Alternator Noise

[Benny Z]

Last night I replaced my E36's OEM head unit with an Alpine CD player. I also added XM radio.

However, I now have alternator noise! UGH!

I used a wiring harness from Circuit City and used crimp connectors to attach the Alpine's wiring to the new harness. I did not replace the OEM external amplifier and didn't touch any wiring after the OEM radio plug.

It surprises me that I have the alternator hum...in my past experiences I've only encountered alternator hum when adding aftermarket amplifier wiring to a system.

Where should I begin trying to track this annoyance down?

TIA!

- Ben

[jshearer]

Dont know for sure if this is related but when i installed my clarion unit i had to get a "universal sound system interface and controller". It was a "required" part from crutchfield when i bought my head unit. You install this to use with the factory amp.

[jshearer]

Here I found a link to the unit that i have on crutchfield.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-eYEkDk0SDas/c...ystem+interface

I have heard that if oyu don;t use this you get distortion, static and such from your speakers.

[Benny Z]

Originally posted by jshearer@Feb 25 2005, 12:32 AM
Here I found a link to the unit that i have on crutchfield.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-eYEkDk0SDas/c...ystem+interface

I have heard that if oyu don;t use this you get distortion, static and such from your speakers.

[snapback]298947[/snapback]

Thanks for the recommendation. I went ahead and ordered one of these because the volume level on the head unit doesn't match the OEM deck's volume out...so when I turn up the volume I can only turn it up to volume level 11 or 12 before distortion, whereas I could turn it up to 20 or 21 in my old car. This should solve that issue.

I'm not so optimistic that it will solve the alternator hum, though. Any other places to check while I've got everything apart again installing the converter?

[jshearer]

Hopefully that works, I hear mixed things about this. Some people say you have to have this and others say it is a waste of money. I think it depends on the car and head unit. Let us know if this helps you at all.

[jllphan]

My guess would be that it's your XM unit that is making the alternator whine. Disconnect power from it, and see if that fixes it. If it does, just find a better place to ground the unit.

[clarkinc]

Originally posted by Benny Z@Feb 24 2005, 10:16 AM
Last night I replaced my E36's OEM head unit with an Alpine CD player. I also added XM radio.

However, I now have alternator noise! UGH!

I used a wiring harness from Circuit City and used crimp connectors to attach the Alpine's wiring to the new harness. I did not replace the OEM external amplifier and didn't touch any wiring after the OEM radio plug.

It surprises me that I have the alternator hum...in my past experiences I've only encountered alternator hum when adding aftermarket amplifier wiring to a system.

Where should I begin trying to track this annoyance down?

TIA!

- Ben

[snapback]298369[/snapback]

Like the last guy said "most" alt hum comess from grounding problems. Try tracing the power cables and make sure that they don't run anywhere near the main power source. The Alt cable runs all the way to the trunk and can be overlooked when you dont use sheilded cable. Also this can be caused by the antenna adapter so try playing around with grounds, you can have more than one.