Faded

I need some advice on what to look for in eliminating the engine noise that screams through my speakers. Thanks in advance.

mtnfreak

Head to Radio Shack or Crutchfield.com and look for a Noise Suppressor. Splice it into your radio's power line and that whine will go away.

L33T35T 4Runner

i would suggest this same thing, but theres one problem. crutchfields noise suppressor only goes up to 14 gauge. most stereos use atleast 8, if not better. i use 8 in mine... my friend uses 2 gauge. that noise suppressor wouldnt be good enough...

mozzie

are you running an amp? alternator noise can occur when the rca and the power cable are run together..if thats the case have them run apart on opposite ends of the cabin...this might help.

Faded

Rockford Fosgate head unit wired to factory wiring via Metra connector. This runs to three MTX amps, a 2300 and two 280s via Phoenix Gold shielded cable. Power cable is ran through the firewall and down the middle of the cab on the right side of the transmission tunnel. Signal cables are routed over to the driver's side kick panel and back next to and past the driver's door/door sill. The amps are temporarily on the floor of the X-tra cab (untill I can get this figured out). Power cable is 2 gauge and splits to 4 & 8 near the amps. The two smaller amps power 4" and 6.5" speakers which emit engine noise. The larger amp powers three 10 " 12 ohm MTX Thunder 5000s. No engine noise through the subs (because of the filtering of the crossover I'm sure).

:pat: Should have been a lil' more descriptive, sorry.

rpeAMP

Before you go buy anything, do some simple checks such as making sure your grounds are tight.

Also, I would ground all the amps at a single point. You also might want to try a different grounding point than the one that you currently have.

mtnfreak

All good info, but I'm pretty sure your noise is coming from the power system (especially if it's high-pitched and rises and falls with engine RPM). For your set-up, you may need to go to a specialty store to get the noise filter. Anything that draws power directly from the truck will need one. If your amps are powered by the receiver, then one filter will do.

tank_bmb

http://www.termpro.com/articles/noise.html

Joec500

I hate engine noise. I have had all the problems and used all the methods above.

First I would confirm which amp is making the noise, you do this by unplugging the RCA's from each amp while the engine is running and see which RCA's cause the engine noise, because if you know it's only the fronts or only the rears that will cut down the work you have to do.

Then I would either move the RCA's away from the Power or get higher quality shielded RCA's if you haven't done so.

Also the noise supressor i got from Radio Shack is the lazy man's way to filter out the noise. I believe they call it a ground loop isolator, but I am told they take away some the sound quality, but I use this on my rear fill speakers, so I don't notice any sound degrdation.

Also the grounding is VERY important, make sure all the paint is scraped off the grounding point so you get a good Ground.


also it's very important that the amp's mounting feet do not directly contact any metal, because that can also cause engine noise, make sure you have some rubber or carpet between the Amp chassis and the the metal mounting point.



Hopefully one or a combination of these tips work for you.



Joe

Faded

Thanks to all. The above link was very helpfull. I'll try a few different things tonight and see what I come up with. Thanks again!

MTL_4runner

Since the noise supressors are smaller gage wire you can run several (use 2-3 of them per 8 gage cable) in parallel (meaning all the tails are crimped together on either side....soldering works better if you have a large iron) to reduce the resitance going to your equipment. That way you have low resitance with the benefits of the filters. The make larger filters which look cool but are quite expensive too.

Follow the link from tank_bmb first to make sure that the power is causing the noise before doing the mod. Best of luck with it!

JBM

I had the same problem a while ago. I had tried everything and it didn't work...finally, I tried this and it worked and I haven't had a problem since.

Instead of running the head unit ground wire to the factory ground wire in the wire cluster...try running the ground wire from the head unit to a bare surface under the dash and cap the factory ground wire.

I had learned that the hard way...I thought it was the RCA's at first, then I double checked all of my amp ground points...no luck...I was going nuts...but since grounding the head unit to that bare spot under the dash...it's been great...no noise at all...

try it and it should work...

Duffdog

ha ha... engine noise!!

thats why you pay us installers 60 dollars an hour to get rid of it. Heres some neat info in case you didnt already know-- no car with a variable intensity IC regulator manufactured after 1990 should have engine noise. Even if you run the RCAs and the power wire taped together. The REAL problem with engine noise is usually not the install--- its usually cheap equipment and or broken ground traces in the deck or the amp which resulted from someone yanking on the RCA cable to get it out. This yanking then broke the ground trace inside either the deck or the amp. all the "fixes" like noise attenuators or ground loop isolators or even moving the rca away from the power wire are band aids for having equipment that has improper impedance matching-- like if you have a "swap meet 400" amplifier-- not a kenwood or Xtant. Installing for 10 yrs has shown this to be true, engine noise is the result of f#*ked up equipment or f*&ked up installers trying to install it. Dont give yourself a headache trying to isolate which connection you did wrong, you probably did them all right-- instead try switching the amp with the exact same setup-- then switch the deck, after you tried that, switch the RCA-- theres nothing else besides these three components that could cause noise ( if everything else is connected well of course ).

Tim

Cebby

My experience points to a bad ground location. Do you have the amps grounded back by them? I see your truck is an 89. Do you have any rust on the body/frame? On an older rig, I've seen the ground path broken due to rust. Your ground cables need to be the equal gauge to your power wires. Check all your ground wires in the engine bay also.

Lucky

You might also want to check the spark plug leads, they may be breaking down which is a sure fire way to get engine noise. Another good way to check is to put a portable radio next to the caqr when the engine is running and see if you get any interferance from it. If the Plug leads are breaking down or don't have good quality connections then you will get pretty severe radio interferance.

Cheers

MTL_4runner

Good info there! Sounds like you did 1 or 2 installs yourself too....

Faded

Big thanks to everyone that has contributed. It is indeed the deck that is making the noise, and as many have pointed out I believe it to be the ground. Right now it is grounded to the factory wiring harness. I'll try grounding it to bare metal under the dash somewhere. I'm confident that this will solve the problem.

As stated above, I haven't used janky equipment, Rockford head and MTX amps. Plugs/wires were recently changed so I can rule them out. Grounding wire for the amps is equivilant in size to the power wire. I really think it's the head unit ground. I've done a few installs before, but never had a problem with noise untill now. Thanks again for all the help, I'll post back when I get it resolved.