Noise Problem with Eclipse AVN2454

maka78 · Post by **maka78** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:14 pm

So I have spent the last 2 weeks or so (on and off) trying to figure out why the hell my car has a whining noise.

I always had a whining noise, but did an amp transfer (changed two ti400.2s to a X200.4) and the noise got louder, to the point that it's really annoying.

I tried running a wire straight from the + of the battery and running the - to ground (removing both +/- from stock wiring) and it still didn't fix the problem.

Next thing I tried is putting in this Panasonic head unit I've had laying around, and the noise was gone! So I'm a little pissed now, cause it's most likely the head unit.

If you don't know what an AVN2454 is, it's one of Eclipse's first navigation units, double din. I use the pre-amp front/back outputs from it, to a TLD66 line driver to the X200.4.

One thing I noticed is that when I turn the car off, and the LCD is on, there is a lot of static noise, even with the volume at 0. If I turn the LCD off, the noise goes away.

Also, it's not the RCA's because I tried running RCA's outside the car to the amp. I also tried not running it through the line driver; if the amp gain is very low, you don't hear the static (when the car is off)/whining (when the car is on), if the gain is turned up, you hear more noise, proportional to how much you turn the gain up.

Anyone have any idea besides saying it's a bad HU? Can I repair this somehow? Can anyone else repair this?

Help please, I really need it... can't afford/don't wanna buy another HU.

deathcloud · Post by **deathcloud** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:15 pm

Now you have me worried. I hope it is not my deck that is causing the whining problem. The thing is my deck isn't a double din navigation LCD screen like yours. I just haven't had time or a long speaker wire to trouble shoot the problem yet. and i also want to get a DD5 or DD10 so that I do not have any problems and make it look cleaner. But yea that sucks man. me and you are problem champs haha

Post by **stipud** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:38 am

http://phoenixphorum.com/trouble-shooti ... vt178.html

That will let you decide conclusively.

Definitely try grounding your RCAs at the headunit. There may be an internal grounding issue you can bypass.

maka78 · Post by **maka78** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:22 pm

deathcloud wrote:Now you have me worried. I hope it is not my deck that is causing the whining problem. The thing is my deck isn't a double din navigation LCD screen like yours. I just haven't had time or a long speaker wire to trouble shoot the problem yet. and i also want to get a DD5 or DD10 so that I do not have any problems and make it look cleaner. But yea that sucks man. me and you are problem champs haha

I just wanna get my car done and never touch it again.. is this such a crime?

stipud wrote: http://phoenixphorum.com/trouble-shooti ... vt178.html

That will let you decide conclusively.

Definitely try grounding your RCAs at the headunit. There may be an internal grounding issue you can bypass.

Do I ground just the one side of the RCA's going to the HU, or I have to ground the other side too (the side going to the line driver/amp)? I think I've tried everything else except this.

Post by **mhyde71** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:58 pm

just ground one of the rca's at the hu to the hu...
keeps it (the install looking) clean and still able to move the rca's at the opposite end freely...
I have the avic-z1 (pioneer)... had very same problem... 1st) I ditched the line driver, 2nd) I grounded the rca's, 3rd) I keep gains down (on amps except bass) and pump up the Source level Adjustment (SLA) that the Z1 has and simply use that as a "line driver".,...
i even recorded the(my) findings direct from RCA's... i.e. turned down the SLA I have a .6V reading @ dmm, turn up SLA, i can get up to 2.1v (1.7 - 1.9 - 2.1) on the DMM...

BUT what you might want to do FIRST is first take an rca from that you have easy access to (i.e. from line drive and ground it to whatever under the back seat, where eberything else in the back is grounded, etc..) and make sure that wuill be the (or a ) resolve somewhat.

how many volts does your eclipse put out on rca's??

KHPower · Post by **KHPower** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:21 pm

That eclipse probably puts out 5 volts(would be my guess)

KHPower · Post by **KHPower** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:23 pm

I think I just read 0.8 volts rms

Post by **mhyde71** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:27 pm

KHPower wrote:I think I just read 0.8 volts rms

oh!?!?!?

KHPower · Post by **KHPower** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:56 pm

at 0.8 volts thats a pretty weak signal:?

Post by **mhyde71** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 4:14 pm

KHPower wrote:at 0.8 volts thats a pretty weak signal:?

right and if not mistaken.. maybe the siganal to noise ratio is affected somehow on lower voltage HU's?? i.e the signal to noise ratio is much higher as the signal is much much lower, right???

KHPower · Post by **KHPower** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:23 pm

Indeed

maka78 · Post by **maka78** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:32 pm

The eclipse only goes up to .287V when you are at 7/8 volume. I usually leave it at like 3/4 volume, where I only get .2V. Eclipse says .8V on that HU, but I think that's when your volume is at maximum (80/80).

I can't really ditch the line driver because the X200.4 I have hooked up to it does not sound as god and I have to max out the gain on the x200.4.

I'll try grounding the RCA's. It's probably gonna be in a while though because I was supposed to work on it this weekend, but I got sick

.

BTW - the Panasonic HU has 4V RCA out.

KHPower · Post by **KHPower** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:28 am

I agree with mhyde try that , or just run the unit strait to the battery. i ahve had problems in the past that were fixed running MY HU's strait to the juice

What kind of RCA's are ya using? You may need some more voltage going to the amps

maka78 · Post by **maka78** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:35 am

I am running the unit straight from the battery now (after I replaced the stock wiring. I just ran a 18 ga line from the battery + straight to the HU.

I'm using some monster's IMXLN2C RCAs - http://woofersetc.com/index.cfm?fuseact ... uct_id=619... personally I hate them, but that's what I got, so I'm using them.

deathcloud · Post by **deathcloud** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:58 pm

I have shitty RCAs that came with a rockford fosgate amp kit. I am ditching those and getting some PG ARX-860 RCA cables from him. My dad currently has 3 of those running into a TLD-66 I can't wait to hear his system. Its being professionally installed right now. His system is gunna be the shit. He is also ditching the P3 shallow mount sub and actually buying the JL audio 13 inch shallow mount sub. I just hope he doesn't have any whining noises and it sounds amazing.

maka78 · Post by **maka78** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:59 am

okay, so I had some time to work on my car this weekend and I reduced the noise A LOT.

First thing I did is take off the TLD66 line driver and turned up the amp gains... noise still the same.

Second thing is take out my alarm system wiring (a big mess with a 2-way alarm system with remote start I installed right under the HU). I needed to clean this up anyway, so I decided to do this later after I fix my sounds... still same noise level.

Third thing is try to ground the RCA to the chassis... noise INCREASES!

Then I connect the HU frame to the same ground as the HU, and the noise reduces a lot.

I connect the TLD66 and reduce the amp gains again to match. I connect the +/-/remote to the same connection points as the HU, and the noise increases back to what it was before.

Move the ground of the TLD66 directly to the battery ground, leave the ground of the HU to a metal piece of frame in the center console... noise goes back down.

Final wiring:
>HU positive/TLD positive connected straight to + of battery, bypassing the stock wiring.
>HU negative connected to frame in center console, bypassing stock wiring
>TLD negative connected directly to battery
>Remote of TLD connected to remote out of HU
>ACC of HU connected to stock wiring ACC.

Whining noise (as well as LCD static) is still there, but much much smaller (which I do not mind as much).

Any other ideas on what to do? Did you mean connect the RCA to the HU chassis, not the car chassis?

Also, I currently have my gains matched for my HU max volume to be somewhere like 69/80. If I can gain match with my HU at like 78/80 (or somewhere like that), I will reduce the noise further because the gain will be less, meaning the noise is not going to be amplified as much. Why do I need to gain match at 3/4 or 7/8 volume? Does the HU really clip the signal if its volume goes to where it was designed to go to? If it does, why do they make it go beyond clipping when they design the HU?

I think if I can gain match at the 78/80 volume, I will have the noise be extremely small, to the point that I really will not mind at all. I guess this is the bad thing when you have a head unit that is designed to output at 0.8V max.

maka78 · Post by **maka78** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:05 am

also, why do they say the TLD66 should not touch the frame of the car? If the TLD's frame should be grounded, why is it made out of metal? Would I be able to wrap it up in electrical tape?

I would like to drop it right under the HU in the center console so it's as close as possible to the HU, but there's metal all over the place there. Next closest thing is put it under the passenger seat, which means I have to get new RCA's

.