain why, never run into anything like it before. Touching this wire to the chassis of the radio or any other point made no difference either. Just to see what happened, I took the wire off the ground and made the same connection with the power wires, had the same effect.

Also the Harness end that plugs into the Sub has an extra ground wire with a ring connector. I found that ANY connection of this wire made the problem worse. I suggest that anyone with this wire grounded disconnect it before trying anything else.

I am trying to get in contact with Clarion to see when we can expect these ferrite cores. Seems a little ridiculous that we dont have them yet.

Hopefully the next thing you will hear from me is that the cores are shipping. Honestly, from the testing I did, grounding the sub directly and solely to the chassis of the radio seemed to be very effective and I suggest that to everyone. I also think that making sure the wires dont loop back under the sub, and that you put one loop in the wires would be advised as well.

If you have any other questions or problems, feel free to contact me. Please let me know once you have tried this and what the results were. I have many people asking me what kind of feedback I am getting, and I haven’t received much.

Thank you

Keith

Crutchfield Technical Support

techsupport@crutchfield.com

 

Thanks Keith and Rob,

I did pretty much as suggested and found my reception to improve quite a bit with the single distant station I tried. I was never able to get it at all *before* the sub installation and now it comes in in stereo with almost no noise.

As of now my wire harness goes behind the sub and up along the drivers side up to the radio. It will probably get changed.

I just joined the 2 ground wires at the sub and ran a single wire directly to the radio similar to the picture. The thin ground wire in the harness was cut near the radio.

I had 2 ferrite core pairs in my junk box which I put on. They probably came off of a monitor or came with a video card if that helps anyone. Installed one at the sub and one at the other end next to the white plug.

Also put a fist sized loop in the harness.

Will update after a bit more playing.

 

Update...

While my reception improved in the garage, when I took out for a test drive my reception faded in and out on the single distant station I tried.

The "fist sized loop" was down low close to the sub.

I picked up the ferrite cores today at Radio Shack and put them on either end of the source plug as shown. I had only one before.

The "Fist sized loop" I moved up closer to the radio at the same time. Reults were erratic depending on where the sub was sitting on the floor and whether or not I had a hand on the wire harness.

What worked for me was to use a third ferrite at the sub and a test drive up and down the driveway confirms it's better. And I seem to have better luck when all wires went up and did not drop down close to the carpet.

So for now I have the 2 ferrite cores at the radio and one at the sub with the "Fist sized loop" moved close to the source plug. I'll update tomorrow sometime on my results.

BTW Rob, you mentioned "Keith from Clarion" in your post above. I'm sure Keith wouldn't mind another paycheck since he's doing Clarion's work for them, but he does have a "Crutchfield" address.

I am going to remember how well Clarion took care of us when it comes to future purchases.

 

Update on the update. Drove 65 miles each way on a trip today and did not lose any stations at all. I was even in a dead area where most radios fade out and did not lose reception.

 

Hey Rob,

I was away for a week giving training at another call center, so I haven’t had the time Id like to keep up with this. In the meantime the cores came in from Clarion and I had all them shipped out today. I’m glad that between all of us we were able to figure out a solution for the problem, even though we got little to no help from Clarion.

The results that I’ve received by the people who have responded have all been positive, so that’s encouraging. I’m hoping the worst is behind us at this point. Thanks for taking care of posting this information for me and keeping people up to date. I appreciate you handling that part of it.

If you have any other questions or problems, feel free to contact me.

Thank you

Keith

Crutchfield Technical Support

techsupport@crutchfield.com

 

I was thinking of getting one of these subs. How do they sound?
I've always mounted my subs in the trunk and was wondering how it felt to have it coming from the front?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

 

I am curious how it sounds and looks as well? Final install pics possibly?

-Brian

 

A friend of mine recently had the Clarion camo sub installed on his '02 Lariat SCrew. He kept his premium factory HU and changer. The only thing that was changed out was the door speakers with Infinity 5x7 speakers. The sub will not rattle the neighbor's window, but it has a good thump to fill the low end. The color was suppose to be "tan" to match his interior, but was more of a grey color that matched his carpet more than his dash. Also he had to modify his ash tray/cup holder by trimming the lower plastic so it could be opened or closed since it is a very tight fit. It was either that or trimming the top corner of the sub console.

 

 

Cool, I'll pass it along to my friend. He doesn't mind the different tan color, it blends with his carpet and gives it a nice accent against his dash. Thanks for the info Mike.

 

Thanks for all the work on the Clarion !!

I just installed the sub and it looks great.
I am having the problem with radio reception tho.

I just would like to confirm that this "fix" is done correctly by me.

If I understand it right you cut the SMALL ground wire at the sub, then splice another ground wire to it so its long enough to go up to the radio. --- Is that right??

Then you cut the OTHER black wire right before the T-harness and splice both wires together with a solderless connecter.

After that, just connect to the radio chassis, make your loops and things should be good to go?

I hope I understood you right.
The one i was unsure about was the small black ground.....you never said to splice another wire onto it or not. I just figured thats what to do since you had BOTH ground wires hooked up at the radio.

Thanks for all the hard work!!

Glade

 

I don't know about the 2002 SCrew, but in my 2001 there used to be an air duct for the heater on top of the transmission "hump". That is what was causing the Clarion camo sub to be too tall. It would have required the trimming of my ash tray and cup holder. I thought that would have looked bad, so my friend that was doing the install (he does that type of work for a living) suggested we look underneath. That's when we found the air ductwork. It provides forced air heating into the rear of the cab by going under the carpet on top of the transmission "hump". The air exits the duct under the captains chairs into the rear of the SCrew cab.

My installer friend used a utility knife to cut out the ductwork at just enough width to make the Clarion camo sub fit in between it and the bottom (black part) of the dash. This provided enough clearance on top so we did not need to do any ashtray or cup holder trimming. The drawback is that the force air ductwork to the rear of the cab is no longer functional. I don't have passengers back there very often anyway. When I do, I simply use the panel vents on high fan speed.

Here's pics of the completed Clarion camo sub install in my 2001 SCrew - https://www.f150online.com/galleries...w.cfm?num=4502

 

The majority of folks have simply trimmed the bottom lip on the front of the camo sub to make it work rather than actually cutting on the truck. I used a dremel to file mine down... worked like a champ.

RP