Crackling in speakers when on the throttle or brake (95 Riv)

Hey guys heres a tricky 1 for ya. I have a triple black 1995 Riviera with a custom stereo install. The install is only bout three weeks old but my installer and myself have been contending with a multitude of issues since it was completed.

So heres a break down of whats happening, when I turn the volume up on the stereo past approximately 50% and step on the gas or brake for that matter my trebile speaker amplifier cuts out or makes an aweful crackling sound out of my speakers. 1 of the issues we thought it was, we corrected by wrapping the tweeter and its wiring in alluminum foil to shield it from interference it was picking up from what I can only assume was from the ECU. Even when the tweeter wasn't hooked up to anything it was making that ground whine noise. That problem is now fixed but I still have the issue of it cutting out. We have tested the alternater and that all seems to be okay. I can only assume my ECU ground is good or I would be experiencing far worse problems than just speaker noise with my car. I had wondered if it could be coming from my coil packs or not? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Just a breakdown of what the system consists of incase that will help you guys at all:
Eclipse 5350 head unit
Bravox CF 5.5" component set
Eclipse 6x9's
Alphasonic Mayhem 912 4400W woofer
Soundstream Tarantula 2000D
Soundstream Tarantula 4.880
Soundstream BX-20 Epicenter
Soundstream 6 farad cap
Optima yellow top dry cell

Thanx again for any help you guys can offer.

try putting a ground loop isolator inline between the head unit and the amp. Often times what happens is everything gets grounded to the frame so it creates a kind of ground loop that causes a lot of electrical interference. Ground loop isolator should be like 15 bucks and available at any radioshack or car audio place.

Thanx for the suggestion I have that in my Alero, on my Pioneer head unit cuz it had the nasty ground whine. However, I don't think this scenario is quite that simple I have had many large systems over the years and have never encountered anything like this, but I will give it a shot.

Keep em coming every1 the more input the merrier I am at wits end with this dilemma and its starting to cost alot of extra $.

OMG, this is exactly the same issue that I have currently. It just started to happen. Mine is a crackling/sizzling with alternator whine coming from my passenger side tweeter and woofer. It randomly will do it. I can be driving down the road and it's fine for 40 minutes and then suddenly it starts doing it. Or it'll do it right off the bat. I have four seperate ground loops isolators, but even when playing a CD from the head unit it does it. The noise is constant in my case. Doesn't matter if the volume is at 0 or 50, and it's only through the front passenger speaker. Extremely strange.

Have you ever been able to isolate what the issue was? I have the speaker wire running from the rear of the car in the trunk to the front via the drivers side (power cables run on passenger side) and through the dash to my crossover that is mounted behind the glovebox. The only thing I can think of is the ECU is interferring with the cable in the dash. The ECU is behind the glovebox in that general area as well correct?

I'm going to do more diagnostics later, but it's extremely strange that we're having the same issues.

Honestly the problem is still there. It is going back into the Shop in spring for the alarm and starter and gunna try to get that bug worked out of it. It drives me insane because its like a $5000 system and it shouldn't do that.

The noise through the passenger side tweeter I had aswell. We ended up having to shield the tweeter and its crossover with aluminum foil. It seemed to be picking the noise up from the ECU. The foil took care of the whine in that particular speaker but I still have the rest of the issue to contend with. I am gunna check all the grounds in my engine bay and make sure they are clean. I am certain its a ground issue, 99.9% of the time you get engine or alt noise in sound systems it is ground related. I will keep you posted.

Hometown Hero wrote:

Honestly the problem is still there. It is going back into the Shop in spring for the alarm and starter and gunna try to get that bug worked out of it. It drives me insane because its like a $5000 system and it shouldn't do that.

The noise through the passenger side tweeter I had aswell. We ended up having to shield the tweeter and its crossover with aluminum foil. It seemed to be picking the noise up from the ECU. The foil took care of the whine in that particular speaker but I still have the rest of the issue to contend with. I am gunna check all the grounds in my engine bay and make sure they are clean. I am certain its a ground issue, 99.9% of the time you get engine or alt noise in sound systems it is ground related. I will keep you posted.

The odd thing about mine is it just recently started, the grounding noise or squealing doesn't affect any other speaker, and it randomly starts and stops. It's been fine for the last year. It will literally go from hurting your ears the squealing is so loud at 0 to being quiet as can be when turned all the way up to 62 with nothing playing.I dread having to take the dash apart and move the crossover and whatnot away from the ECU as much as possible. I know exactly what you mean about spending the money and having this issue happen. I just want to enjoy it. I wonder if maybe my ECU is biting the dust or just decided to put out me RFE.

I think I fixed my issue, not positive though until I do more driving. I think my noise may have been caused by a faulty spark plug wire. i replaced that after it was causing some major misfire incidents and now the squealing and hissing are gone and the other channels seem to have less noise in the background. It seems to be back to the way it was before the last few weeks. If that was indeed the issue, then it's so odd how everything is so tied together.

Not so odd. We're talking about tens of thousands of volts arcing to ground from a damaged ignition wire. When this happens, the coil is asked to deliver a higher than usual spark voltage to jump the gap. The arc is also not shielded, so it could easily produce EMI that could enter your head unit or amps (ever notice how your cell phone causes interference around some speakers?).

Keep in mind, everything in your car is tied together - it's all running off the same battery, same alternator, same grounded chassis. There is noise filtering circuitry inside each component, but it can only filter so well.

a buddy of mine had this same problem and he tracked it down to rusted grounds. removed the rust and problem solved. i still dont get it.

AA wrote:

Not so odd. We're talking about tens of thousands of volts arcing to ground from a damaged ignition wire. When this happens, the coil is asked to deliver a higher than usual spark voltage to jump the gap. The arc is also not shielded, so it could easily produce EMI that could enter your head unit or amps (ever notice how your cell phone causes interference around some speakers?).

Keep in mind, everything in your car is tied together - it's all running off the same battery, same alternator, same grounded chassis. There is noise filtering circuitry inside each component, but it can only filter so well.

makes sense. I have to keep my Bold shut off in my car otherwise I hear the GSM chirping. Nice thing is I know when I'm getting a text message.

My verizon storm doesn't cause any issues. Another reason I love verizon over ATT. I can actually use it to stream slacker radio without the annoying GSM noise.

Question:
BOLD =

GSM =

I do know what ATT means though.!!!!

Rickw wrote:

Question:
BOLD =

GSM =

I do know what ATT means though.!!!!

Sorry, I'm so used to working at a cell phone company.

Bold= Blackberry Bold. It's a smartphone I use on ATT. (yes I have two blackberry phones. One on ATT the other on Verizon)

GSM= Global System for Mobile Communications

GSM is the competing standard to CDMA which stands for Code Division Multiple Access. Both are technologies used to make and receive phone calls, texts and data over a cellular network.

GMFreak8 wrote:

I think I fixed my issue, not positive though until I do more driving. I think my noise may have been caused by a faulty spark plug wire. i replaced that after it was causing some major misfire incidents and now the squealing and hissing are gone and the other channels seem to have less noise in the background. It seems to be back to the way it was before the last few weeks. If that was indeed the issue, then it's so odd how everything is so tied together.

As Aaron said it's not odd that you would be getting the noise from A (one) bad ignition wire. But i'll bet you have bleeding current from all the other wires as well and when you add up all RFI and EMI your experiencing, when you change all wires and plugs and when you get the time, clean all ground cables on the chassis, you will notice a big difference. Not only in engine performance but lack of noise in your sound system.
Check the frame/chassis down on the passenger side below your AC system and look for a couple of ground cables screwed to the chassis.
Remove them, wire brush the chassis, cables and fasteners. Considering you live in the snow belt and from looking at your pic's, you have some rusty fasteners under the hood, you more than likely have rusty ground fasteners down low where the road salt can get to them.
I did all those connections at the same time that I added a #4 cable to my Alternator and all my issues went away. The whole car is a grounding point, so anywhere you might find even the smallest of wire screwed to the firewall or elsewhere you need to remove it and clean it up and reinstall. A little Dielectric on the connectors wont hurt either.

Rickw wrote:

GMFreak8 wrote:

I think I fixed my issue, not positive though until I do more driving. I think my noise may have been caused by a faulty spark plug wire. i replaced that after it was causing some major misfire incidents and now the squealing and hissing are gone and the other channels seem to have less noise in the background. It seems to be back to the way it was before the last few weeks. If that was indeed the issue, then it's so odd how everything is so tied together.

As Aaron said it's not odd that you would be getting the noise from A (one) bad ignition wire. But i'll bet you have bleeding current from all the other wires as well and when you add up all RFI and EMI your experiencing, when you change all wires and plugs and when you get the time, clean all ground cables on the chassis, you will notice a big difference. Not only in engine performance but lack of noise in your sound system.
Check the frame/chassis down on the passenger side below your AC system and look for a couple of ground cables screwed to the chassis.
Remove them, wire brush the chassis, cables and fasteners. Considering you live in the snow belt and from looking at your pic's, you have some rusty fasteners under the hood, you more than likely have rusty ground fasteners down low where the road salt can get to them.
I did all those connections at the same time that I added a #4 cable to my Alternator and all my issues went away. The whole car is a grounding point, so anywhere you might find even the smallest of wire screwed to the firewall or elsewhere you need to remove it and clean it up and reinstall. A little Dielectric on the connectors wont hurt either.

Will do. Gotta wait for it to warm up. Plan on cleaning it from top to bottom when it does. I'll add that to my list.

robotennis61 wrote:

a buddy of mine had this same problem and he tracked it down to rusted grounds. removed the rust and problem solved. i still dont get it.

What don't you get.?
That there are electrons running through the whole car all the time. The battery is grounded to the chassis as is all components requiring a ground, so if there is any corrosion (resistance) in any chassis connection you will have electrical problems as well as possible noise in the sound system.
Same thing with bad ignition wires. The first sign that they are going bad is not always a skip or miss from the engine. Sometimes the stereo whine that changes with RPM can be indication of bad ignition wires or bad grounds or alternator / regulator going bad.

Mine has new wires and plugs... infact the MSD 8.8mm that are on it may very well be the problem. They are not shielded unlike the MSD Heli-cores (think thats the name of em). Maybe I should switch em out. But i will check the grounds first. Thanks for all your input guys this 1, its really got me bothered.

Hometown Hero wrote:

Mine has new wires and plugs... infact the MSD 8.8mm that are on it may very well be the problem. They are not shielded unlike the MSD Heli-cores (think thats the name of em). Maybe I should switch em out. But i will check the grounds first. Thanks for all your input guys this 1, its really got me bothered.

I bet anything that's your problem. It's amazing how much quieter the stereo is with just that one new coil pack and one new wire. I was always under the impression that there would be a slight hiss in the background when turned up with a quiet part in the song, but even that's gone now.

Wait until you replace all of your wires, you may experience an even more noticeable difference.

Rickw wrote:

Wait until you replace all of your wires, you may experience an even more noticeable difference.

Magnecor is an option. OE Delco is an option too.

Thing that amazes me is how much some companies can charge for plug wires that actually abuse their customers.

Albertj

I ordered my 8mm MSD Heli-core wires today, unfortunately they are on back order for 2 weeks but its still pretty snowy n salty to pull out the riv yet. I am prolly gunna sell these 8.8mm MSD pretty cheap like around $65CAD + shipping they have only been on the car for about 3 weeks before it was parked for winter. Those three weeks it spent in the stereo shop. So they are essentially brand new. If any1 is interested pm me. If not my buddy J may want them for his 97 Riv.

Hope this is the solution to my issue. Thanx for all the feedback guys much appreciated.

So changed the full set of wires to Factory AC Delco set. No change in problem, so that eliminates the wires from the equation. Strangely enough the engine bay grounds look pretty good. I am thinking it will have to go back to the stereo shop for some repairs on something that may have been done wrong. In the meantime I may as well put my MSD 8.5's back on.

Hmmm.... wonder if the old capacitor trick would work?

Albertj

Yeah I am thinking ground loop isolators might do the trick. @ least I hope so.

Hometown Hero wrote:

Yeah I am thinking ground loop isolators might do the trick. @ least I hope so.

I've never ever had a ground loop isolator actually solve an issue like this. It seems for me though the wires did the trick. Quiet as a mouse now unless I'm blaring music. Sorry the switch of wires didn't work.