jikman01

If all I did was replace my speakers and use the wiring harnesses with the connectors on both ends to put in my new deck (no wire splicing at all) why would I get engine noise when I turn my deck on when the car is on?

Mikestro

Most people here will tell you that engine noise can be a ***** to get out. Someone posted a link a while back that was very useful and had tricks and tips for trouble shooting engine noise....I'll see if I can find it.

MrGraphics

So did you install a new head unit as well? If so, that is where your noise is coming from.

What type of noise is it? If it goes up and down with the engine RPM (doesn't exist when the engine is off), that is alternator noise. If it is constant, then you have dirty power. Here are the things to look for:

1) Don't use the ground wire in the harness. Run your own ground Wire
2) In your new wiring harness (the one that connects your new head unit to your old factory harness) make sure that the speaker wires do not wrap around the power ones. Yes, they are close, but the more seperated they are from each other, the less alternator noise will be introduced.
3) When you hooked up the speakers, did you keep polarity correct (+ to +, - to -)

If those simple things don't solve it, then you can add a power line filter (Radio shack) to your +12v line (yellow wire I believe), or run the yellow straight to the battery. The head unit will not turn on if you do that. That's what AAC power wire is for -to trigger the "on" signal.

If you didn't install a new head unit, then beats me.

Mikestro

Found the link....

http://www.termpro.com/articles/noise.html

jikman01

I did replace my head unit. I bought the wiring harnesses (two of them) from Circuit City. One harness goes from the factory harness to a universal harness and the second goes from the universal to the alpine harness which plugs right into the head unit. This is actually how CC does their installs. No wire cutting at all. Needless to say the wires are not wrapped around each other as they're separated with the harness quite nicely, but I am not using my own ground and power. Polarity is correct all all the speakers.

The noise only comes on when the radio is on and I can only notice it when the radio is turned down sometimes. Sometimes I don't hear it at all, but maybe I just don't notice it.

I could probably go back in and cut the ground and do my own ground and make sure the speaker wires are as far away as possible from the power wires.

Thanks for the help. And thanks for the link Mikestro

onecoolee

The entire chassis of your head unit's mounting sleeve should serve as a ground too...use the metal strap that came with your HU and attach it to the back of your Alpine HU. Once its attached to the HU, attach the metal strap to something metal in the center console that is directly connected to the Z's chassis. This strap will serve 2 purposes--it will prevent your CD player from skipping durinbg rough road conditions, and it will ground the entire chassis of your HU. Keep in mind the Z has a lot of computers, that are constantly switching on and off, and monitoring things, plus if you have nav, there are even more computers running. So, grounding the HU chassis should prevent some of these unwanted signals from sneaking into your Audio system.