sleepyhead87

I was grease monkeying it this past weekend and installed an amplifier and some coaxials in my car. It sounded ok not driving around, however, there seems to be noise coming from my car. Whenever I touch anything related to electrical on my car (turn signal, head lights, etc), I would hear my speakers pop.

Signal left --- pop. Signal right --- pop. Headlights on --- Pop. You get the idea. I don't get any engine noise, and I've made sure to ground the amp on unpainted metal in my trunk.

I'd appreciate some help discovering the cause of the noise.

Details:
Car is a 95 civic lx
Amp is a Profile AP740
Speakers: Alpine SPR-17Cs

jaggerwild

How many watts is the AMP? What is the gauge of power wire your using? What is the ground gauge?
What side did you run the power cable down? What side did you run the RCA cables down? Where is the turn on coming from? Is the AMP new or used? Gaines turn up, how far? Have you tried a ground loop isolator?

My magic ball isn't working to night.....

mporettim

For the speakers to be affected like that it should be something with the speaker inputs. So something is up with your RCA's or other part of your input chain.

sleepyhead87

The amp is 60x4 watts at 4 ohms. I'm using 4 gauge power and ground. The power cable is being run down the driver side of the car, while the RCA is running down the passenger side. I'm assuming turn on = remote wire? I plugged it directly into my stock head unit's turn on. The amp's used and I have the gain about 20%. I didn't hear any distortion, so I kinda went nuts on the gain.

No, I haven't tried a ground loop isolator... I thought ground loops were only if I was using multiple amps?

I guess I'll try turning the gain all the way down, however, the volume is quite weak and the music was faint. It's like someone talking softly. You can hear 'em but it's not crystal clear unless you try really hard to understand 'em.


......................................I just realized something actually. My RCAs DO get near the power and ground wire when I get to my rear seat and they have to cross over to the other side of the car to plug into the amp.

Oops.

I'm going to try first turning the gain all the way down, and if that doesn't solve it, I'm going to open up my carpet and find a way to reroute the RCA cables. I'll report my findings soon.

Thanks for the suggestions.

mporettim

If your RCA's are crossing at 90 degrees the power wire will have no effect. I meant that maybe the insulation on RCA's wore off or something and are being grounded so are therefore in connection with power wires.

This is an unusual situation. Good luck

lcurle

Change your remote wire bud, that is the main cause for "speaker pop"

sleepyhead87

Do you think you can explain why the remote wire would cause the speaker to pop like that? Thanks.

And; an update: I've tried turning down the gain, and the only difference it made was the pop was barely noticeable, but I could still tell that the sound cut out for about a second before resuming.

And.... the RCA rerouting did jack crap which I found to my dismay was what mproettim said shortly afterward.

lcurle

The remote wire should be getting about 5-6 volts to tell the amplifier "Time to turn on" if you are getting more voltage through that relay, the amp has to deal with the left over power, easiest way, send it to the speakers. Also, you can check the current running through your RCA's. Normally they are a low voltage (1-2v) some aftermarket headunits are running a 7v output to make the signal stronger, you can tell becuase all the speakers connected to that amplifier will pop when turning on, and off.

sleepyhead87

Hm, now I'm confused. So, does the remote wire send out about 5-6 volts the entire time my electrical is on, and then stops sending those volts when I take out my key? If it does, what's causing fluctuations in the voltage whenever I use my turn signals?

The speakers pop when I first turn on my turn signals, but are no longer affected by the turn signals afterward. If I quickly turn my blinkers on then off then back on, the pop doesn't occur on the second on. It only happens when I wait about a second or two since last turning the blinkers on and off.

So, my question is: Is it really my remote wire?

lcurle

where is your remote wire connected to?? sounds like the lights.

sleepyhead87

It's connected to my stock head unit's turn on.

jaggerwild

It's a cheap AMP!
Do you have access to another amp to swap out?

sleepyhead87

Haha, I knew it was gonna be a cheap amp... I guess I'll live with for now until I can actually get a decent amp. The only other amp I could swap in is a mono amp. Lmao. I guess that solves the problem :X

lcurle

where ya at? if close enough I can toss you a used 4 channel from our backroom.

sleepyhead87

Haha, I'm all the way in California, and according to your location: Kansas is a ways off :X

jaggerwild

Yeah,
Not sure why I guess they use cheap caps in the board, unless it's used in witch I have seen the caps wear out too. You might open it see if you see any swollen/leaking one's then check and see if you could get the same on Flee bay or radio snack.

carsey

Change your ground. This is the most common cause of noise in a system such as alternator whine.

sleepyhead87

@jagger

I haven't the slightest clue on how to open an amplifier, and I'm also very lazy. I decided that I'd just live with it, as I knew I was buying a cheap amp, and wait until I have money for a more decent amp.

@carsey
Hi, although I would like to try to change the ground, I'm not quite sure how. My first problem is that I have a short ground wire, it is only 1.5 ft long, so I grounded it to a trunk brace very close to the amplifier. I am limited as to where I can ground it without buying another wire. My second problem is, even if I had long enough wire, I don't have a slight idea as to where else to ground it. The way I understood it was that I was grounding to the body, and that it wouldn't matter where in the body I attached the ring terminal as it was gonna be going to the same place, the body :P.


To recap my problems, as well as additional ones I've discovered while driving around:

If my car is not moving, I do not experience any problems whatsoever, unless I use the turn signals. It works as it's supposed to be. However, once I start driving the problems surface. The turn signals for one, but also when I brake and/or accelerate hard, the sound would cut out, then get weak and distorted. After a little while, it would eventually come back and work normally (aside from the turn signals noise). I've ensured that no wires were loose or anything like that and it only happens in the above circumstances.

jaggerwild

Here's an outside shoot,
Have you tried tuning it up lately? I have heard this will fix this problem but not actually seen it work.It may be worth a try.......

sleepyhead87

Tuning...my car up?! Or the amplifier? o.0