Just installed and now I have fuzzy noise

[wsladaritz]

I just installed my Pioneer avh-p4000dvd. Used the relay trick to get full-time access to music videos and dvd playback. It's working like a charm and sounds great except for one thing. I have static or fuzzy noise in the background... all the time :frown: I tried unplugging my xm radio from the aux in, didn't change anything with the static. Unplugged the xm from the 12v acc outlet, still not change. Unplugged the antenna, no change. I'm not sure what else to try except for one thing... but I don't wanna pull the unit back out! When I installed this I thought I would ground the unit directly to the negative on the battery. Did that because my xm radio used to have a little whine in the background when it was plugged into the aux input on my kenwood unit before this. The little whine is gone, but now I have static. Anybody have any suggestions? Audio settings maybe? I'm not too knowlegeable on equalizer curves and stuff... I've also got a 4 channel amp for my speakers and mono amp on my sub. Didn't change anything in those when I put the new reciever unit in.

I think it has to be something with the relay, but I just don't know what. Anybody have any suggestions? Any comments are appreciated!

[Mobius1]

sounds more like a ground issue or a ground loop issue. Dont ground shit straight to your battery, it really is not needed at all. where do you have your four channel grounded? it needs to be grounded straight to the frame of the vehicle. Dont use any BS Bolts or screws, strip the paint and make a good ground

[Spades]

remind me why a straight ground to the battery is a bad thing? i guess the theories regarding direct current have changed slightly...

[IsLNdbOi]

Isn't the battery grounded to the chassis anyway?

[talnlnky]

remind me why a straight ground to the battery is a bad thing? i guess the theories regarding direct current have changed slightly...

its not... some people believe it is bad to have multiple ground points because because the power will oscilate between one ground and the other. What they don't understand is that power will flow through both grounds.... all the time. Electricity follows the path of least resistance, but you will always have electron flow through all grounds, just a matter of how much.

High resistance is bad, as long as you don't have high resistance... everything else does not matter.

Edit: somepeople think that the chasis ground has less resistance than a direct ground.... if you got the money.... use both, but there's little reason to do a direct bat ground to the amps unless you use an adequate sized wire awg... IE, bigger than what is actually "needed". You can get away with 8awg for a 300w amp... but 4awg is a hell of a lot better.

[wsladaritz]

I have a 8awg wire from the bat throught the firewall on passenger side ( it's the only hole I could find ) running behind the dash to directly behind the reciever unit. There is a metal bar right behind the reciever, but just below that behind the a/c controls is a metal piece with a screw into some plastic. I just removed that screw and put my 8awg wire on it with the ground wire from the reciever and the relay. I'll go try taking the 8awg wire off and see what happens.

[Spades]

yeah tal, i was being sarcastic. im currently running a 4 gauge wire to the rear of my car, where a home-made distribution block connects it to 3 chassis ground points in the trunk and from there splits to the amps.

under the hood im using several grounds from the battery to key points like the ECU, 2 chassis locations, alternator, and starter.

before I had any research into anything electrical or audio, i took a stereo shops advise and ran chassis grounds on a factory wiring system. i had a humming noise through the subs and eventually blew two 500 watt amps. i did some reseach on direct current and ever since then i have the "more the merrier" philosophy on grounds....