Kryptek49

On 03/04/2019 at 20:44, FruitPolo said:

Yeah I hope it is back together, sounds like you've had a bit of a nightmare with that audio install

Car's all sorted, what time are people getting there?

New amp in, head unit fuse is no longer blowing so all good there! 

I had left the original wiring attached to the door speakers, which was causing some kind of interference despite the bose amp not getting any power.  I've now removed these and everything is working perfectly

Next up - a sub install + fitting some new Alpine coaxial speakers up front on Tuesday.  I'll replace these with components in future, and possibly move the coaxials to the rear speakers.

All sorted now though, so I'm happy!

Okay didn't get much time  to test everything tonight, but the new battery is in.

Weird screechy noises coming from the speakers when the cars on, and when turning it off it does it as well.

The 15A fuse for the permanent live to the radio has blown. Replaced it and turned the radio on and it blew again.  
 

I'll disconnect the amp to see if this is the cause tomorrow

The cold air might give it away  

IIRC, mine turns on as soon as I turn the car on, regardless of if the dial is set to off.

I'll double check after work if no-one else can confirm it.

57 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

Ah, I thought you meant shorted one of the outputs to the speakers - that would kill the innards of the amp. If it was power, you'd know if you did it. Crackles, sparks the lot. Ever touch the battery retainer bolt with a spanner, whilst trying to undo the positive terminal? Don't do that. It's scary.

The power wire came loose so could have touched anything tbh, I really should have been more careful. 

So if it had touched one of the speaker wires this would have killed the amp? But if it had touched ground I might be okay?

There was a distinct burning smell, I didn't hear any crackling (speakers were popping though so could have missed it I suppose). 

15 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

I have one of these: http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/amplifiers/four-channel-amplifiers/pioneer-gm-d8604-4-channel-1200w-class-d-car-amplifier

Seems pretty solid. Does hiss a bit, but once the engine's running & add a bit of road noise it's not a problem. Bit more than you want to spend, though...

 

Worth checking that the one you have *has* gone first. Any chance you have an old hi-fi / surround sound speaker lying around you could hook up? I do have a couple, and am just across the border in Cambs. Unfortunately have no free weekends until some time in May...

Looks like a good unit, thanks.

I never plugged in the sub, so I'll check if that works later.

I'm pretty certain I shorted the sub though, after installing it I twisted it round so I could get to the gain adjustment dials and must have put to much pressure on the live/ground wires in the back as when I turned it back round they were loose...  I'm assuming they touched each other, but don't know for definite yet.  Amp fuses weren't blown, and the inline fuse next to the battery is fine as well.

9 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

Yep, that would do it 

Well @*!#...

Any recommendations on a replacement amp? Don't need something super powerful - just a 4 channel amp with enough power to drive a decent pair of speakers.

Preferably under £100, I don't mind buying used

28 minutes ago, DeeJayDready said:

Would this be a difficult job?

Nope, all you need to do is pull out the centre arm rest and run the phone cable alongside the existing wires.

1 - Remove air-con controls

2 - Remove gear knob

3 - Move seats all the way forward and remove the 2 screws on either side of the centre console behind the seats

4 - Unplug any wires around the gear knob

5 - Remove centre console

(If you've got a DE, you may need to remove a single screw from the middle somewhere)

You can then run your phone cable down the middle and have it poke out of the bluetooth bit.  

Should take you around 20 minutes in total.

Be careful with the rubber handbrake cover though, as this is not removable without breaking it though (which I found out)

1 hour ago, Ponsonby said:

Do the windings on speakers actually burn out? I would have thought more likely to be your amp that has gone??

Waiting on the new battery to verify anything.  To be honest I know very little about audio installations, so don't really know what/how to check.

I think I may have shorted the amp out by accident, which could well have blown it.

35 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

If they were still the factory ones, no great loss  Got an excuse to upgrade now. IMO the back ones aren't worth it - all the sound they make is just absorbed by the seats, anyway.

...Why did no one mention to check that earlier? Talk about the bleeding obvious...

 

Good job getting to the end of it all 

I plan on putting some cheap coaxial's in at the back ,and a set of quality components up front.  Not 100% sure if they're blown yet tbh, need to wait for the new battery to verify it.

The battery wasn't the problem, but 5 days of me messing about testing electrics and playing music out the speakers without turning the car on completely killed it.  

10 minutes ago, Umster said:

I'm actually happy to hear this is all sorted. If you ever sell your car, make sure you link this thread in your post! 

 

Respect your determination. 

Thanks At least the car is fully wired now for a proper sound system.  Have to wait till I get the new battery in to see if everything's working properly though.

Fortunately the passenger wing mirror works now - I bent a few pins when putting the plugs back together, straightened them out and it's now working perfectly.

Oh wait no, just checked my battery voltage and its 7 volts...  Looks like I can add a new one to my shopping list

Success! (sort of...)

The cause was the gain on the Sub.  I didnt realise that the front and rear had a seperate gain adjustment, so when testing after installing the new amp the hissing was still coming from the front due to the high gain.  After lowering it down to the min there is now no noise at all!  

On to the sort of...

I was testing the speakers, and slowly turned up the sound until it was at max volume, then 'pop' followed by an electrical burning smell...

Pretty sure I've just blown all of the speakers in my car  

Now when I play any music its just the speakers making a single popping noise every 2 seconds, and that's all I get...

I only bought a cheap amp off FB to keep me going for a while, I'm glad all the wiring is done at least!

3 minutes ago, coldel said:

Looking forwards to seeing the outcome of this, bonkers that it is still doing it. Have you replaced all the wiring yet?!

Pretty much, I've run all new 16gauge speaker wires to the 4 speakers, which was a huge PITA as you have to drill holes in the connectors to wire the cables through the front door grommets, and theres no space to work with (also my left mirror doesn't tilt anymore so I need to work out what I did wrong there).  I've run 4gauge wire from the battery to the amp, and grounded it using 4gauge to a bare metal ground.  

There's really not alot left for me to replace, that's pretty much the entire sound system!

Only thing I haven't done is replaced the wiring going directly to the head unit (Live, Ground etc., not the RCA's), so I'm going to try run the live & ground wires from the amp connections which I know are perfect to see if the noise is still there.

And if the noise is then gone, I'll know I've just completely wasted my time with an unnecessary amp install!

All good fun  

29 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

Does it change if the engine is running or not? _Maybe_ alternator?

Nope, when I test it I'm normally just on accessory power, so engine not running.  The hissing doesn't change if the engine is on either, just a bit harder to hear over the exhaust

I'm about an hour away so I'll try and pop down - if I've got the car back together by then

12 hours ago, ZMANALEX said:

Yeah, should have that in stock.

 

Let me check when in the shop tomorrow.

If you've got more than one of these, please can I have one as well.  Broke the clips trying to remove it the other day.

Well, after spending my entire weekend running new speaker wire & wiring in the amp, the noise is still there!

Because I've replaced almost everything in the system, this only leaves a couple of options for the cause:

1 - Some kind of electrical intereference

2 - Dodgy head unit

3 - Bad wires going to the head unit, such as a dirty live cable, or bad ground.

2 & 3 are fairly easy to test, so I'll see if I can finally get this sorted today

I've given up - sticking in an aftermarket amp tomorrow + rerunning all of the speaker cables, hope this does the trick.

Just installed a Sony XAV-AX1000, and while the hissing is slightly quieter than my Kenwood it is definitely still there, again regardless of source, fader/balance etc.

This is frustrating!

Yep, I'll pull the Sony unit out of my girlfriends car later and see if this has any effect. 

Based on a few similar articles it appears that the difference in power between the new head unit & the BOSE amp is the issue.

2 options to fix this would be fit a new amp, or to run new speaker wires directly from the HU and bypass the amp completely.

Any thoughts on which is the better option?

Okay another day of trying to sort this and still no luck.

I've bought an entirely new wiring harness, split the RCA cables per Buster's mod, and I'm in the exact same position as before. The sound was still there before modding the harness, just quieter, as expected.

The sound is coming from all of the speakers. Interestingly if I mess about with the fader/balance, this has no effect on the sound.  It continually blasts from all the speakers regardless of which one is getting actual sound.

Anyone got any more ideas?
 

It doesn't really make much sense to me from a business point of view - surely most people see the high quote and immediately go elsewhere, instead of calling & then being offered a lower more realistic price?

56 minutes ago, Ben–350Z said:

Do you get any "actual" sound at all? i.e. is what should be playing there under the buzzing?

Yes, everything seems to be working correctly, perfect radio signal, amp is powering on, speakers playing clear sound etc.

I might just order a new loom and hope for the best, they're about £45 though which seems quite expensive!