Electrical Getting good ground in 1991 Fox Vert for amps - getting popping noise when I turn on the lights?

[gvanginkel403]

Hi all
I will be brief. I have a bone stock 1991 GT vert. I added the Bluetooth to the headunit by Todd Lane. I added a powered sub in the wheelwell and a small alpine amp where the football amp used to be. Stock head unit had RCAs added as well (Todd Lane). I have tried several grounds for the powered sub in the trunk as well as for the alpine under the dash, in all cases, sanding off the paint, etc. It sounds good when I use it but as soon as I turn on any of the running, head or fog lights I get noise and pops on the stereo which tells me there is a ground issue. Any one have any advice or solutions that have worked?

As a kid from the 80s I am familiar with car stereos, but I have never encountered this - even on a unibody car.

Thank you

Gerard

 

[86HO5.0]

I'd recommend running the AMP ground directly to battery negative.

What spark plugs and wires are you running?

 

[AeroCoupe]

What is the brand of the powered sub in the spare tire wheel well?

Is this through all the speakers or just the powered sub or through the Alpine amp? Does it happen continuously when the running lights, head lights or fog lights are on or is it just when they are initially turned on or off? Does it happen with any other items like the power locks or windows? How about when the convertible top is going up or down? Reason I am asking all of this is if it is just doing this with the lights then my guess is you need to chase the grounds on the headlight harness and work your way back to the switches.

What is the noise exactly? Is it a humming or ???

 

[gkomo]

Otherwise how’s the Todd lane modified head unit working? I had him do mine but haven’t really used it except for a brief test but I have other issues with my stereo. Are you using the added RCAs? Mine has RCAs as well.

All I’ve done with mine is hook it up to the factory wiring and played some music via the Bluetooth FM station he specified in the instructions.

 

[gvanginkel403]

I'd recommend running the AMP ground directly to battery negative.

What spark plugs and wires are you running?

Plugs and wires are oem spec however I have the new cord racing wires and plugs and dust rotor to install one of these days.

Are you suggesting a found wire from the battery negative to each of the 2 amps?? What gauge would you recommend for that. (What a pita!)

 

[gvanginkel403]

Otherwise how’s the Todd lane modified head unit working? I had him do mine but haven’t really used it except for a brief test but I have other issues with my stereo. Are you using the added RCAs? Mine has RCAs as well.

All I’ve done with mine is hook it up to the factory wiring and played some music via the Bluetooth FM station he specified in the instructions.

Works great. No issue with any of it.

 

[gvanginkel403]

Works great. No issue with any of it.

And yes I am using the front and rear rca cables that Todd added.

 

[gvanginkel403]

What is the brand of the powered sub in the spare tire wheel well?

Is this through all the speakers or just the powered sub or through the Alpine amp? Does it happen continuously when the running lights, head lights or fog lights are on or is it just when they are initially turned on or off? Does it happen with any other items like the power locks or windows? How about when the convertible top is going up or down? Reason I am asking all of this is if it is just doing this with the lights then my guess is you need to chase the grounds on the headlight harness and work your way back to the switches.

What is the noise exactly? Is it a humming or ???

When I turn on any of the lights switches I get a pop and then noice on the line via the cabin speakers. Not hearing noise on the sub but it is in the trunk and the crossovers probably would block that out.

I never use the top or windows since I keep the top down almost exclusively.

 

[86HO5.0]

Plugs and wires are oem spec however I have the new cord racing wires and plugs and dust rotor to install one of these days.

Are you suggesting a found wire from the battery negative to each of the 2 amps?? What gauge would you recommend for that. (What a pita!)

You can run one 4 gauge wire to the back and split it out via terminal block to both AMPS.

 

[gvanginkel403]

You can run one 4 gauge wire to the back and split it out via terminal block to both AMPS.

I ran 10ga for the power. Do I need 4ga for ground?

 

[AeroCoupe]

Just match the ground size to the power cable size.

Do you have subframe connectors? They help the unibody with stiffness (especially verts) and with grounding.

I am running three Fosgate amps and grounding them in the trunk with zero problems.

Did you make sure not to run the speaker wires and/or the RCA cables parallel to any power wires? I always run power down one side of the car and speaker & signal wires down the other.

 

[gvanginkel403]

Thank you. Subframe connectors are in the plan but do not have them yet. Planning for MMS sport box install plus gears and rear discs all at one time.

Power wires are on the drivers side and RCA are on the passenger side.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Did you reuse the factory wiring for the speakers?

 

[gvanginkel403]

Yes. I used factory wiring and crutchfield connectors.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Well all I am going to say is yuck and you are leaving a lot of sound on the table with the factory wiring. It’s garbage for aftermarket stuff.

 

[CAMTWO1070]

Here's what I would do seeings you disturbed the delicate balance by adding an amp..

The popping noise can be controlled by adding a 10 amp shottky diode spliced into the remote trigger wire with the stripe to the power and the other to ground.




WHen you're turning on the headlights a lot of power surges through the contacts as it's most likely time to replace the headlight switch. s te popping could be coming from the contacts arcing especially if you have rocker type switches instead of pullout push in type..

In any event when I add a stereo system I put a 4 gauge wire from the battery positive to the rear where the amps go to a 150 amp fuse then I take a shielded 18/3 wire and run it from the rear unfused side of the post and add 10 amp fuses on the constant hot and the hotwire for a relay as well as a remote trigger for the amps up towards the glove box and mount the diode protected relay behind the glove box and add a tap a circuit with the fuse adapter on the fuse that goes on both run and accessory mode..





Power the radio and any equalizers from both the relay circuit and the constant fused 10amp 12v dedicated then hook in the remote trigger wire to the third leg of the shielded pair to turn on the amp.



Ground everything to the body sheet metal of the floor.The best ground is a star ground..

After isolating 95%of the stereo system from the rest of the car the sound will be mean and very clean plus won't ever pop hiss , whine or buzz again...

It's ugly but it's been there working and sounding flawlessly in my pickup for over 15years...lol

 

[gvanginkel403]

I'd recommend running the AMP ground directly to battery negative.

What spark plugs and wires are you running?

I'd recommend running the AMP ground directly to battery negative.

What spark plugs and wires are you running?

Just did the plugs and wires today. Ford Racing wires and Motorcraft plugs. No change to the audio situation.

 

[gvanginkel403]

Well all ai am going to say is yuck and you are leaving a lot is sound on the table with the factory wiring. It’s garbage for aftermarket stuff.

So you would have re-run all new speaker wires for all the speakers to upgrade this?

 

[AeroCoupe]

It’s what I do on all of my installs. Oxygen free 16 ga wire from the amp to the speakers. If you have a passive crossover for a separates then 16 ga from the amp to the crossover, 16 ga from the crossover to the mid, and 18 ga from the crossover to the tweeter. I usually run 12 ga for the subs.

Try and separate the RCA cables and speaker wires from the power wires as that will cause noise. I usually run all the speaker wires and RCA’s down one side of the car and run the power down the other.

 

[Noobz347]

I suspect that you have [ground loop] condition.

That is: A differential between your ground points exist (one ground is better/worse than the others). Having multiple amps connected through multiple grounds with different potentials comes back to haunt you because current is now travelling through the ground connection to each other.

Go through all your engine and body grounds. I refer to the original ground and their associated cables and connections on the car itself. If after that, you're still having noise issues you might work on grounding your equipment at single point or bonding your grounds together through a bus.

This is in addition to the suggestions made above about your cable sizes.

I realize that this is not apples to apples (because it's not automotive) but it still explains the issue:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUFkMqC_nlQ