90 Maxima SE, 5spd

Last night I was finally able to connect my head unit and finally hear some tunes in my car -- but.... There is horrible noise! It's like every other thing in the car is adding noise - engine, fans, lights, you name it - and each has it's own different sound.
It's been over a year in progress (wasn't the priority), and now that I actually have sound, it's so noisy. What's the best way to kill this noise so I can listen to sweet, clean music? I may not have the highest of high end equipment, but I've had much worse without this kind of crap coming through. Here's a short list of some of the components:
Clarion HX-D10 HU
SSI hard drive mp3 player
Soundstream 5 channel amp
Streetwires ZN2.0 interconnects
Monster Cable interconnect from mp3 to HU
cooling fans for amp and mp3 (remote triggers a relay)

Here's a little about the electrical:
4ga. wiring from batt to trunk (along driver's side) to dist. block
4ga. ground to chasis in trunk to dist. block
RCA's run through the center of the car, away from power, etc.
Fuse panel in trunk (fed and grounded from 8ga outs from dist. blocks, also in trunk)
Mp3 player and fans are triggered by remote, but pull current via relayed power from rear fuse panel

That should be enough to get an idea of the system. Should I try some ground loop isolators on the rca's, or what?!? Any help would be appreciated!

 

make sure power and rca's are on opposite ends or the car, also get a tune up

 

That's a myth. And a tune up won't do too much.

Pearl, what do you mean by 'noise'? Do you mean your OEM equipment is noisy? This would mean that you have a mechanical issue and you should address the part specifically.

THIS noise can be remedied by adding a barrier loader, check the deadener sticky at the top for more info.

If you have noise meaning a 'whine' or interference, you either have a poor ground on your HU or amp, OR your straining your electrical system.

That would be remedied by adding a big 3 upgrade, Optima Yeller Top, or a new alternator.

A little better definition of 'noise' would help here.

 

It's all electrical noise, hum, etc. Engine/altenator causes a high pitch whine, fans cause whine, hard drive causes whine, there's even noise from the cd player when changing tracks, etc.
I have a good battery/altenator, besides everything is causing noise/interferrance whether engine is running or not.
FYI - I'm not drawing huge amounts of power, amp is 4x30 + 1x125, and I'm not even using the sub output yet (still need to build the sub box). The ground in the trunk is connected to the chasis through the bumper brackets (bolted to trunk floor).

 

recheck all your grounds. if there's paint on the grounding points, sand it to bare metal and reconnect.

 

Ok, so I'll be checking the grounds today.... for the HU, I'm going to run a test wire directly from the battery first to see if there's any change. The only other ground in the system is the 4ga. wire bolted through that bumper bracket on the trunk floor. If it ends up being the trunk ground, maybe I can run the wire out by those vents and bolt directly to the frame on the outside.

 

when my setup was in the 3rd gen, i just grounded the amps to the trunk floor. just make sure you won't hit anything before drilling. in the 6th gen, i have the two amps wired to a distroblocl, and from there a single 4 gauge to the spare tire area.

 

Alright -
I ran a ground wire directly from the battery to the HU - no difference.

I checked the ground in the trunk - was pretty clean, but went ahead and grinded the contact point to a nice shiny bare metal, wire brushed the bolt, and even retapped the threads to make sure it's all clean. Still, no noticable change.

Next, I ran the HU's ground back to the grounding point in the trunk. I did this to attempt to eliminate a possible ground loop. Still, no noticable change in noise levels.

I disconnected the AUX inputs (from the mp3 player to the HU) to eliminate it as a cause. The whine from the hard drive (through the speakers) is still coming through, so it's not the rca's from the mp3.

I disconnected all rca's from HU. Then I connected the mp3 player directly to the amp. The HU must still be on (for remote trigger), but the signal bypasses it. With the mp3 player directly connected to the amp, there was still some whine from the hard drive, but greatly reduced. Engine noise/whine is still present, but again, much less (quieter).

I've poked around a couple other things, but all signs point to the head unit. Even with the engine off, volume at 0, there is background noise on CD playback, when using any controls, sound of laser seaching for next track, etc., etc.
Is there something forked-up with the HU? It's a Clarion HX-D10 bought new. Anyone have these problems with other/similar Clarion units?
Any experience/prefferences/knowledge of noise filters for the HU's power leads?

 

please tell me you bypassed your bose system.

 

please tell me you have something to add to this conversation.....JFC....there is no bose...all gone...all new wires...seriously, man...

 

hmm...so anything you do to the audio will make or alter the noise? is there another HU you can swap out to test?

 

No, I don't have another HU on hand right now. It definately seems that the HU is the source. I went ahead and ordered some noise filters for the HU's power leads, the mp3's leads, as well as some for the rca's. May just end up being band-aids for the problem, or maybe it'll fix it. I've tried what I can right now, so it's worth a shot.

 

you never mentioned anything about your rear and front speakers. do you expect people to be psychic? so now that we know the bose is history, lets move on to the EASIEST problem to fix in car stereo land. install a ground loop isolator. that pos clarion probably doesn't have one built in. have fun with your in-line noise filters.

 

The only reason I didn't mention speakers was because it wasn't important to the topic at hand. I guess it's kinda funny that I would write out all of this stuff, symptoms, components, tests, etc, and someone thinks I'd be dumb enough to hook it all up to the factory bose system - gimme just an ounce of ****** credit that I'm not retarded.... Thanks for the recommendation, after the fact - guess you're a genius.

 

dude, you have a lot to learn about car audio if you think your speakers have nothing to do with the sound that you hear. don't blame me for not knowing whether or not your bose is installed. if you take offense to that, go right ahead, but don't be an a$$ to people contributing to you getting your problem solved. what did i say after the fact? seems to me you bought multiple components to splice in between each speaker and their leads. all you need is 1 ground loop isolator and run it in between the power circiut for the deck. costs about $10 and usually a good deck will have it built in. or at least hanging on the factory harness.

 

i have the same problem with my audio.... i had a weaker amp installed... no noise. yesterday i decided to connect a crunch 1200 watt. and the tweeters have this wicked engine wine.... u cud hear the turn signals, brake switch, door opens, i cud tell what gear the car is in by jus listening to the freakin speakers... i regrounded it. same prob. using 4awg wiring. rca wires on opposite side of car all dat good stuff. imma check it out but it was late and i didnt have enuff daylight to troubleshoot so i just turned it off. oh ps. the interference is only when the engine is on