Engine noise threw Raido???? clarion XMD-3

Im haveing some problems.

For some un-known reason Im getting a alternator whine threw my Clarion XMD-3 CD raido. Im scratching my head and thought I would run it by you and see if anyone has any Idea's

#1 Im pretty sure Its the Raido. "Because when I unplug the rca's from the back of the raido and run my I-pod directley threw the EQ I have no engine noise at all. The min I plug the Rca's from the raido back in, The engine noise is back.
#2 I have tryed 12v noise filters on the Ingnition and Batterys leeds going directley to the back of the raido They didnt do jack.
#3 I even hooked up a 12v power supply to power the raido from a 12v supply ouside my boat and I still have the engine whine???? Rember this 12 power source has nothng to do with or isnot connected to my boat at all. WTF is going on?
It seems as if I have a bad XMD-3

When I got 12v power from a outside power souce
and hooked it to my XMD-3 and I stll got the whine I was convinced The XMD-3 is bad. Could there be a bad shield internally, When I ran a ground wire directely to the back of the XMD-3 the sound got worse it was a craclking along with the engin whine. Im at a loss.

If it was in my RCA's or bad ground the I-pod would have the same whine. The I-pod plays perfectley clean

I even ran jumper cables from the batterys directley to the raido and grounded it directley to the engine. So I know its not a bad ground or a rca running to close to a power cable.

when it happened to me faulty depth finder, it was tough to find.

I am definitely not the stereo guy but I thought that whine could be from your spark plugs wires. I know some have better rf sheilding than others.

How far did it throw it?

Yes I know about shielded spark plug wires. I could try them. Another weird fact I was running the system and it had no noise. And all of a sudden its like somthning let go or broke because
thats when the whine started. I tryed a few diffrent things and the whine comes and goes all on its own. I havent found anything to stop it yet

Shane: where was your depth finder located how far was it from your raido?

Grant- this is really basic and I'm sure you know to check for this already...but make sure your power wires and RCA's are well insulated and never run parrallel to each other on the way to the back of your CD player. I would think that any power wire could do it, to any of your dashboard accessories...if they aren't insulated well enough.

Cal: yes that was the first thing I thought of and no I dont think thats not the problem. This is why.

If the RCA's were to close or Power wires and were transmitting noise threw rca's I would have the Engin Noise even when the I-pod is hooked up. The more I talk with people about this the more I think I have a bad XMD-3, I got a diffrent head unit from my brother. Im going to wire it in and see if it does the same thing, If it does then I know its somthning in my install and if it doesnt then I know its the head unit.

if your other did not make same noise you know its the new deck clarion didn't change any of the audio out. Take a small 18 ga wire ground it to
the deck then ground it to the rca outer sheidind, its sounds like your loseing signal ground

Grant, you might want to try using a battery not connected to the boat to run the head unit and see if the sound stops. Of course the "other head unit" accomplishes the same thing.

move your ground wire as far away from any mechanics of the boat as possible if your ground is close to these parts sound can carry through it.

i had the same problem and it was my ground. also does it have remotes in the boat?

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-g52YeOnROeL/learningcenter/car/noise_diagnose.html

i used this flow to chart to get me close to the problem also

Ok I pluged in a nother head unit and I still have engine noise So Now im convinced that it is somthing in my ground wire or bad power lead. I have taken my side dash apart and Im going to rebuild all new wire harness to power the deck. the stock wire harness is what supplys power to the head unit Im going to run all new wire's with no splices and see how it works out.

We moved some wires around and the noise went away I just hope when Im all done with new wires it still is noise free

Grant,

We have run into the same problems in the past and I know how frustrating this can be. Doing installs for many years, I can only add a couple of things to try.

Some things to consider if your new harness doesn't work out.

First, I agree with Shane. Sometimes the depth finder emits a high pitch clicking noise and the brain is located right under the dash. This would be consistent with the fact that you tried noise filters and they didn't work. Marine radios (especially Clarions) are extremely sensitive to these depth finders. Try running all wires at least 12" from this unit and its wires. This noise will be evident if the ignition is on but the engine isn't running (assuming the depth finder is on when you turn on ignition).

If the noise is only happening when the motor is running, then your problem is wiring. If you are running more than one battery, make sure that your deck and amplifiers are on the same battery (if they are on separate batteries, a voltage differential can cause havoc). If you are using only one battery, then most likely you have a shady connection on your power or ground wires somewhere along the line.

Good luck.

Jerry
Fluid Concepts
www.fluidconcepts.net

as a last resort get a stinger noise filter. they work great and do not cut any of the db's

grant can't remember, the 2nd set of audio guys found it, I couldn't, the first audio guys, and the guys eventually found it, probably spent a total of 24 hours on this, it was frustrating.

Maybe a hot or faulted ground? remove the battery leads, and use a vom to tone the pos. and neg.
It is worth a shot.

MIKE: what is a VOM?

I re-built the stock wire harnes It must have had 5 splices in the power before it got to the Raido. We played with a few diffrent grounds and moved om wires and it to go away, After I was all finish and put it back together it was back again. WTF. Im done working in and on this thing for now. I can keep the EQ volume down and the Whine is almost gone. I wnt to try the insulated spark plug wires

Grant- Another possibly obvious suggestion, but you just mentioned that you "can keep the EQ volume down and the Whine is almost gone."

Is it an external EQ? IF it goes away when you dial it down, that seems like it could be the source of the problem? If it is external, you should try wiring around it and see what happens. I don't know how hard that is to do, but worth a shot??

If it is an INTERNAL EQ, disregard my post...

vom = volt ohm meter i believe

a bad ground sometimes causes this noise...try scraping the paint off where you have it grounded so you get a secure metal to metal contact.

Tino-

"Scrape the paint off the metal" Where in a boat would you have paint on metal? Everything is stainless steel or fiberglass.

Grant grounds his stereo equipment using 0 gauge wire to deep cycle batteries.

Grant,
did you have the whine with your old fosgate equalizer? could be a bad equalizer.

Mike

are you using the pass through feature from one amp to the next? i had a bad fosgate amp a while back and that was what hurt me.

Its not the EQ im sure of it. If I unplug the head unit and plug my I-pod directley into the EQ I have no noise at all. Its only when I use my head unit that I get the whine. And it's also a combo of Head unit volume and EQ volume that is giving me Whine. When I have the EQ volume way up is when the whine is comming in. The easy fix for now is to keep the EQ volume down.

2 things Im going to do/try

#1. Insulated spark plug wire's and Plug's with resistor's

#2. Moving my deck power from the main battery to the battery bank that powers the system. So deck power and amp power is comming from One source

the only proble with #2 is that I dont know how to tap into a switched source from the key pad that uses. I dont want to have my system able to be powerd up with out the key. The way my system powers up now is from the key pad the key pad is powerd from the main battery, you punch in the code and you get a accessory power thats what lights my deck.

try the stinger ground loop isolator right behind the deck on the rca's. you will not lose any sound quality and should get rid of it...

Are your amps power feeds wired directly to the battery? Wire your radio battery and ignition directly to the battery also. you may have a grounding problem between radio and amp. In my 92 Sunsetter, I moved the battery to the front of the boat and wired radio and amps directly together, and right to the battery. It eliminated ignition whine!

Grant,

If you do find that this noise is caused by multiple battery sources, then you can use a simple Bosch relay (or similar) to turn on all stereo power and still use your key pad. I'm sure there are a few people here that can help you with the schematics.....fairly simple.

J.Lembas
Fluid Concepts
www.fluidconcepts.net

Jerry: Yes Im familliar with the Bosch relay's. Im just wondering the power that would kick on the relay would still come from a potentially bad source (Enging Whine) would I still get the noise threw the relay even thought power for the amps/ raido are all from one source?

Ty- I tryed the ground Loop Isolatore. In front of the amp, In between the deck and eq, From the EQ to the amp's , Infact the grond Loop isolator seemd to cause more noise then it fixed.

Doug: I ran a test power and ground wires directley from the Stereo battery's to the deck that didnt fix the problem.

Ty: When you say use the Stinger Noise filter what are you talking about? A ground Loop isolator or a 12v Power Filter (AKA a Choke)

Anyone have experience with blowing out the diodes on the alternator? My buddy switched his perko switch on his batteries while the boat was on and it blew out his alternator diodes. I have heard of this happening on cars as well when you jump start an engine. I have heard blowing out the diodes can cause engine noise in the electrical system. Anyone know more about this?

grant., Here is the product you need to solve your problem fast and cheap. I have ordered many things from them and they are great.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=265-047

Hey Grant,

Have you called Clarion tech support. With the XMD being a marine radio maybe others have experienced this problem and they know the cause. Worth a shot. Unless you get some flunky who doesn't know squat about radios.

Grant, keep the recommended type of spark plug and wires in the engine. Changing something like that can cause problems to the motor that you will never hear, but pay for in the end.

As to what Rod said that a bad diode could cause the problem, can be tested using the VOM on a/c and see if there is a larger reading or use a stand alone battery for powering the headunit.

Grant,

The relay should completely isolate the two circuits and eliminate the noisy side (if that is your problem). Plus, your battery system won't try to dump voltage through the RCA wires, which is probably causing the noise.

Let us know when you figure it out. You might even find that your problem is non of the things mentioned.

Jerry Lembas
Fluid Concepts
www.fluidconcepts.net

Grant, try running a wire from the eq ground to the cd player chasis. I know it sounds wierd but it has worked before when I couldn't find a whine. It's worth a shot.