I got everything hooked up tonight and hopped in for a listen and was mighty impressed. Then i started the truck and the disappointment came. I get a whine through the speakers depending on engine rpm. Now i am running an amp with a stock head unit, so I have a line converter (provided with the amp, Profile brand)... would this be my problem? bad ground? it does it with the radio on AND off, but its louder when the radio is on. It also has a slight hissing sound when the truck and everything is off...which leads me to my next question. Again since I am using the stock head unit, I wired the remote turn on wire to the fuse box, to the "Ignition - Run/Start" fuse(fuse #20 I believe). I just picked one of the ignition fuses, no particular reason for that one. My amp is on all the time, I can't seem to find a fuse that only gets power when the ignition is on... and now that I think about it, should I even be in the fuse box for this wire? I currently have it unplugged to keep anything bad from happening. I guess that's all for now..

Any help would be appreciated!

 

In the fuse box grab the wiper fuse and you should be all set. As far as the noise. Did you hook up the ground wire on the LOC? Some have a ground wire that can help get rid of ground loops. But sometimes they also cause them. (depends on the amp) Also is your amp and headunit grounded really well? Either one with a bad ground could do it. You said it does it with the radio off as well right? Is the amp still on? If the amp stays on and the headunit is off, unplug the RCA's and see if it goes away.

Also what kind of amp are you using? Some amps don't isolate the RCA's from their case and you get ground loops. Unplugging the RCA's should stop it if it's a ground loop. If it stops youll need to isolate the RCA's ground from the amp.

 

The LOC doesn't have a ground wire - its just a cheap small unit that came with the amp. The amp is grounded well I think, but I will check again to make sure, and the head unit is grounded however well it was from the factory. Since I had the remote wire in the wrong place, the amp was on all the time, key off and all, so it made a noise all the time.

The amp is a Profile AP400 (60x2 i believe). How can I tell if the rca's are isolated? and how do I isolate them?

It was 1:30am when i finished so i didn't get to troubleshoot much

Thanks for the reply.

 

Well like I said, when it's making the noise, unplug the RCA's from the amp and see if it goes away. Then let me know.

 

alright I haven't had a chance to unplug the rca's yet, but the wiper fuse doesn't work either... well it does, but it still keeps the amp powered up all the time. I may be doing it wrong, I'm sticking the remote wire into the fuse slot then plugging the fuse in. I dont know why I chose that route other than seeing friends doing it. is there another way? I don't want the amp on all the time..

thanks

 

your amp turn on lead needs to be wired to you head units remote output,if it doesnt have one run it to the red power wire on ur head unit,simple fix,ur amp will only come on when ur cd player comes on

 

Weird, wiper fuse always seems to work. Whiteram is right though, but since you don't have an aftermarket headunit it won't be red in color. It will be Pink/Yellow in your truck. Behind the radio, or in the steering column. Basically anywhere in that truck you see pink/yellow it's ignition/accessory and will turn on and off with the key

 

Is this an aftermarket head unit or the stock unit? So as soon as you touch the remote wire to a 12volt switching source the amp jst comes on...even if the switching source doesnt have power??? That jst cant be.....

 

I got it now... i used the power wire to the head unit.. works great!

But the whine is still there... I grounded the amp to a different location, cleaned and sanded everything, I know its a good ground. When the truck isn't running and the amp is on, I get a hiss through the speakers. it isnt loud, but noticible. If I unplug the RCA's, the whine goes away, but the hiss is still there. unplugging the RCA's when the truck is off makes the hiss quieter, but its still here. I would like to fault the LOC and get a quality one, but I'm not sure... I've done plenty of installs, but all included an aftermarket HU and I never had a lick of trouble.

Thanks for the help.

 

I would probably agree with the line out converter. Lets try one more simple experiment, pull the RCA out of the amp just slightly to expose a good amount of the outer shield. Take a few small pieces of wire and run them from the ground terminal on the amp and touch them on both of the RCA outer shields (while they are still plugged in. See if the noise goes away. Remove th wires. Then try the same thing where they plug into the LOC. (chances are this is where you'll see a difference) If the noise goes away scrap the LOC and get one with a ground.