not grounded good enough?

etnies69924 · Jan 20, 2013

I put a 12" alpine type R in my super cab with a sony explode 1200 watt amp and a decent cd player. when first installed everything worked great, not to long after the sub started to pulsate with the fuel pump. i would pop the face of the cd player off and it would stop and now it keeps doing it. yesturday i tried grounding it to a different spot and now the sub vibrates along with my truck. i had an electrician look at quick (without taking it apart) and he cant figure out why its doing it. can anyone help with this????:shrug:

oneturboforme · Jan 20, 2013

where did you ground it to? did you make sure it was metal to metal?(sanded the paint off) also is it a stock fuel pump? i know sometimes you can get a "whine" out of the speakers if its not on the same grounding plane as the radio if that makes sense

etnies69924 · Jan 20, 2013

i found out it was not the ground, i grounded it straight to the battery and it was still doing it. it is the amp it self, i guess its considered a "cheap" amp so it dosnt have the switch for when you turn the truck on its not on full power if that makes sense. i had to mess with the settings on the back of the amp, so far so good. and i do have a stock fuel pump

fordfreak4life · Jan 20, 2013

etnies69924 said:
i found out it was not the ground, i grounded it straight to the battery and it was still doing it. it is the amp it self, i guess its considered a "cheap" amp so it dosnt have the switch for when you turn the truck on its not on full power if that makes sense. i had to mess with the settings on the back of the amp, so far so good. and i do have a stock fuel pump

Did u run the power wire n rcas together?

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etnies69924 · Jan 20, 2013

thats the way i had it set up, then i ran them separate and it still did it

AKHILF · Jan 20, 2013

I'd move your ground to be about 2 foot within your amp. That's a long run for a ground for an amp.

AKHILF · Jan 20, 2013

And make sure your grounds the same gauge as your power.

ghohouston · Jan 20, 2013

On your rca outputs, take a piece of wire with insulation stripped off, wrap it around the rca's in figure 8's, take the other end and ground it to a screw on the head unit

jdc753 · Jan 21, 2013

etnies69924 said:
i found out it was not the ground, i grounded it straight to the battery and it was still doing it. it is the amp it self, i guess its considered a "cheap" amp so it dosnt have the switch for when you turn the truck on its not on full power if that makes sense. i had to mess with the settings on the back of the amp, so far so good. and i do have a stock fuel pump

I have never heard of even the cheapest of amps not having a turn on lead connection. Just a little blue wire run from the back of the HU to the amplifier. The sony Xplod amps really are on the cheaper end of the spectrum, but should still be better than Pyle or Lanzar or so.

AKHILF said:
I'd move your ground to be about 2 foot within your amp. That's a long run for a ground for an amp.

This might help, somewhere solid on the cab that is not plastic weld, or even just to the seat bolt could work.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with grounding it directly to the battery though. My system is grounded directly to the negative terminal on the battery, bout 17' of 1/0 kicker wire for ground, both amps run to a common distro block for the ground and then back to the battery.

ghohouston said:
On your rca outputs, take a piece of wire with insulation stripped off, wrap it around the rca's in figure 8's, take the other end and ground it to a screw on the head unit

This is a cure for a blown PICO fuse inside a Pioneer HU, if he has an Pioneer it just might fix it.

ghohouston · Jan 21, 2013

jdc753 said:
I have never heard of even the cheapest of amps not having a turn on lead connection. Just a little blue wire run from the back of the HU to the amplifier. The sony Xplod amps really are on the cheaper end of the spectrum, but should still be better than Pyle or Lanzar or so.

This might help, somewhere solid on the cab that is not plastic weld, or even just to the seat bolt could work.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with grounding it directly to the battery though. My system is grounded directly to the negative terminal on the battery, bout 17' of 1/0 kicker wire for ground, both amps run to a common distro block for the ground and then back to the battery.

This is a cure for a blown PICO fuse inside a Pioneer HU, if he has an Pioneer it just might fix it.

These trucks need a frame ground, and ive personally seen that figure 8 trick cure engine noise/rpm raise on 2 kenwoods...

jdc753 · Jan 21, 2013

ghohouston said:
These trucks need a frame ground, and ive personally seen that figure 8 trick cure engine noise/rpm raise on 2 kenwoods...

Thats pretty good to hear, I had only heard of people doing it on Pioneer's with blown fuses.

I know I have heard hit/miss on grounding inside the cab, so frame will certainly always be better. I just figured I would go for overkill on mine and run it straight back to the battery.

white07psd · Jan 21, 2013

Ground straight to the frame as close to the amp as possible.

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white07psd · Jan 21, 2013

I also dont believe in seperating the wires. Not saying it wont happen but both wires are insulated and you could seperate them 30' apart but they still come close together with bare terminals at the amp. School me if im wrong but ive never had any issues and ive always ran them together.

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jdc753 · Jan 21, 2013

white07psd said:
I also dont believe in seperating the wires. Not saying it wont happen but both wires are insulated and you could seperate them 30' apart but they still come close together with bare terminals at the amp. School me if im wrong but ive never had any issues and ive always ran them together.

sent from the stool.

Separating the power and ground wires? or the power and RCA wires?

I have no issue running power/ground together, but have seen a good bit of noise and alternator whine when running RCA's with power wires. Running RCA with speaker, or regular in-cab wiring has never caused me any trouble.

white07psd · Jan 21, 2013

I have my amplifier underneath my passenger seat. My ground goes straight down through the floor and is bolted to the frame, the remote, rca's and power all run together, come out in the vynil together and hook to the amp.

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AKHILF · Jan 22, 2013

I'v always been told you want your ground within about 2' from your amp. And to try and not use a seat bolt. I find a nice flat spot and sand the paint off and then use a nice big ring terminal end then put three more screws in around the ring terminal so it cant move at all.

ghohouston · Jan 22, 2013

The first day I got my truck, I put my system in, grounded to a seat bolt, long story short, amp kept turning off,.grounded to frame,.no problems since