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Aftermarket stereo suffers from white noise when the engine is running.


BlueKrogan
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So I just swapped out the Pioneer single din that it came with my Pathfinder for my Pioneer double din touch screen; it looks really nice with the dash, but I digress.

 

When the engine is off, the reception is crystal clear, however once the engine is running it is a totally different story. This also happened with the single din head unit that it came with it as well, although the one I installed isn't as bad.

 

I checked the head unit's ground wire, and regardless if it's grounded or not, it literally doesn't make a difference: I still get crystal clear reception with the engine off and static/white noise  with the engine running.

 

Certain stations are unaffected as they are pretty well known to transmit powerful signals, but the ones that are affected still work pretty good on any other car and even worked fine when I had this head unit on my previous vehicle; it's like the affected stations don't transmit a signal powerful enough to combat this issue.  

 

I don't know what else to do, any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Is there any correlation between the noise and the speed of the engine, or how many electrical loads you're running? 

 

Absent any better ideas, I would unplug the alternator (or remove its belt) and see if that kills the noise. The alt makes 3-phase AC and the diodes inside rectify that to DC, so if one of the diodes goes out, the alt could be dumping all kinds of noise into the electrical system. 

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I had this happen on mine and lived with it for years, turns out it was the alternator. You could try getting one of those ground loop isolators and see if that helps? Doesn't make sense to replace a working alternator.

 

Also - another Ontario first gen? Where at? These are a rare sight these days and I don't even drive mine in the winter... Frame will rot out too fast lol.

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14 hours ago, adamzan said:

I had this happen on mine and lived with it for years, turns out it was the alternator. You could try getting one of those ground loop isolators and see if that helps? Doesn't make sense to replace a working alternator.

 

Also - another Ontario first gen? Where at? These are a rare sight these days and I don't even drive mine in the winter... Frame will rot out too fast lol.

 

Toronto. It's been regularly rust proofed , so I've been lucky. I'm going to take it to get rust proofed, but I don't know if I should go Krown or Rust Check. The previous owner told me where he got it done they used something that was thicker, and wasn't the thin runny oil. 

 

Anyways, so far the general consensus has been the alternator. 

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On 10/6/2022 at 4:41 AM, Slartibartfast said:

Is there any correlation between the noise and the speed of the engine, or how many electrical loads you're running? 

 

Absent any better ideas, I would unplug the alternator (or remove its belt) and see if that kills the noise. The alt makes 3-phase AC and the diodes inside rectify that to DC, so if one of the diodes goes out, the alt could be dumping all kinds of noise into the electrical system. 

 

Nope, when I rev the engine the static is pretty much the same.

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  • 1 month later...

Do you have any rca wires running an amp? 
 

Sometimes the rca wires ran near the power wire, if you have an amp hooked up, will cause issues. 
 

If it’s just the head unit with no amp, plug wires are likely causing the issue. Why it effects the radio, I’m not sure. Could be spark plug related as well. 

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  • 1 month later...

So tonight I just discovered that a running engine isn't the only cause of making the radio's reception eat @!*%.

 

On 10/6/2022 at 4:41 AM, Slartibartfast said:

Is there any correlation between the noise and the speed of the engine, or how many electrical loads you're running? 

 

Yes. When I turn on my headlights, the radio's reception suffers. I wish I would've noticed and tested this sooner instead of just jumping to conclusions by solely blaming the running engine.

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Still sounds consistent with a bad alt to me. The lights take power to run, the alt has to generate that power, so if the alt is weak, makes sense an added load would make it worse.

 

Unless you mean turning the lights on kills the reception with the engine not running--that's a different and entirely more puzzling bag of crabs.

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All these issues sound like a ground problem. Did you run a separate ground for the radio or just have it grounding through the antenna (the actual ground in aftermarket harnesses doesn't connect on these trucks, they use the antenna and the metal dashboard frame as ground).

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So I did another test, when I flick the high beams on with the engine off, the reception takes a hit, so I'm wondering if its strictly due to the headlights since they're on when the engine is running, and when I turn on the night time headlights, it compounds the issue since it draws more power.

 

19 minutes ago, adamzan said:

All these issues sound like a ground problem. Did you run a separate ground for the radio or just have it grounding through the antenna (the actual ground in aftermarket harnesses doesn't connect on these trucks, they use the antenna and the metal dashboard frame as ground).

 

I wrapped the aftermarket harness ground wire around what I assumed to be a good grounding point; it seems like whether I ground it or not, it doesn't make a difference :s

 

Maybe I'll find another ground point; where did you ground your wire? I'm starting to think that I'll never find a solution to my problem :(

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  • 1 month later...

Try running a separate ground wire from the stereo chassis to a good body ground.

 

It is possible the DRL module could be causing your electrical noise. If you unplug that and the noise is gone, then you found the problem. 

 

Is the noise only in the radio or all the stereo functions? If just radio, possible issue with antennas or wires. 

 

You can also try a noise filter on the power wires for the stereo, the yellow always hot wire is the one you will want to filter. The red is only for switching on and off. 

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I've had to install a few VHF radios in some trucks, but one I had the antenna run near a power cable for a light bar, and on another truck it was looped back on itself. Both of these had terrible reception and one had static only when the truck was running. Make sure the antenna cable is insulated very well. Adding more insulation and unlooping the other fixed the problem.

Edited by Strato_54
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  • 1 month later...

Alright everyone, super late reply and I hate flooding the board, but instead of making a new topic I'll just post it here.

 

I finally found the culprit of my problem (not that it took me this long to diagnose it; it literally took me a few seconds to figure it out, it's just I didn't have time until now lol) and it is indeed the headlights!

 

Basically I had the handbrake applied and started the truck, and the reception was as clear as day. As soon as I released the headbrake and the headlights switched on, the reception instantly went to the gutter.

 

The only reason I thought it was due to the engine was because of the daytime running lights. So the question I have for everyone is now what do I do? Lol 

 

Could aftermarket headlight bulbs be the culprit? I noticed they are pretty bright and look high beams are on, and I'm wondering if they are LEDS and could be contributing to this issue, or if it will persist regardless if incandescent bulbs are installed or not.

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If the headlights are LED's then there is a possibility. Aftermarket LED lights can cause some odd iddues. I had some LED brake amd tail lights and it somehow caused an issue with the turn signals and running lights.

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Could be the driver circuits for those LEDs are spitting noise back into the electrical system, and your radio is picking that up. If you swap in standard bulbs and the issue goes away, that would confirm your suspicion. 

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  • 2 months later...

Alright everyone,

 

So yesterday I went under the hood and took out a bulb from the housing, and it was indeed an LED bulb. So I bought a pair of the 9004 incandescent bulbs and hooked them up.

 

So turning on the radio, after flipping on the headlight switch, the radio reception is still clear as day! So there ya have it, LED bulbs for your headlights are a no-no, unless you do some additional work to accommodate them. My headlights are no longer white, but now have that stock yellow tint, but I really don't care tbh

 

For some odd reason, with the Sylvania incandescent bulbs, the twist cap to hold them in the housing was really difficult to get on, especially twisting them on straight. It's like the base of the bulb was too big.

 

Credit where credit is due, my mom wanted to try and she somehow got them to twist on properly :s She proceeded to point out how I have no patience and get upset easily. Aren't moms great? Maybe her smaller hands made it easier.

 

Are these twist retainers always this hard? It's like they aren't deep enough to seal in the stock bulbs; maybe the housing is aftermarket, maybe the twist retainers aren't stock?

Edited by BlueKrogan
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If you want to do an upgrade to the headlights in the future follow these little steps.

 

#1 do the D21 headlight bucket swap. Either get a pair from the junk yard or Flea Bay.

 

#2 get the IPF 820H headlight housings. They take H4 bulbs.

 

#3 get yourself a set of H4 Halogen lights that you want(any will work) and the new connectors.

 

Once it's all said and done you will be Happy. I'm running that right now with the relay recently added and it's bright and way better focused!!

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D21 headlight bucket swap? Is this basically swapping in the Hardbody's headlights? 

 

Sorry, I barely got my feet wet with the Pathfinder modifications, so bear with me lol 

Edited by BlueKrogan
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That is exactly it. It gives you the 5x7 type headlight and allows you to drop any 5x7 rectangular headlight housing in there. Best part is it's direct bolt on.

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Good to hear you got to the bottom of it! Bulb sockets can be a pain when you can't see what you're doing. Easy to get something cockeyed.

 

And yeah, if you swap in the Hardbody buckets/grille/corner lights, you can run the conversion housings with H4 halogen bulbs. I'm not crazy about the look, but I'm told the light output is better than what you've got. A while back I saw conversion housings (pretty sure they were projectors) in the Pathy "sad eye" shape, but I haven't seen them for sale recently. They had LED halos and crap, don't know if they were good or not. So many other vehicles used the same standard rectangle sealed-beams as the Hardbody that there's no lack of options there. 

 

I relayed my stock lights, and the output/pattern suits me alright, except that one of my headlight housings is aftermarket and projects a weird little puddle right in front of the truck. Not sure why. Can't see it while I'm driving so I haven't looked into it yet. I've got most of the HB conversion kit off my parts car, but again, I'm not crazy about the look, so I may or may not get around to trying that. 

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That is why I specifically mentioned the IPF 820H Headlight housing. It changes the pattern to more of a Projector style and is meant for a Halogen bulb. With just that alone I makes a huge difference. The relay kit helps a bit too!! Tonight I installed the IPF 80/110 watt bulbs and testing them out with the housings. Much brighter to say the least and don't have the silly led light look.

 

Here is a link to that housing

ARB (820H IPF 7" Rectangular H4 Headlamp Insert https://a.co/d/4BLVyEL

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