Engine Noise in audio system won't go away...

I assume you still have noise when you disconnect rca's on the amp side? What type of amp? How large are your power cables? What type of front speakers (separates)? Rear speakers?

First, It has been my experience over the years that noise is induced mostly due to the routing of RCA cables near interference producing modules/Power cabling and other things. Try routing a set of RCA's over the carpet direct from deck to amp and see if noise goes away. If so, re-route your cables.

With the assumption above, you should be able to isolate the problem. If you still have noise when you disconnect RCA's at the amp, the problem will be something entirely different. There are many different things that can be causing this. But start with the RCA's and fill us in.

Crutchfield sells a $20 device that cancels out this type of noise.

With not knowing what kind of equipment you are using I can only guess. You had mentioned that you ran both power and ground to the battery. Is the head unit also being supplied power from these connections? If not, that could be part of the problem. Not that you have to have the positive side connected, but the negative side can cause ground loop noise/whine. It's subjective, but maybe try grounding your amp or amps to the car and not the battery or try running the deck ground from the amp ground.

Power cable sizes for audio amplification will depend on several factors and can also cause noise. For instance, I always follow my own rule of running at least 10 gauge power cable in ANY installation. Only in some specific type applications will I run both Positive and Negative cables to the battery (exotic cars) and they always have to be the same size as each other. I don't use anything smaller than 10 gauge ever.

I could continue, but first I would like to know exactly what you have as far as amp, deck, speakers (front/rear), size of power cables, etc. Please let us know also if the noise is just out of the front or both front and rear or more noticeable from the right side or left (equal). We will do our best to help you better understand what's going on here and how to resolve after you provide that information.

My guess would be the RCA jacks themselves. RCA jacks are really crappy when it comes to making PROPER contact for grounding. In the past I've actually had do to a fine sanding on the grounding part of both the male and female sides of the RCA jacks to get noise free operation.

If however you're getting noise with nothing at all plugged into the amp then the amp itself has a grounding issue (that can be an external grounding issue or even an internal one)

9 times out of 10 you will find a ground issue.

I would start by running all grounds to one location - and I don't mean all to the chassis. Bring your amp ground and head/deck ground together. Also ensure the battery and engine are properly grounded to the chassis. I've found many a battery to engine ground then very week engine to chassis ground etc.

You mentioned you had dedicated positive and negative runs from the battery. Isolate both positive and negative leads from your equipment to these leads. Try that connection then try with battery to chassis and equipment to chassis etc.

Bottom line, it would take to long to type all of the items I would try yet isolation and methodical tests/diagnostics are required. If you just wire up the head and speakers (no amp) do you get the engine whine?

Typically, if you had a short in the speaker wires you would have a scratchy to really loud crackle or even pop noise. That would not be a good thing.

Go ahead and try unplugging the RCA's at the amp and let us know if you still have noise. If not, go ahead and ground your amp close to where it is (not to battery) and install the ground loop isolator. Try the module on both sides of the RCA (deck side first, then amp side) and see which makes a difference. Hopefully your problem will be resolved.

I can say without hesitation that it's possible one piece of the puzzle is bad. Meaning your amp is most likely experiencing some interior difficulties. Maybe faulty or defective? With more entry level equipment where costs are low, you end up getting parts that can go bad with the slightest bump or touch. Just be aware that this is a possibility.

Let us know if you still have noise after that...

Sorry, got lag...

Very nice,
I had a 76 Trans Am with a transplanted Chevy LS6/454 crate motor. All said and done she had near 800 HP on a cheater/NOS system. All under the hood with a nice street / stock look. I was ahead of my time back in 1981 - I had the typical two 6x9s in the corners of the rear deck yet added two 10 inch drivers between those. Powered by two 400W amp/EQs for bass only. I was a hard working HS then College student. OK, you've brought back some great memories..... Sold it in 93, regret it sometimes.

Seriously, check your engine grounds. You should have a minimum of one cable between the engine and the front subframe then a second between engine and the firewall to ground the entire chassis. All connections need to be with clean, non-painted surfaces. Near all engine whine issues involve "grounding" issues.
Go from there.

Again... it's been my experience that 80% of the time it's the crappy design of the rca plugs that makes the noise.

And the noise filters... I don't think I have ever seen one that actually works... just more crappy rca connections with the potential to go bad.

Glad to hear you pretty much got it figured out. Sorry for the late reply yesterday, I was typing while you and bigbarney were touching on the main problem. RCA's are always the first thing to look at and then grounding. Noise can drive one crazy, especially when in a car environment. Nice car by the way!

That all depends. Wire is wire ofc vs ofc or CCA vs CCA. Now remember that you are running the risk of a fire if you use to small of a wire gauge and have to large of a current draw.

I didn't see anyone mention putting a choke in series with the +12V feeds. Can work miracles and very cheap.

Hi can someone please tell me how to get a picture on my profile. Also how the hell do i start a new thread of my own, its really bugging me cant find it anywhere!

Look up Avatar in this FAQ section. All your questions are answered there.

Yeee I have seen this link and it tells me to click the link 'create new thread' or something like that but I don't see it on my screen? maybe i got to be a paid member to create new threads or something =/ Well all I wanted to do was ask a question with regards to system break in/burn in so I will fire away here on this post...

Basically I have subwoofer system consisting of: Sony Xplod head unit, two vibe blackair door speakers and tweeters (360w max/ 120w rms), vibe space 2x12" ported subwoofer enclosure (6000w max/ 2000w rms), two blackair amps (one amp for each sub speaker) and a delta splitter signal box.

What I wanted to know is not whether system break in exists or not because I know for fact it does to some extent, but what the best way to break in the system was (vibe recommends 30 hours at low/mid volume at mid bass and then graudally build from there).

I left it on my drive playing at very low volume 5 (max volume on head unit is 34) for about 8 hours continuously on repeat. I heard that to get any sort of productive burn in you have to play at at least mid volume because it wont work the speakers at all at such low volumes otherwise. However when i checked after 8 hours of playback on low volume my speakers were slightly warmed up and i could see the subs vibrating a lil so surely they must be working a tad bit right?

I do drive round normally with volume 20 or so to break them in but if im not driving and i dont want my neighbours to hear it playing on the drive I play it low volume with windows wound up. I want to know if this will still help with the break in process or will it only work when playing at mid volumes?

Thanks guys, any help with this or how to get the most out of my system in general would be much appreciated! =D

have you upgraded all the rca interconnects - got to think that this would be the noise issue