Stereo Issues

dakotap80 · March 1, 2016

So I just had an aftermarket Pioneer Stereo installed, and everything looks and sounds great, except theres a constant static in the background when the stereo is on. It does not fluctuate with engine speed, but it does increase in volume as you turn up the volume on the stereo. I've been looking on google and think it could possibly be that it isn't grounded well, where is it the stereo grounded at so that I could check the connection?

OR, could it be something else altogether?

fajitas21 · March 1, 2016

Did you get an amplifier too or just a new head unit? The head unit is grounded from the wiring coming from the unit, and probably tapped into the frame of the truck nearby (behind the unit in the dash), or they used a ground wire coming from the stereo going back to a ground near the fuse box. Basically, there's a high chance that a few things could cause the hum.

1. Bad Grounding, or the wire is grounded poorly, making poor contact, or has a nick or something in the jacket.

2. An amplifier is grounded poorly, or a cheap amplifier which is producing the hum.

3. The head unit has a defect and is causing the hum (especially if no amplifier present).

4. Some type of interference, or poor protection of the device / amp from stray EMI sources in the truck. If it's properly shielded, it shouldn't pickup the interference...if it's not, it might hum.

I'm sure others can give a better answer. If it was recently installed, I'd ask the installer to check it out (unless you did it yourself obviously).

dakotap80 · March 2, 2016

Just the head unit, nothing else installed. The head unit itself has a built in amp though, could that conflict with the Bose factory amp? I'll check the ground though, everything I've read says that's what to check first.

dakotap80 · March 3, 2016

Alrighty sorry to be a pain, but where would the ground be located at? the installer just wired it to the factory harness so where is the factory stereo grounded at?