Go Back   986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners > Porsche Boxster & Cayman Forums > Boxster General Discussions

Post Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-07-2007, 08:20 PM   #1
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Hollywood, CA
Posts: 56
Alternator Whine in stereo

I got my car stereo installed a few months ago, and in the last 2 weeks I've started to notice alternator whine as the revs go up.

I find this irritating since I went to a high end stereo shop and spent $1000 on installation (door,dash,rear speakers, amp, and rear cam) and I spent that type of money with the expectation that I wouldn't have any noise at all. The $1000 was spent after I went to a crappy installer who installed a lot of the stuff but did a terrible job, so it all had to be redone. Anyway, I have cheap RCA cables going from the head unit to the amp, and I remember the high end stereo shop telling me to get their $75 RCA's because it would make the quality better, but I didn't cuz I thought it was a ripoff.

I know when I go back there to get the issue fixed he's going to blame it on the RCA cables, cuz there's nothing else to blame it on, and because he wants more money. Should I spend the $75 on the RCA's, or tell him he's full of it and that the problem is with a shoddy installation?

mjstallion is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 04:18 AM   #2
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 42
How about you tell him to put the cables in, and if they solve the problem you'll buy them. If not, he can keep his stinkin' cables. That is, if you are willing to shell out the $75 to get rid of the whine. If that's what solves the problem, what other option do you have?
pauldee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 08:22 AM   #3
There Is No Substitute.
 
rick3000's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: West Coast
Posts: 3,253
Garage
Do you get the whine while using an iPod (or other) through a powered dock connector?
The whine is from a ground loop, I hooked up my iPod with a powered plug and I get the whine aswell, if you are just using the CD player or an unpowered input the whine should disappear. It is impossible to remove the whine completely but you can buy a $12 ground loop connector at Walmart that will make the whine almost unnoticeable.
Hope this helps!
__________________
1999 Ocean Blue Metallic Boxster - blueboxster.com
rick3000 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 08:58 AM   #4
Registered User
 
Perfectlap's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 8,709
good question when are you getting the alternator whine? When the stereo is playing direct from the headunit or when you try to plug in something through via aux jack?
I tried to hard wire my Sirius satellite and got unebearable whine. Had to go back to the awful looking cigarette lighter. I would also get the whine with my MP3 player. Let us know if the RCA cables work when you are using the aux devices.
__________________
GT3 Recaro Seats - Boxster Red
GT3 Aero / Carrera 18" 5 spoke / Potenza RE-11
Fabspeed Headers & Noise Maker
BORN: March 2000 - FINLAND
IMS#1 REPLACED: April 2010 - NEW JERSEY -- LNE DUAL ROW
Perfectlap is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 09:21 AM   #5
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: central PA
Posts: 165
I had this issue, myself, and the problem was the grounding as everyone else said... Although, I didn't buy anything extra to fix it.

I literally just pulled the deck out, started the car and played it while adding an additional chassis ground from the deck, I went and touched the chassis ground to a couple of different places/wires inside of the dash until I found one that gave me a solid connection, and my problem went away.

The issue is the noise sensitivity in the high-level to low-level adapter required to work with the stock amp. You're essentially taking your high-level signal from the speaker-out of the deck and running it through a filter to make it a low-level signal for the stock amp. ANY noise that happens in here will be amplified.

I know that this fixed it as shortly after that, I hit a bump and that wire came loose, and there was the unbearable whine again.

RCAs will not fix this.

Cheers!
~Aaron


Edit: I should clarify: The above is for an issue with an aftermarket stereo and the stock amp....

I had this issue with whine through my aftermarket amp later on, and it turned out that it was the noise isolation circuits in that MTX amp. I guess they really didn't plan on it being used for full-range, as it had no problem with it when the EQ was filtering out high range. I switched to a slightly higher quality Kicker amp and the problem went away. I did try to switch RCA cables first, as well as re-route the signal and speaker wires, but to no avail, swapping the amp was my only option there.

Last edited by Wonko The Sane; 08-08-2007 at 09:29 AM.
Wonko The Sane is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 11:21 AM   #6
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Where the Sewer Meets the Sea, CA. USA
Posts: 2,695
Send a message via MSN to CJ_Boxster
I use to buy these devises called silencers and they stop all the alternator whining, they cost like 15 bucks. and you just place them inline with the radio power source.
__________________
--Proud Boxster Owner/Tech,

Carlos J Cazares

FastForward Performance
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...er/newsig1.jpg
CJ_Boxster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 12:07 PM   #7
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
These are all very helpful and probably accurate responses, but bottom line, you paid $1k for installation. Those bastards should troubleshoot and correct this problem for you.
__________________
Happy Motoring!... Tim’05

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s..._kill/Siga.jpg
Dr. Kill is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 01:25 PM   #8
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 42
Oh, yeah, Doc. Doh! We didn't see the forest for the trees. Thanks for the yank back to reality.
pauldee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 01:37 PM   #9
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 1,311
Definitely a grounding problem. They need to find a better grounding spot on your car to fix that noise. It is a simple fix.
porsche986spyder is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-08-2007, 07:05 PM   #10
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: central PA
Posts: 165
Hahaha.. . Pauldee and especially Doc is right... We really over-diagnosed this one.. the real answer is exactly what Doc said.. You paid $1000 for this, and it whines, take it back to them and hope they can figure out how to ground it properly.

Either way, don't buy their RCA cables, they will do you no good. It's a ground.

Wonko The Sane is offline   Reply With Quote
Post Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On




All times are GMT -8. The time now is 09:56 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2024 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Pelican Parts Website -    DMCA Registered Agent Contact Page