HID lights + Whining Sound

[naughtika]

Hey fellas got a situation here.. hope you don't mind reading some boring stuff..

Recently my 4ch amp drained the life out of my battery, so I decided to replace both equipments. I replaced the battery first, but after couple of days I noticed that the battery's charge is slowly draining and I had this stupid whining sound whenever Im revving the engine..

So I decided to unplug the amp's (+) wires at the battery terminal to see if it solves the power drain and whining sound, Which it did.. So I then decided to replace the 4ch amp, after all its an 8 yr old equipment (well after a month of driving without sounds it felt very lonely).

When I replaced the Amp I thought that everything's fine, but as soon as I drove off.. I started hearing the whining sound again (but it never drains the battery) I thought that it doesn't have one of those attenuator filter (or whatever they're called)

Since I've just spent $ on it, I was gonna wait til next pay to get it sorted by replacing it with a different one.. but luckily I did some troubleshooting while driving around and found that the whining sound only comes on when I have the lights on. So next step, I tested to see if the sound does get louder whenever I have the high beams ON and no surprises.. it does.

Now, My Question(s)..

What do you guys think if I connect the HID's power straight to the battery but have a relay in the middle? would this solve the problem?

or

Are there some sort of filters out there that stops this whining sound?

 

[JediRuss]

I had this problem in one of my audio systems about 10 years ago. When the engine revs, the alternator turns faster...obviously being belt driven this is the case. So the revving engine, speeds the alternator which causes noise through the electrical system....and your speakers.

You can get what's called a Pulse Noise Supressor. Which is basically an insulator built into the system. It will isolate the electrical noise from your audio cables. But if the system is installed by someone who knows what they are doing. You shouldn't have the problem to begin with.

Moving the power cables to the amp, away from the amp output wires(speakers) may help.

Getting the job done by someone who knows what they are doing will help too. Also...if you are paying someone...even if it is $50....to install an amp. They won't deliver the car to you with a whirring noise with the engine running

 

[naughtika]

but why does the whining sound only occurs when i have my lights on which are HID's?!

 

[snickells]

They must be feeding noise back into the cars electrical system. Who installed em?

 

[Guest]

bad earthing.

 

[frozen]

1. earthing. 2. make sure the power wires run down one side and the RCA's and speaker wires down the other... 3. check your ground cables (yes, 1. again) and make sure they are definately big enough. have you put more grounds off the battery negative terminal onto the body of the car? ie. replaced the thin little factory one with at least a thicker one or a grounding kit? i have a grounding kit in mine which is simply a piece off the negative terminal which has multiple 8 guage wires attached, running to all different spots under the hood.

if all else fails, you can get little filter things that go between either your RCA's and head unit, or RCA's and amp.. cant remember what side.

the other possibility is - and this is the bad one - that you've burnt a route through your head unit and its grounding through your RCAs.. correct me on the terminoligy please but basically comes back to bad earthing, but will also mean the head unit will need fixing - had this happen with one of my first head units cause i didnt have enough earthing for the amps.

 

[naughtika]

but what's weird is.. it just started happening when my battery went flat... but before that.. it was fine..

and I am pretty sure that I have a decent grounding on all amps and HU.. Im using one of those ground terminals where you have to bolt 2 ends and use an allen key tighten up the 0ga wire..

btw I installed the system myself and no I didnt do any shortcuts or anything, I made sure that everything is connected properly and have no way of loosening itself... even soldered the wire ends so that the wires dont fray

also if its loose grounding.. why does the noise ONLY COMES ON WHEN I HAVE MY HID LIGHTS ON... LOL

both LO and HI beams are HID's.. so that'll be the first thing that I'll check tomorrow..

 

[frozen]

only comes on then cause they draw quite a bit of extra current.. the more current you draw the louder any noise is going to be - it was literally the same when i fried my head unit too. with headlights on it would do it, without headlights it wouldnt. my car at the time was non turbo so i kinda didnt mind the sound, rofl

did you sand back the metal you grounded the amps to? as this was the mistake i had made at the start.

 

[Guest]

I had a similar issue, but yours might not be as bad, but i started having whinning when my HID's where on, then after a while they would cut out intermittently, and ABS light would come on occasionally, this was due to lack of charge, I had some how fried my altenator.

Hopfully it is as straight forward as a bad earth, becasue replacing altenators is an anoying job.