I have a quick question. I pulled my Panasonic cq-vd6503 (no nav) to replace it with the z2. I integrated the z2 harness into the old harness used with the old head unit. Solder and heat shrinked all connections just like they were done with the panasonic, now I have the good ole ground loop whine. I pulled the z2 and popped the panasonic back in but not installed and the whine went away. Are the z series much more susceptible to engine whine? About the only difference is that the avic has a ipbus connected XM. Could the power source on the XM being creating the loop noise? I assume when the panasonic is installed, its not connected to the XM thus possible its not getting the interference (what Im trying to say is that I haven't unhooked the XM unit from power (although its connected to power/ground still) while the panasonic is installed, just not connect it to the head unit because it shouldn't).

The one other difference that I notice, is that the z2 is a SNUG fit, it had to push a little harder to get it to "seat" inside the double din because of all the extra connections on the rear, the panasonic fit without any resistance, as the z2 has the bluetooth box also lodged under the headunit in the small opening between the ashtray and the bottom of the head unit.

Thanks for any pointers, or just basic "yup, the pioneer is more susceptible to ground loop whine".

Thanks again-

Septic

Are you using an amplifier?

Cqr has the factory premium system, I have a metra factory harness adaptor that provides rca connectors for the after market head unit to use the factory amplifier.

I am going to try to break out the ground and ground it somewhere in the dash/double din. Right now, Its using the factory ground that the adaptor provides (a small 23-24 gauge wire) and that has the head unit, the parking break, and the bypass wire all connected to it.

Thanks for any help.

SepticDeath-

Something really strange is going on now. I took the ground, parking break ground, and bypass pin from 2nd connector and disconnected them from the ground on the metra premium amp adapter. So now, I get ready to connect these 3 wires to a new ground connection under the dash, and forget to crimp the last connection, VOODOO, the unit powers on? WTF? The only "thing" that is grounded now is the pioneer xm-nav hideaway box, I have this installed with +12v constant to a always +12 and grounded to the seat bolt? Its connected via the ipbus?

Anyone have any ideas as to whats going on here?

thanks

Sd

Its possessed RUN AWAY FAST!!

Other than that I have nothing to add. Bump for ya though.

I had this problem as well. I was finally forced to bypass the external amp and use the pioneer internal amp and the ground loop then went away. I also tried an isolator that reduced the hum but did not eliminate it.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062214

I had this problem as well. I was finally forced to bypass the external amp and use the pioneer internal amp and the ground loop then went away. I also tried an isolator that reduced the hum but did not eliminate it.

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062214

I had a Fosgate 400.4 amp, and was just waiting to install it in the car once I could afford the focal components that I was waiting for. I left my car today with my dad to take into my buddies shop while Im out of town in New York, they took the factory amp out of the equation and replaced the speakers with mephis audio components in the front and some decend 4way 6x9 kenwoods in the rear, I'm told by my dad that when he picked up the car tonight, that all the noise was gone. (We'll see when I get home if its really gone, but like you I gave up on the factory amp and supplied a new amp, speakers, all rca wires, and all speaker wire). We'll see like I said.

SepticDeath

Thought I would update this thread. Pioneer is known to have MEGA issues on the grounding of the rca jacks to the ground within the head unit (I'm just repeating what I have read ALL OVER the internet).

I have seen all kinds of external wire wraps where people have wrapped wire all around the barrels of ALL rca's at the head unit, and then grounded them to the frame of the radio and the noise is GONE. I also read where people use the speaker outputs and then use high level convertors to make them rca's and then feed the amps that way. This way works when you dont have a sub and sub amp that doesn't have good controls (if you have a sub and use the crossover from the head unit, this method will cause issues, as obviously 1 sub amp to the sub rca's and the whine is back, but if you have a good eq or external crossovers or crossovers on the amp, you can jump the subs input from the pass-thru on the high/mid amp and get it that way).

Anyways, 15 minutes to install the speaker wires to rca convertor and ALL while is gone, and the system is much cleaner.

Its too bad the internet and even this site is littered with fixes like this all due to bad engineering on the pioneer head units. at 2k a pop, who would figure they need to street engineering a fix for grounding the rca's

SD