I got my system professionally installed yesterday and they called me and told me that my new pioneer premier deh-p880prd is defective. They told me that the radio's rca outputs have no grounds and I am getting horiffic engine noise because there is no way to ground it. Does that sound right to you?

 

tell them to try two things:

1. check the fuse ont he headunit, even if it doesnt look blown replace it.
2. will grounding the chasis kick down the engine noise?
3. ask them what the hell they mean the rca outputs have no grounds? when did you have to ground your rca wire?

b

 

+1


Also,

Did they run the RCA Cables along side the Power Wire to the amp? (Thats a No-no)
Are you using Twisted pair RCA Cables or Standard ones? (TP is best)
Did they properly ground everything (HU and Amps, not the RCA Cables) to bare chassis metal?

 

oh forgont one thing, if you are using metal ended RCAs, if the rca ends are GROUNDING, meaning touching ground at some point, its going to cause big alternator whine...as well as punctured RCA wire somewhere by a screw that goes into the floor.


but honestly, for a shop, this should be CAKE to diagnose...tell them to temporary wire up another headunit, lol if it the whine goes away, its the HU, if it doesnt, its something else

b

 

The guy who installed everything really knows his stuff so i'm not really questioning things that much. The RCA's i used were monster cable XLN pro which are definately not cheapies. He ran the rca's and power and different sides. I'm not terribly knowledgable so when we was telling me exactly what was wrong with it he kind of lost me but on the slip we gave me it listed "radio's rca outputs have no grounds, radio defective" He said it almost looked like someone installed the thing wrong before and broke something and returned it. He did rig something up on the amp connections themselves to reduce the noise but it is still horiffic. Is there anything on the radio itself that you guys know of that grounds to reduce the engine noise that could be broken or missing like that?

 

He said he did try something else out and it is definately a busted headunit but it just sounds stranger to me.

 

okay, tell him to check the fuse, some pioneer units, with a semi-busted fuse, will do that...thats talking from expereicne...

i know it doesnt make sense that if the fuse is dead, it will still work, but honesly, just tell him to swap a new fuse into the back and see...

if that doesnt change anyhting, then time to send it warranty repair!

b

 

I already requested an RMA from the company. I will check the fuse on saturday while i'm waiting for that and with any luck things will sound like they should. Thanks for the advice.