Having problems after installing new amp in car.

[threeZguy]

Last few months I have been doing various upgrades to my car. (84 300zxt) Including a new amp, speakers and sub. I am getting feedback (loud pop) when I turn on/off the tuner and whenever I change functions on the tuner.

I also get the the same popping noise when I use the headlights, turn signal, and so on. The only difference from how everything was wired up before, is running a ground from battery to a "T" , one side goes to a dist. block, the other to the amp. I tried ground to the chassis like the old amp was, still get the popping. Power and ground are both 4 guage wire.(Phoenix) Also the speakers wire go directly in the new amp and screwed down instead of having connectors on them like the old amp. Iv'e checked that RCA cables from the tuner and speaker wires are not near any power or ground wires.

 

Old system:

Pioneer 6200 tuner

Boss 4 ch amp

4 Kappa 6.5 3-way

Bazooka 8" sub

 

New system:

Pioneer 6200 tuner

Soundstream Van Gogh VGA 500 4 ch amp

Kappa 6.5 components up front

Kappa 6.5 3-way in the rear

10" Basslink sub

 

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.......Chris

[Guest Magnum Rockwilder]

Ditch the battery ground and stick to a chassis ground. Try different ground points. Recheck your power and ground wiring. Try to isolate the different wires by using a test battery until you find the problem.

 

If all else fails, install a ground loop isolator or other noise reducer in the circuit.

 

It may be in the RCA's, so recheck the routing and try a noise reducer.

[Pop N Wood]

Make sure your tuner is properly grounded. Try a noise filter on the power into the tuner.

 

Dirty RCA connectors are a possiblity. Looks like you already thought of an input wire being too close to power wire or other noise source.

 

The question is whether the pop is being generated in the tuner or the amp. Either way need to ensure everything is properly grounded, the power wires are all in tact, not grounded and no loose connectors (power or signal) anywhere.

 

You might try to filter the power amp DC power. Big ass capacitor or other type of noise filter mounted right at the amp like mentioned above.

 

One other possiblity is what type of alternator are you running? Does your new amp draw significantly more DC power than the old? Could be you are overloading the alternator and the voltage regulator is having trouble keeping up. A car battery acts like a pretty good DC filter, so try running the power to the amp right off the battery with as short and heavy of a power wire as possible.

 

But my guess is just loose wire somewhere.

[BrandonsZ]

It also wouldn't hurt to rewire it you might have missed something. Back in the 80's I has an amp that required a seperate ground from the amp then the reciever otherwise it claimed I'd have problems. Look up how to utilize twisted pairs if you aren't already even in the power connection. You may be picking up a signal in the wires directly. For example you would twist the speaker wires, and you would twist the power and ground anywhere it's exposed (not shielded). I know those EE's always calcualted what the twists/inch should be, but with 4 ga. wire, not sure if that helps. I was told that twisting them helps regardless of number of twists per inch. But there are specific signals generated in a car platform.

 

I don't know if a filter will help in this case because you are getting a pop instead of a steady humming or squeeling. It sounds like you might not want to couple the ground to other systems in the car.

 

I was plagued by this before but I got it down to just poping when I turned on the amp. I bought 3 different filters and they never stopped the poping. I rewired it and ran the wires under some aluminum kick panels (they were already in my cadillac. It helped a lot.