Engine Noise through Speakers
 

Well I did a bunch of searches and assuming i have to ground my RCA's but want to verify. The first Head unit I had was a Sony xav70bt. It didnt produced any engine noise. The ground wire, amp, speakers etc are all still in the same place. The new replacement headunit is a Pioneer Avic-x920bt. Only difference setup wise is that a bypass was done on the harness of the new unit for dvd and nav usage. Once the unit is turned on, the pioneer produces alot of engine noise through the speakers. The second the unit is powered up the noise is NON STOP. If I turn the car ON but without cranking it, the noise only appears when the car is in gear but if in neutral the engine sound does not come through the speakers "WEIRD". . When car is cranked on or turned over, engine sound comes through speakers whether in gear or neutral, unlike the on position did in my previous sentence. I ran the power wire down the passenger side, amp is located behind the passenger seat. Ground wire is bolted on one of the passengar seats bolts. I have a 3 channel amp and have tried replacing the RCA's with another pair and the same sound occurs. I figured replacing the RCA would fix it but i tested the NEW RCA's without tucking them in, just loose away from everything but the sound was still there

Any help would be great.

also just realized I cant wrap wire around the rca's since the units rca are part of a harness. Guess the wire wrap is for older units. **** is annoying as hell

Have you used a ohmmeter to check the continuity of your wiring and your ground?

Double check your ground, also check to see what the resistance is between the ground set screw on the amp and the battery post, if it's too high it could just be a bad ground. Also try hooking up the deck without the bypass just to make sure it's not the by pass ground causing it. If you didn't have to ground your RCA's before you shouldn't have to now.

Haven't checked with meter yet... The bypass was moving a mute wire to a pin to the left so I can't check it since the bypass was only that. All the grounds on the back of the headunit are connected together since it's just ground. I might run it by the audio shop tomorrow but it's pissing me off ..

Most likely your culprit ..

pioneer pico fuse avic - Google Search

This is a primary reason why we do not support or sell Pioneer.

also in addition, tried the LOOP for the rca's and some of the noise went away but still existed. If it was the headunit, wouldnt the loop have caught the noise??? I tried it behind the unit and on the amp. Same result. Could the speaker wires be causing this or the ground???? the speaker wires are 16 gauge and i have sr 60 Boston acoustics.

unlikely the speaker wires, but yes the ground to the amp could, as i mentioned earlier.

my ground is currently under one of the passenger seats bolts that bolt to the frame of the car. Figured that was a good enough good but didnt script metal. Also the ground on the headunit is on one of the 4 bolts to the shift plate on the frame

sand the paint of the amp ground and make sure you have set the gains accordingly

I absolutely agree with the sanding down the ground plane, however I believe with 99% certainty that this is not your problem. Had this been a fresh install and nothing prior was in the car, then sure, it could be one of many possibilities. However you mentioned you had a Sony deck prior and no issues.

You now have a control (your vehicle and equipment inside) and a variable (the source). It is not in any way unbelievable to be the source, hence why I posted the link above.

Here is more directed towards your deck specifically. This is a notorious problem with Pioneer decks.

pioneer pico fuse avic - Google Search

pioneer pico fuse avic - Google Search

i dont like you links lol.... it scares me. The fuse isnt blow out or anything.

lol, don't shoot the messenger !

The fuse is not a traditional type, nor one that you can physically see without completely tearing open the unit. If blown, everything will still work, just with a bunch of unwanted noise.

mmmm Ill need to check it out. Do you know where i can pick one up at? Assuming their cheap so Ill just buy a new one and swap it out. What size do i need?

You may rethink the ease of doing this once you view it's size and availability. Viewing avic411 as well as the google results I provided will show you more in depth what is involved. Aside from the atrocious attempts that some make to remedy this by dropping a glob of solder over it.

Do you by chance (hopefully) by this unit authorized and with some sort of warranty ?

Yea from sonic electronic... Dammit

Oh damn. That sucks. Let's hope they help then since their not authorized, maybe they will care enough to help and keep some credibility.

i think they are authorized. They accepted my sony xav 70bt and I exchanged it for this pioneer plus some $$$$$. I was hoping the new pioneers wouldnt have any problems. How can I test the fuse before assuming the fuse is bad? Im going to work on the car this weekend and attempt to fix this problem with cleaning up ground areas and make sure wires are not touching.

Doesn't look like it, but they may still help ..

Pioneer Electronics - Authorized Internet Dealer Verification

If you look over those links I posted several will show where exactly it is and how to get to it.

Yep either this or a bad ground if you want to get rid of it after trying different things try a alpine or clarion head unit.

Pioneers pico fuse goes bad even though you think it has not. The fuse we are talking about is inside on the board itself.

So does it matter that when I turn gain down to 2, the sound goes away but volume is super low? Gain levels have ten levels, so at 2 the volume is super low. I've changed grounds, scripted metal, bought expenses RCA then returned them and still got the same outcome once I turn gain up a bit. Could this info help with analyze .

Here is what you need to do. Disconnect your rca's from the amp and turn the car on, if the noise is gone you know its the head unit. You can try putting your rcas on the other side of where they are now. This would really help if you ran both power and rca's on the same side. This may help but most likely its your pioneer and that stupid problem they all have and have had for years. I had BAD noise in my old civic with a pioneer and the car before that I had a pioneer with only display problems. Crutchfield recommended I try another head unit and I tried alpine. I feel in love and have never looked back except a year ago when I tried a premier line but had the same problem so back to alpine I went. Just personal experience.

Yea when I disconnect the the rcas noise goes away. Could it be the amp? Probably the headunit since it didn't do it prior. I really love the pioneer structure but that noise is the only flaw.

Also I didnt connect the speed sensor or the other labeled wire. Just tapped them with electric tape. That couldnt be the cause, could it?

it's really sounding like it's the deck, you can double...wait quadrupal check at this point, but hook up an ipod direct to the amp and see if the noise is there...if it isn't you will have to swap the deck. I personally haven't had problems with an Pioneer deck i've used in 16 years, but have had a ton of problems with Alpine in the past. For the record i run Pioneer in 2 of my 3 cars, the other is an Alpine, which hasn't had any problems yet, but it's only a year old, both pioneers are about 6 years old. The Alpines i did have problem,s with were years ago, cheap to high end and with in a few months.

No speed sensor is not going to do anything in the way of noise.

No it is as I said your head unit most likely you could move your rca's and try that but from my experience its the head unit at this point also here is a link of people and other troubles. Feel free to read all 9 pages. I know the pioneers I have installed today have been ok but than again they were not using amps.

DONE With Pioneer

Kind of going both ways there aren't you? :confused:

let me ask one more question.... where is the best area to ground the headunit at? I have tried 2 areas but figured i would try one more. Also I have the Mute ground, the green ebrake wire, and 3 black grounds all tied together leading to one ground. Wanted to make sure that was overkill or if i would try and limit the number of grounds i connect..; assuming it doesnt matter since its a ground but let me know and let me know about location used in 370z's.

thanks guys for you feedback on this. Im with you bigaudio and think its the headunit but going to try one more thing and then calling it a day lol.

[QUOTE=bigaudiofanat;847927]Kind of going both ways there aren't you? :confused:[/QUOTE

Yep i figured i'd give the Alpine one more shot, as the last Alpine i tried was 10 years ago. And i didn't like any of the new pioneers, thus why the last one i bought was 6 years ago.
A few of my trusted Coworkers have had the oposite experiance with the Pioneer/Alpine thing, so i gave them another chance.

As long as your main ground is large I use 12 gauge wire for the ground and on the z there are 4 bolts around the shift lever I use one of those just losen one and bolt it down.Your ground is probably not the problem at this point as 90 and I have said. Good luck man

yea i just got some 12 ga COPPER wire and still didnt work. POS pioneer headunit. DAMN DAMAN DAMN DAMN.....