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New system going in

5K views 37 replies 7 participants last post by  4x4high 
#1 ·
It's been many years since I've had a good stereo system and that's all about to change here shortly. I recently installed a new Alpine deck CDE-175BT and just last week I ordered a Rockford Fosgate P1000X5 amp, RFC1D 1 Farad Digital Capacitor, RFCB140 140 amp circuit breaker, T1650 6.5" 2 way coax speakers, T1692 6"x9" 2 way coax speakers, Kicker Free air KFM104 subs, and a complete Fosgate wire install kit.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Finally made a new baffle board and mounted the subs and test fit to make sure everything was going to fit correctly. Now I just need to remove the back seat and drill some mounting holes to hold the baffle board and install the inserts into the baffle board before I can cover it with trunk liner material to finish it off.
 

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#19 ·
Thanks for posting this picture. I'm in the process of doing something similar, and really like the two additional lights you have.
Do you happen to have a make or manufacturer's P/N for them; a source and price?

I've always thought the trunk can very well use some -REAL- lighting back there, and it looks like your addition should work well.

Thanks!
 
#4 ·
A little further progress today. I built a metal bracket that will keep the hinge covers in place properly and also be the mounting location for the board that will hide everything from the trunk opening forward except the portion of the spare tire that will protrude through the backside. Next will be to make a template so I can cut said board and install it.
 

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#6 ·
Figured I'd give an update. The project got put on hold for now since the wife blindsided me with "she wants a divorce". That along with the rain and no indoor space to do anything put it on hold for now at least until I get some sunny weather to work with.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Well I'm back to working on this stereo upgrade. Started by pulling the driver door panel off so I can mount the speaker adapter.


Not sure why these pics rotated once uploaded, sorry about that I don't know how to fix that.

I started off by using an existing hole in the door skin to install a 1/4-20 Klik Poly-nut insert. Next I had bought a pair of speaker adapters so I now laid it in place and used the new mounting hole and proceeded to marking the other 3 bolt hole locations. Now I removed the adapter and drilled the next 3 holes and installed the Klik Poly-nut inserts in those locations as well. Now I bolted the adapters in place and then mounted the speakers to the adapter with a Boom Mat between the speaker and adapter. Next I reinstalled the door panel only to find out the adapters I bought won't work with the speakers I'm using because it pushed the speakers too far out towards the door panel and they hit the door panel pretty bad. So I removed everything and used the adapters as templates to make some new adapters that were flat rather than the roughly 5/8" extended ones I bought. Now that the new adapters are made I bolted everything back together and this time the speakers clear without any issues. I did need to cut some of the inner door skin to clear the frame of the speakers.
 

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#8 ·
Finally finished up my stereo system yesterday. Since I haven't had a system in so long I was obviously listing to it LOUD most of the day, unfortunately late last night Ieft a friends house and noticed a whine with the stereo not so loud. This is frustrating and now need to figure out how to get rid of it. Any ideas?
 
#9 ·
Check your grounds and ensure they ground to clean metal, gound loop noise is an ear sore.

Are you running a amplifier, if so check the grounds and make sure the RCA'S aren't running along side power wires this can also cause whining.

Is the whining engine depicted or a stead whine. Engine electrical noise, the whine increase as engine speed does. If so do the big 3 and grab a ground loop isolator.
 
#12 ·
I usually keep a few 3.5mm rca cables and female adapters to isolate defective components. If you wanna check the amp grab one of these 3.5 mm RCA's from Walmart and disconnect the RCA from the headunit and connect these. Crank the car and use your cellphone to provide music to the amp. If it still whines, then you have isolated it the amp, if the whine disappears then start going back towards the headunit.
 

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#16 ·
Yes if it whines from the 3.5 then check the amps grounds, or the amp could be defective. If no whining then reconnect the RCAs and head up front and disconnect from the deck and use the female connectors with the 3.5 and check for and whine. If it whines then replace the RCAs. If not reconnect the headunit and if it whines, check the grounds and the rcas output on the headunit
 
#18 · (Edited)
Well I did as you suggested (at the amp end) and no more whine, now I need to pull the lower dash so I can get the deck out and use the female connectors and check from the deck side of the RCA's back.


Pulled lower dash to access deck. I removed all the RCA's from the head unit and one at a time I went from cell phone to RCA's and still no whine, I'm guessing now it must be a ground issue with the head unit. The deck wiring is what was already in the car (previously had an Alpine deck so same plug as my new Alpine) now I will go ahead and install the wiring that came with my new deck and make sure all of the connections are good and I'll also add a secondary ground to the case of the deck and see if that fixes the issue.
 
#17 ·
Thanks, that's a big help in diagnosing this thing. This morning I removed the ground wire at the frame and cleaned very good down to bare metal and reattached the ground wire with no change in the whine. I also read that the ground for the amp should be separate from the ground for the capacitor but my ground wire leaves the frame then goes to a junction block and continues over to the capacitor so I'm about to separate those grounds to eliminate that as being an issue as well.
 
#23 ·
Thanks, that's a big help in diagnosing this thing. This morning I removed the ground wire at the frame and cleaned very good down to bare metal and reattached the ground wire with no change in the whine. I also read that the ground for the amp should be separate from the ground for the capacitor but my ground wire leaves the frame then goes to a junction block and continues over to the capacitor so I'm about to separate those grounds to eliminate that as being an issue as well.

I've been interested in your build (well also sorry on the SO front). From what I used to do with this stuff 40 years back I especially noted discussion above surrounding ground loop. Beware my intel on this is mostly sourced outta my ass, but I had a big prob with whine that turned out to be components grounded separately - PLUS the blessing of an added periodic anoying 'pop' I answered the ground loop whine issue by joining all the grounds - so the part I highlighted jumped out at me.



For reference, the pop was from huge impedance mismatch between components purchased together from a supposed 'expert' stereo seller. Took 3 months tracking that down, and dealer tried 200 ways to get out of correcting his FU by providing me compatible replacements. And he lost. hahaha I learned something here that I'll remember when I go after putting in a Nexus 7 = avoid RCA wherever possible - thanks.
 
#21 · (Edited)
I removed the deck and redid the wiring with a new harness and also added a ground wire from the de I chassis to the car chassis and also tied that ground into the ground wire of the harness and I STILL get a whine.

A local stereo shop suggested soldering a ground wire to each of the RCA cables and making a connection to a chassis ground saying that sometimes the connection itself isnt good enough. I cant really see how I could accomplish that very easily though.
 
#22 ·
What's the condition of the RCA Cables? I recently re-did my system, and replaced the RCA cables and any noise I had disappeared.
 
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#28 ·
Let's try this again, I have only seen a problem like this once or twice.

1. You isolated the amp and subs no whining

2. Check the rcas from behind the deck using the female connectors and 3.5 mm rca does it whines?(no= pointing to the deck as the source of the whining, Yes= you need to reroute your RCAs or buy a premium set of RCAs)

3. You Re wired the headunit with supplied harness and you still have whining?

4. Let's try this, do you still have the old alpine headunit? If so swap them out since they use the same harness and see if the whining comes back. No= bad headunit, Yes= harness is located near a large power source .

5. As far as grounding your rcas I've only seen that when someone mistakenly touched the power to the rca and blew the ground tracing located on the headunit motherboard. But other than that without personally being able to touch it , I'm lost

Sorry Sir
 
#29 ·
Let's try this again, I have only seen a problem like this once or twice.

1. You isolated the amp and subs no whining
YES

2. Check the rcas from behind the deck using the female connectors and 3.5 mm rca does it whines?(no= pointing to the deck as the source of the whining, Yes= you need to reroute your RCAs or buy a premium set of RCAs)
YES and NO whine

3. You Re wired the headunit with supplied harness and you still have whining?
YES

4. Let's try this, do you still have the old alpine headunit? If so swap them out since they use the same harness and see if the whining comes back. No= bad headunit, Yes= harness is located near a large power source .
Good idea, I'll give it a shot this week sometime.

5. As far as grounding your rcas I've only seen that when someone mistakenly touched the power to the rca and blew the ground tracing located on the headunit motherboard. But other than that without personally being able to touch it , I'm lost

Sorry Sir
Answers below each numbered question.
 
#30 ·
I may have found the source of my stereo whine. I checked resistance from negative battery cable (at the battery) to the amp ground at my passenger side frame rail and only have .3 ohms resistance. I then checked the resistance from the negative battery cable (at the battery) to the alternator case and I have 3.3 ohms resistance. Tomorrow I'm going to build a quality 4ga cable to bolt from the back of alternator directly to the negative battery post and see if the cures the issue. I further need to double check resistance from my negative battery cable to the engine and to the chassis and fender and if any connections show anything more than .5 ohms I'll address that as well.
 
#31 ·
You may consider this. I, for some reason thought you had done this already.
[ame]https://youtu.be/gnmXKjm3tZE?t=12[/ame] I've also seen suggested doing what you're planning only using single or double O wire.

Mark: Snowman-33
 
#33 ·
Well, I've decided to switch decks and now getting ready to install an Alpine ILX W650 double din deck. Bought the Etchus kit and I have everything else so hopefully Sunday I will start the project. Maybe my stereo whine will go away too.
 
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