aftermarket radio noise (shift solenoid)

qhuff82

LVC Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Location
midland
I did a search and saw people saying a buzz sound in the speakers was from a bad ground or coils. Possible wire noise from the wires being close to the rca's. Mine was professionally installed and not low end. When the guy I bought it from picked it up it had noise when he drove it. My friends at the shop brought it back in and found that when they pulled the shift solenoid fuse there was no noise threw the radio. They said they tried noise blockers and something else and no luck getting rid of the noise. The noise was not there with the factory system in it. All I have is the old stock amp and no speakers or head unit. Couldn't tell you what stereo was in it. It has all new wires to everything but the harness to the car for power and what not. He drove it for about a year and a half and just felt with it. I don't want the sound and wondering if the shift solenoid is going bad. Is there a way to check it. Just trying to nip something in the butt before it strands me or annoys me. Thanks guys in advance.
Quin
 
I don't see how the shift solenoid would affect the ground loop noise. Yes, the tone does change when you drive and shift through the gears (same thing with mine.) Take your car to another shop, a ground loop isolater should resolve the problem.
 
I got off the phone with him and he said he put one on and it didn't work. Its the only car he has ever seen do this in 15 years of installing systems. I'm going to put a second battery in it today (I'm hoping) and see if that helps.
 
Is there an aftermarket amp being installed here? Also, if he's not grounding the isolator to bare metal then that could be the issue.
 
Yes. There's a directed 5 channel amp. He told me he doesn't know if it will work or not but it's worth a try. Need the extra reserve anyway. Took two caps out because they were useless for me.
 
Power and ground go right to the battery. Rca's and remote are ran together. But that would cause the shift solenoid fuse to be pulled and the noise to go away. It would still have the noise. I think I'm going to put my roll out screen in and see if it has the issue also. If it doesn't than its the head unit. It just seems odd that the shift solenoid fuse being pulled stops the buzz
 
Not to say anything bad about your pro since I don't know his work, but some of the installs I've seen that was performed by professionals looks like they were professional paper hangers, not professional stereo installers. Being a pro doesn't necessarily mean the guy does good work so I'd not take the guy's word as gospel. You might even take it by another shop for a second opinion.

Now, for my suggestions which are not based on me being a stereo install pro, but based on me being a telecom tech who has seen some weird sources of electrical interference in his career:

Where exactly is the wiring running from for the new parts? If it's run alongside the trans tunnel then moving it away from the trans tunnel might help. You want to be at least a foot away from possible interference points.

Was the power wire twisted around the ground? If not, doing this can help as twisting the wire will cancel out interference. You're looking for a pretty tight twist, like 2-3 twists per inch on a 14ga wire. You can also install a grounded shield on the wiring, grounding both ends of the shield on the power lines and grounding one side of the signal wire, at the amp.

Was the power line run separate from any speaker wires or were they run alongside each other? They should be at least a foot apart, and when they come together at the amp they need to come in at the amp at a 90 degree angle to each other for as long as possible.

Have you checked to see if all vehicle grounding points are good? A corroded body to frame, frame to engine or body to engine ground point can cause radio noise.

Where was power taken from on the entire system? Was any of it taken from a wire that shares the fuse that was pulled? If so, moving to a power wire from a different fuse may help. I know main amp power won't come from there, but if the radio is getting any power feed from a wire that shares that fuse it might be bleeding over.

Where is the amp and the stereo grounded? Disconnecting the ground from wherever it is and running a separate ground wire from the amp and the stereo directly to the battery may help.

Any unterminated wire can act as an antenna. That's essentially what an antenna is. Any loose, unused wires need to be terminated, or removed as close to the connector as possible (leaving enough to splice on a new wire if necessary) to eliminate it from acting as an antenna. This is directed at any wiring adapters as they are designed to accommodate as many different stereos and vehicles as they can. These adapters may be connecting to the stereo on one side but nothing on the other, effectively turning that wire into an antenna which can then receive interference and bleed it into the stereo signal.

Hope some of this helps.
 

Members online

No members online now.
Back
Top