KingPadmei

So I just bought a navigational system, and I am extemely happy with it. However, the audio sounded terrible on it. I figured out that it was the FM transmitter just being bad quality, so I hardwired it. Now I get a semi loud whine, that has a pitch that directly corresponds to my RPMs. Anyone head of this before?

tweetertc

yes.... its called an alternator whine... you need a better ground for all the devices involved...

theunclesam

It's called a ground loop and it's a pretty easy fix. Just like tweeter said, better grounds or a common ground will fix it.

Sciontistical_One

iTrader: (2)

Wow, I saw the title of the thread and already started thinking about a device that reads your RPM's out loud when you hit redline, kinda like Mr. Zulu's voice coming from the dash... "Warp 2.7... Warp 2.8..."

(I'm at work and it's uber-slow today...)

Maybe KITT's voice from Knight Rider...

engifineer

Sssshhhhh! some idiot that is going to someday work for toyota will hear you and design that.. then we will have one more noise making item in the car

I swear, between seatbelt chimes, key in the ignition with door open chimes and alarms that make noises (which thank god the scion security does not) cars get more annoying every day

KingPadmei

Ok, so next question, I am not exactly super savy with all this, how am I to do that? As far as I know, the only thing I have thats grounded that I installed is my amp. So what am I doing here?

engifineer

Your ground needs to be connected as close to the amp as possible (shortest ground wire you can use) and to a good solid piece of metal. So no metal/machine screws. More like a seat bracket bolt or something else that is bolted to a solid piece of the chasis. The metal that the ground is connected to should also be free of paint.

iKONA

Lol I was thinking the same and thinking that must be annoying.

BZinn1

Warp 2.8.........must be turbocharged.........my NA only gets warp 1.4..........

KingPadmei

It can't be my amp because the sound works perfect if I don't have the AUX plugged in. Also, I have a 3in cable leading directly to a screw thats screwed into my chassis. I think its grounded ok. The only thing that isn't grounded is my Scoche thing that I got at walmart for like $6 to wire my amp into my back speakers. But it also has worked perfect for months, and still works if I am not using AUX, and if anything this noise is coming from the front speakers.

KingPadmei

Now that I know the wording to use I went through my barrage of searches and I just bought a Ground Loop
Isolator. Will let you guys know if it fixes it.

theunclesam

^^^ It might fix it, but in my experience, it doesn't. You should read more about what a ground loop is, and how it's caused. Then you can begin to troubleshoot your problem.

KingPadmei

Ok, didn't end up getting one. I tried moving some cables around to no avail. Not sure what I need to do here....

theunclesam

Just to make sure, is the sound coming from your door speakers or through your sub? Also, if your door speakers, do you have an amp hooked to those, or do they get their sound directly from the navi unit?

KingPadmei

The sound is coming from my front speakers as far as I can tell, and my sub is hooked to the back speakers, so its not my sub I don't think. It has something to do with my center console AUX jack and my cigg lighter ports. I thought maybe it was because I was running the power cord for my Navi right next to the AUX audio wire, but I have since moved it and the sounds remains.

theunclesam

Is this a portable navi unit or one that you replace the factory radio with (installed)?

KingPadmei

Portable

theunclesam

ah..my thinking about this has become very clear dude. :D

Your problem is the fact that your portable unit gets its power from your cig plug, or that one under the armrest (right?). If so, this is causing the ground loop as the grounding on this plug probably isn't so great.

Can you adjust the level of the input? (I dont have a factory radio, so I'm not sure if you can..).

If so, you could turn the navi volume down a bit, and turn the level input on the factory radio up.

KingPadmei

Actually thats worse. The noise appears to remain consistant with the radio volume, so tunring down the navi just makes the noice more noticable. However, if I turn the navi up, it makes a scratchy noise from my tweeters.

theunclesam

But if you unplug the navi, everything is fine?

Will the navi unit run without being plugged in (batteries)?

If so, try this test:

1. Plug the navi into the aux port without being plugged into power

2. Try an iPod or something in the aux port without being plugged into power

3. Try the same device as above, but power it from the same port as the navi

That will determine if it's the navi, power, or the aux plug that's causing the problem.