06cobaltLT1

Ok I guess I will start with my setup...Currently Eclipse H/U, Focal 6.5 components in the door and factory in the rear deck. I have an old Soundstream amp pushing the Focals. I also have Sirius radio..right now hooked up via FM, it was via AUX but I changed it out..

I have everything from the HU running down the side of the passenger door, RCA's and remote for the amp. The power is coming from the battery in the trunk, and the ground is going to the battery. I used one of those fancy battery terminals with 3 terminals that has one for the battery and 2 for whatever. Anyway, I have a really bad ground loop that is beginning to annoy me beyond measure. This is what I have done so far. Removed RCA's from amp so basically only have the rear speakers running off the deck, hum is still there. Grounded amp casing still hums, grounded RCA's still hums. Ran seperate ground to radio ground and still hums this bypassed the radio plug. The only thing that seemed to help quite a bit was I removed the ground from the battery going to that flimsy piece of metal in the trunk and sanded it down to bare metal and reattached the ground. That cut the hum down a bit but it is still there. So my main question is where are you guys grounding your amps and stuff? I think I should run another ground straight to the frame from the battery.

Art

yellowltcoupe22

i've got mine hooked to the negative side of the battery and haven't had and problems with it huming or anything like that.. i still have a stock head unit though but i doubt that has anything to to with it.. they make a thing for the ground loop that you can hook up and is suppose to stop the problem.. its called a sound supressor and most all audio places carry them and it just plugs in through your rca's.. wal-mart even carries the schoche brand of them but i dont know bout the quality of that one.. ebay has a lot of different kinds for fairly cheap too..

06cobaltLT1

Sorry, I forgot to mention I tried one of those and it made the problem a little worse. I personally dont like them and think most of them are crap to begin with. I prefer to fix the problem. If not I may have to take everything out and wait for the turbo!!!!!

Art

red07g5

You grounded straight to the battery and got the problem, grounding anywhere else can only be worse.

Its probably your headunit. Check its ground.

yellowltcoupe22

i've never used one of them before.. i just always re done my ground any time i've had a problem to fix it..

if its not the ground on the head unit try moving the rca's and remote wire away from each other cuz your not suppose to run any kind of power wire next to the rca's.. it can cause interference and make sounds through the speakers like your having now..

fastfreddy7

I ve got some interesting contradictions to a few things stated in this thread, so here goes. As far as where have I grounded my amp, well, its actually grounded to the chassis. I used my dremel to strip the paint from a small spot in the trunk, and then used a self tapping sheet metal screw to screw the ground wire with a ring terminal on it down to the chassis. As far as the rest of the wiring, my rcas actually have the remote wire built into the casing for the rcas, and I havent had any problems with noise. All of the wiring from my amp in the trunk to the h/u in the dash is run straight up the middle under the center console. My setup for now is an Alpine CDA-9887, to a RF punch 150 amp with 4ga wiring for power and ground. As far as the noise, I would slowly trouble shoot. Are you getting the nosie with no amp? if not then you know its somewhere with the amp, however, if its still there with no amp than you can continue trouble shooting from there.

yellowltcoupe22

im not saying your wrong cuz i have seen the rca's with the built in remote wire but every audio shop i've every been to and all the wiring diagrams i've seen always say its best to keep power wires away from rca's cuz it may cause interference.. that being said i have ran the wires beside each other before and never had a problem out of it.. im just saying its a possibility thats what it could be..

Spun

iTrader: (1)

Your problem may not lay within your ground. Sounds more like your RCA's are the problem, maybe there pinched somewhere, maybe the prong on one of them is bent, The first deck I had was a panasonic the rca's came off the back in a dongle, it gave me no problems. When I switched to a JVC that hag RCA plugs in the back, thats when problems started. Since there is so little space to fit the HU, the RCA's were getting jammed up in the back causing an awful whine. I had to rework the way the HU sat in there to fix the problem, like this


I just flipped the kit upside down and cut the tabs off the top

When it came to grounds, If you take your multimeter and set it to resistance (the one that beeps) then take one end and touch the Batt ground and take the other end and poke around you'll find a few good grounds , try the bolts that hold the ant in, on the passenger side up high in the back. It came back as 0 resistance on the multimeter so I grounder my cap to it
The bolts that hold your back seats/seatbelts in should work also
ADDED- I just read the whole post bout your ground, using a self tapping screw to sheet metal is not always a good Idea, use an existing bolt as that is the only thing that can be connected to the chasis. It needs to be touching something thats connected to the framework of the car. Notice where the ground wire is going from the capp

make sure its only 24 inches max in length

06cobaltLT1

All good advice...I must admit, I think I have some cheap RCA's. I know they are not what I am used to...I will also run another ground from the battery and another one from the radio. To answer a few questions..Yes the noise is still there with the amp removed just not as prominent. I am sure the ground on the battery is crap..just a flimsy piece of metal, it bent when I was taking the ground off, and I mean it twisted like hell. I had to hold it with my free hand just to be able to put enough strength to pull that sucker off. Please keep the advice coming. Anyone have some advice on some good RCA's. I would like to order from subwoofersetc.com if possible.

thanks,
Art

Switt23

iTrader: (7)

Yeah I use the rear seat belt clamps. Take a dremel or screw driver and scrap the metal a little then bolt the seat belt back down.

You want to make sure that your RCAs are ran as far away from any power wire as possible. The reason is you get "road Noise" or basically the rca's pick up interference from the current.

Any RCAs with a thicker casing and gold plating.

halfj99

i used the antenna bracket

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

damn thats some crazy ****.... few pointers to try to see if it gets better or worse

1 unplug the rcas at the amp and using a mp3 player and a 3.5 to rcas adapter play something and see if it gets better or worse. Better means problem within the HU.

2 Using a seperate strand of wire while playing Unplug one rca jack from the amp and touch one side of the wire to that rca neg (outer case) and the other side to a ground... better means rcas are bad or pinched or whatever. buy new ones

3 get a DMM and put it on the continunity and measure the difference from the amp ground (on the amp itself) and a seperate ground point. You may also want to try the batt neg terminal and a seperate ground (post numbers u get)

4 change the battery ground. This may be a lil extreme but its worth a shot. Try upgrading wire to 2g or 1/0 and keep the run short. Sand down the paint very well and make sure the metal looks like damn polished alum or chrome on all areas the ground will be touching

good luck and let me know

blacksssc05

i grounded mine to the neg side...try that

blu3_v1p3r

iTrader: (6)

you want your ground to be below what ever it is that your grounding, in this case an amp... i'v ehad mo prob grouinding mine to the same place the batt, ground is

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

physical height of the ground doesnt matter

Spun

iTrader: (1)

EmperorJJ1 wrote:
Nice trick. I'll have to keep it mind. Thanks
I took his advice and replaced my Batt. ground. What a difference, I was still getting a little headlight dim when it was turned up high. I got a 1 gauge wire that was 12 inches long. I also took a wire brush atachment and the dremel and chewed the paint off the grounds. Best 20 bucks I have ever spent.
Question- What are you using to interface the HU with the car? They may be $$$ but the damn GMOSLAN's are crap, they come with RCA's that look like there from 1972 and shoody workmanship to say the least.
If you disconnected the amp and the sound was still there then your looking at the wrong end of the car. Take the Multi meter, put one end to your HU's ground and with the other end start poking around the metal that sits behind the HU, you might be grounding out somewhere back there, in this case 0's and 1's are not your friend