06' GT Stereo Whine?
 

First post on this forum, so here it goes. Last fall I bought a used 2006 GT with about 47000 miles. The previous owner had installed and removed an aftermarket deck (I'm assuming due to RCA cables being behind the factory deck), an amp, and a sub (again assuming because of RCA and power cables in the trunk).

Now everything appears to be returned to factory, and all the connections on back of the deck are good, but when I have the head unit on, when the engine is running, or the engine off and headlights on, I hear a whine coming from the speakers. When the engine is off I hear a strange ticking/tapping sound, and the whine comes back and kind of masks the tapping/ticking when I turn on my headlights.

I don't know much about sound systems, but I made sure the ends of all of the wires left in the car were completely taped up. I had googled that it might be a bad ground, but that would only make sense if my sounds systems was using the aftermarket wiring, but I can't find anywhere that the factory wiring is connected to the aftermarket wires. Now I am not sure if this problem could be related too the factory components, so I was hoping to see if anyone on here has had a similar sound with an unmodified car. Thanks for your time.

Welcome to the forum!


The problem you are describing is ignition whine. It's probably due to an unshielded wire resting against a metal component of the dashboard. You mention taped wires, are they crimped/soldered or just twisted together under the tape?


Also, in the old days, you had to install a noise filter inline with the antenna wire to prevent ignition noise.


Are you hearing it only with AM/FM or when playing CDs as well?

Hi and thanks!

The taped wires I was referring too don't appear to be connected to anything, they were just left in from the previous owners' sound system, I taped the ends just to try and see if that was causing the noise. Also I haven't tried it with a CD yet so I will try that next and see if there is any interference.

All that is left in the car for wires is: Large power cables for amp running from battery to trunk, RCAs from back of the head unit to the trunk, and a small single black wire from the head unit to the trunk (which I believe is the remote wire for the amp?). I can't see where any of these could be connected into the factory system.

Might wanna check that the deck has a good ground.

Are these leftover wires plugged in to the car wiring plugs? I am a bit confused here. The stock wiring plugs have been modified and there are other new (abandoned) wires/plugs in the stock wiring harness? Or has the stock wiring harness been removed and something else is there?


The reason I ask is that maybe you have a live wire that is abandoned that is currently resting against your antenna wire or the in dash amp that might be causing the noise. What happens when you pull the radio (still connected) and move the wires around? Does the sound disappear?


Another thing to consider is that a lot of radio shops use crimp connectors when redoing wiring, and you could have a bad connection in one of the speaker or ground wires due to a loose connection. Knowing how your install went might help in identifying the problem.

Try removing the large power wires that have been connected to the battery for the amp. The radio should still work. If the whine is gone, then you may have to reroute the large wires, or obtain shielded wires for the long run.

Is it a whine or a ticking ignition noise?

If it is a whine it is either a low level patch cable, a bad ground or alternator going bad.

If its a clicking then you have another problem.

The wires aren't connected to the factory wiring at all, they are just left in the car but disconnected. All aftermarket the ends are completely insulated from the car.

Here is the strange part, when the car is running I hear a low pitched steady whine, the the engine is running and headlights or parklights are on, I hear a slightly louder steady whine. When I shut engine off but leave key on I hear a ticking/tapping in the speakers instead of a whine, and finally when engine is off but headlights are on I hear a louder whine with a slight tapping underneath?

I'm starting to wonder if you have a bad head unit?


Also, do you have aftermarket HID headlights?

Yes! The car did come with after-market Beamer brand HIDs. Also, I was wondering about a head unit myself, but I wasn't sure how to test it?