I have installed an amp and am getting a slight amount of feedback through my speakers.
I know it is a grounding problem and I need to know where the best place to ground the amp?

 

A nice bolt with clean (non painted) metal! Also do you have the amp power wire and the RCA'S seperate? Good luck!


John

 

The amp power and rca's are separate. They are both heavily shielded premium memphis audio
wiring. Thanks for the tip.

 

Ultimately, you want your ground to be to the frame. The majority of the vehicle's electronics are grounded to the frame of the vehicle, so using the frame as your ground should keep the variance in potential between grounding points to a minimum. This will help to eliminate the ground loop that is causing your interference/feedback.
Since access to the frame of the vehicle from inside the cab is somewhat difficult, you have to find a solid bolt that is in direct contact with, or near the frame. If your amplifier(s) are located in the rear of the vehicle, you can use the rear seat bolt at either end as a good solid ground. Just be sure to grind away any paint and debris and get the connection down to bare metal as Jallamas suggested.
As well as keeping your RCAs completely separated from your power and ground, try to keep your ground connection as short as possible.

 

This is exactly what I have done. My ground wire is about 12" long connected to the rear seat
bolt and I am still getting the feedback. I see alot of people buy a grounding kit and was wondering if this might help. Just to let you guys know, Ireally appreciate the feedback.

 

Does the noise in your system seem to rise and fall in pitch with the RPMs of the vehicle? If so, then you have a ground loop problem whose source is almost guaranteed to be a poor ground in the stereo system somewhere. If this is the case, then a grounding kit is more than likely not going to eliminate the interference you are experiencing.
Are you using the factory HU or have you gone aftermarket there as well? Keep in mind that every electrical component involved in the stereo system must be grounded somewhere, including the HU. The factory grounding locations for HUs on just about every car ever made are inadequate for a decent aftermarket stereo setup. You may need to consider grounding the HU at a more suitable ground point in order to eliminate ground loop-induced noise.
...something else to think about... Is the noise induced into your audio system caused by an added accessory such as cold cathode lighting or the like? The transformers associated with these lights are capable of giving off considerable signal noise that can be induced into your stereo signal if the RCAs are even remotely close to them. The same can be true for RCAs that are too close to other sources of power such as factory electronics.
If your signal cables absolutely MUST cross power or ground cables, do so as far away from the source or point as possible, and cross the cables at as close to a 90 degree angle as possible. This will minimize the points of contact, thereby minimizing the possibility of noise induction.

 

Thanks, I am using the factory HU with a 4 channel amp to power the new door speakers and
a mono amp for the subs. I wanted to stay as stealthy as possible. I am gonna retrace
everything to make sure nothing moved when I was bolting everything back together.

 

I am having the same problem and i am also using the factory HU. Its not my ground cause i ran the ground outside the car directly to the battery and it is not the issue....i can also turn the power to the HU OFF and the noise is still there. Usually if it is the ground it would turn off if i turned the power off on the HU. Now when i turn the power off the amp does not turn off like it should. Anyone know what wire i should be on for the remote....it is currently on the brown wire.

 

i understand your wanting to be steathy and the factory pioneer is a nice deck but i dont think it was manufactured with running multi amp setup in mind. your best bet may be to go with an aftermarket deck with a set of preinstalled pre-amp outputs and a dedicated remote turn on wire. look at it this way people buy $ 200,000 cars and tear out the factory units for something from the aftermarket. i am sure their stocker is a lot nicer than our pioneer but you will never get the full benefit of your amps, subs,or aftermarket interior speakers. to each his own i guess. just a choice you gotta make.

 

i totally understand that an aftermarket is a lot better than stock......i am working on getting one because there sound is clearer, etc. Got to find one i like and then get the money for it. Just trying to figure out my problem as it is in the present.

 

There are different types of induced noise in a stereo system. To help diagnose the problem, we need to narrow down the possibilities. Does the noise go up and down in pitch with the RPMs of the engine? If so, then the odds are that you have a ground loop. A ground loop occurs when you have a difference in electrical potential between ground points. The ground loop problem may not be directly caused by the amplifier's ground alone, but the difference in potential between the amplifier's ground point and other ground points within the vehicle. The ground for stock HUs is inferior in the vast majority of vehicles and very well could be the main source of your ground loop issue.
As for the remote wire, I would recommend you use the Black-Red wire that leads to the antenna amplifier. This should turn your amplifier on and off with the radio.

 

Also, make 100% sure that the RCA cables does not come anywhere near the pwoer wire going into the amp. I had the same problem when I switched to an eD nine.4 froma n alpine amp. I swore it was the amp since I could put my Alpine amp back in and the noise would go away. After some discussions with Richard Navone, he had siad that the ground isolations on the eD amp was not as good as the Alpine amp I had. He told me to check all the power wires and make sure none of it was overlapping the RCA cables. FOund a sopt that it was and moved them away frome ach other and bam, no more noise. I even went as far as siwtching from the factory headunit to an aftermarket and it still did not help until I moved the pwoer wire away fromt he RCA.

Good Luck!

 

UV7 has the right idea. we need to figure out what type of noise it is. Noise is the hardest problem to troubleshoot. Here are some suggestions to try:

1. run a ground from the factory deck to the amp. sometimes grounding all equipment at the same point can fix noise.
2. are you using a line out convertor? if so, did you ground the brown wire that is coming off it? Or maybe you have a bad LOC.
3. where did you get the power for the amp? if you say battery, give yourself some applause. Now is the power wire running close to or aound any wire harnesses or plug wires or the alternator?
4. how old is your battery? Old batteries are often be the culprit because over time they loose the ability to filter AC ripple out of the dc current.

Hope this helps, let us know how it goes.

 

My power is run direrctly to the battery....this isnt my first time doing a system. I am using Convertors to run the rca's and i am nmot a big fan of that....but i dont have an aftermarket HU yet.....still looking. The battery is the srock one and it is not a year old yet. I am however running the remote wire to the brown wire that comes off of the stock HU. I will change it to the Black-Red wire as soon as i can. The rca's are not anywhere near the power. The power wire doesnt go near any other wires either.

 

If u gring off the paint on the rear seats where you ground it will help out .

 

i do have the ground going to a bolt on the front seat but it goes between two washers....and all the paint is off of it.