SavageX25 Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 Ok. From day one I've had alternator whine and this weird "static" interference. It's not speaker noise, since its not present when the car is on acc and the engine is not on, but it is when the engine IS on. Today I decided screw the factory ground and spliced the ground wire on the D3 and turned it into a 12-gauge and went straight to the negative terminal on the battery...no difference at all. The amplifiers, (two PDXS) and a matrix line driver, I re grounded on the chassis with the JL Master Lug (sanded down to be shiny metal, bolted on, then spray painted over to prevent rust) and I still have noise coming out of the speakers...the static interference really isn't a bad thing since you can't hear it UNLESS you put your ear up to the speaker, but the alternator whine is getting annoying, however it only does it when I go above 3k rpms (or full throttle it) and then you hear it wind down when I let off. Any ideas? D3 has a fantastic ground, as do the amplifiers. The only other thing I could think of would be a blown RCA ground within the unit itself, but I've heard of horror stories of people grounding the rca shield to the D3 chasis and BLOWING the D3 rcas grounds since they really weren't blown. What are your thoughts? I should add that almost all of the static interference goes away when I unplug the rcas from the line driver, then again that could just be because it's not getting "gained" but I dunno. Do these double-din pioneer units just naturally put out this "noise?" My buddy has a D3 and has been having noise issues too.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HiFiSi Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 Ground the RCA cables to the body of the receiver. I had the same noise and that fixed it. It's actually a common problem with Pioneers. http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13862 http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198477 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bobsyouruncle Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 Could also be a noisy alternator, especially on older cars. What is it in? If it is alternator whine, it's an easy enough fix. Just need a capacitor on the power supply for the stereo, or even better, filter it right at the alternator. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SavageX25 Posted June 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 07 Fj Cruiser..so not old. And just so I know, by grounding the rcas you mean wrap it around each shield and then ground it to the D3's chasis? It'd be easier to ground it to the mounting bracket and since those are bolted to the d3 chasis I'd think that would work too...I'll try this tomorrow. The main thing is I don't want to fry the rca ground on the inside of the D3...I'm going to get an example of the sound it puts out. I notice our D3 is nothing like that unit you pictured. We can't ground directly to the D3 rca inputs since the harness has them externally...so I guess we just ground the external ones (ones that connect to stinger rcas in my case) to the chassis? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HiFiSi Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 What I did was to take a piece small gauge power wire, like 18 or 20 gauge, then leave about 5 inches of insulation on it, strip an inch, leave an inch, strip an inch, etc. Then leave another 5 inch piece on the other end with the insulation on. So you end up with about a 20" piece of wire with six 1" sections that have been stripped. Then wrap each stripped section around the exposed metal areas of each of the RCA outputs. Then run the two 5" ends back up to the unit and ground them to two of the screws on the back of the unit. You can wrap a little electrical tape around each of the RCA cables to hold the ground wire snug, which also has the added benefit of making sure the RCA connectors don't come unhooked by acident. In the pic, the blue is where the wire still has insulation on it, the grey (wrapped around the RCA connectors) is where it's been stripped. I uses a couple of crimp on barrel type disconnects on the two wire ends going back to the AVIC, so that I could disconnect them if I had to pull the unit out rather than having to get a screwdriver behind the unit to undo the grounding screws. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SavageX25 Posted July 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Sorry it's taken me so long to get back. I redid the D3's ground w\ 12 gauge (cut and spliced) and ran it through my firewall and grounded it to the metal frame next to the battery (after sanding down, this is also where my PIAA lights and what not are sanded) but I still have the same noise. So I'll be doing this today, one question, can this SOLVE alternator whine? I mean can the D3 actually bring that whine into the system when it's grounded right, simply due to Pioneers crappy rca solders? Also, what are using to get the rest of the wire wrap off of those inch spaces? When I'm generally stripping, I just use a scissor...so I don't see how you would slide the cut part (jacket) off O.o Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HiFiSi Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Yes, it can solve that problem. It did on my D3 anyway, and one of my friend's old Pioneer head units. To get the sections of insulation off the wire, just use a razor blade. Cut around the wire on both ends of the section you want to strip, then cut it down the length of the wire between those two cuts to split the insulation and peel it off the wire. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SavageX25 Posted July 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Excellent. Thanks. One more thing...in the past I blew a D3 because I BELIEVE either a RCA fell out and hit metal, or the white and blue touched...the sound was the usual BRRRR whine and when you turn everything off it thumped. I don't want that happening again. So just so I'm positive about this, wrapping the same ground wire around white and red, is NOT going to bridge a connection between them and make them fubar my headunit right? I can't even FIND another D3 right now so I don't want to even remotely risk it. Oh, and one more thing, before doing this on all six channels, is it safe to just do it on 2? The rears are the easiest to listen to since they aren't behind a panel or anything so I'd like to test those first.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SavageX25 Posted July 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Did it....and it INCREASED my noise dramatically. It sounds like it's amplifying the D3's fan through the speakers or something. Why exactly WOULD it do this? I did it exactly like you said, cut splices, wrapped around, electrical tapped, then the two lead wires I crimped together on a ring terminal and used one of the d3 screw spots to ground it there. This seems to make it bring in noise EVEN WITH the car is only on ACC, where as the way it was before (and is now since I took out the ground) it only makes noise when the car is on. What's going on? Another thing to mention, when the RCAS are unplugged from the amps, there is only speaker noise (normal) none of the static interference crap...I'm starting to really dislike Pioneer. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HiFiSi Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 I really don't know what to tell you... if grounding the RCA's INCREASES the amount of noise... ??? I'm at a loss for what the problem would be. Sorry... I guess the last thing to do would be to test another signal source (like an mp3 or CD player with RCA outputs) plugged into the RCA cables on the D3 end. If it plays loud and clear with no noise while the engine is running, the only thing left to cause the problem is the D3. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SavageX25 Posted July 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Hm. I'm going to buy some cheap rcas and run them over the seats and see if the noise goes away...I'll be damned suprised if all 3 sets of my stingers are bad, but we'll see. I guess if that fails then I'll pick up a rca kit for the iPod, only OTHER thing I can think of is putting power filters on ignition and consistent... :-\ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mentalcase Posted July 14, 2008 Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 Im running into the same problem. I had used to have a slight whine but nothing that was too bad. I rewired the car and must have blew the d3 because now it is horrible. I tried grounding the rcas and that didnt work. The worst part is pioneer wants 200 bucks to fix it. If you find something that works please share. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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