Bad road noise after XM install...

chuckyo · February 28, 2006

i've got a 2003 sierra with dual amps, 2 12's, components in the doors...and an xm ready alpine cd player...everythings always sounded awesome until today when i added an XM radion tuner and the alpine adapter. now when its tuned into xm radio i get that really high pitched whine associated with my foot on the gas. i've always heard that whine is attributed to bad grounds but my stereo has worked fine since i installed it a year ago. i'm going to check the grounds anyway tomorrow when the sun comes up...anybody else have any ideas? and since they only give you about 2 feet of cable with the kit, everything's installed behind the dash, i'd like to move it all behind my backseat but that's not an option here. any help would be appreciated..

thanks,

chuck

February 28, 2006

I can almost guarantee it's a ground loop problem. Check the ground to your Alpine adapter and other grounds for that matter. I've seen countless systems where the ground has come loose somewhere over time.

chuckyo · March 12, 2006

turns out it was the xm radio/alpine head unit adapter box. must've had a loose pin on the connector or just a bad connection somewhere inside. swapped it out for a new one and voila! no more noise!