I just got done installing a second amp in to my 99 Ram. The first one is a 4 channel that is running my four speakers and every thing sounded great before the new amp. The new one runs a subwoofer. Now the sub sounds great and it really pounds but i have this crazy loud whine coming out of my speakers. It only whines when the car is on and both amps are on. If i unplug my amp running my sub my speakers sound great. but plug it back in and the whine comes back. Anyone got any ideas?

 

Are the amp grounds in the same spot? Is it a good ground? You have alternator whine..thats caused by bad grounds. Is it a factory radio?

 

as far as i know both grounds are good and they aren't grounded to the same spot. Its a Pioneer headunit that i got like 5 years ago.

 

I would ground both amps to the same spot. Pioneer's are known for having bad rca noise......If the ground doesnt help let me know and we can try another fix.

 

agree with habebaba. when installing multiple amplifiers you use a distro block or something and you ground them into one spot. multiple grounds tends to create a ground loop and then you get what you are getting.

 

I grounded both amps to the same spot yesterday and it didn't help. The whine didn't get any better.

 

Are the speaker wires close to the power wire? I know they all meet near the amp but make sure they don't get close to each other on the way to the amp (under the carpet, etc).

 

are you using good shielded RCA's?

 

no the wires aren't close to each other before they get to the amp, and the RCA's are shielded. I'm starting to think its the headunit...if thats possible. I normally don't listen to cds in the car. when i turned the cd on the other day there was alot more background noise..like when you start to lose a radio station. Is that something that could happen? I've had it for like four or five years, its a pioneer headunit. I don't remember the part number.
thanks for any help!!

 

Its the pioneer radio.....ppl have lots of issues with the rca outputs. Figure out what output is giving you the noise.... Then get some 18 awg wire or close to it and cut 2 16" inch lengths or something close to that. Then strip off a couple inches of each wire and wrap it around the rca outputs that are giving you the noise, next strip off some of the insulation off of the ground wire for the radio and run the wires from the rca outs to the ground wire. All our doing is ground the rca's....make sure the radio ground is good tho. For some ppl it fixes the problem, some it makes it not as loud, but its still there. My friends pioneer made the noise and this stopped it. Let me know how it goes and if you need anymore help.