Alternator whine with XM

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Dec 30, 2005 | 09:32 PM

mfenske

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Joined: Dec 2005

Posts: 309

From: Portland, OR

Alternator whine with XM

I can't figure out why I'm getting noise from my XM system in my 06 xB. I have it wired with the cigarette lighter, which I tried normally, and now I have soldered leads to it to permanently wired it. I also tried moving the point to which I have it grounded and that made it slightly better. I don't have issues with noise on the CD or FM section. Any thoughts? Mark

Dec 30, 2005 | 09:44 PM

Rivulent

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Joined: Jul 2004

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Where's the antenna itself located at? Front of vehicle?

Dec 30, 2005 | 10:07 PM

IAxB

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Scinergy

Joined: Mar 2004

Posts: 308

From: Cedar Rapids, IA

It seems that is common with anything through the cigarette lighter, I was using the Monster ipod fm modulater for my ipod, I had the same type of whine, so I switched to a griffin Itrip which is powered by my Ipod, no more whine, but now my ipod battery life sucks... so I would say its related to the cigarette lighter...somehow...

Dec 30, 2005 | 10:25 PM

Tomas

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Joined: Jan 2005

Posts: 14,570

From: University Place, WA

It's called a "ground loop" and it comes from having two different 'ground' points (one for power, one for audio signal) with a slight difference in potential and path.

A 'ground loop isolator' is usually needed to eliminate this sort of problem.

There have been at least three topics here on ScionLife covering this problem and the fix...

Here's one found with a quick SEARCH...
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=92488

(This has been a common problem since since at least the earliest telephone systems in the late 1800's. It's not new to just the Scions. Any 'audio over wires' system can run into this.)