Strange Aftermarket Stereo Issue Ford Taurus

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actionstan

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Hello All,

This weekend I helped my brother install a aftermarket stereo into his 2001 Ford Taurus SES, and it was a real treat.

I asked him today how it was working.. He told me everything is working fine, air/heat/controls and the cd player itself.. except.. when he uses the auxiliary port through the Car Stereo to play the music from his phone, he is getting a whistling sound in the speakers, that increases the more he applies throttle.

I am no wiring expert, but this was a pretty simple wire matching game... a few wires were I think only 1 wire was not used, a orange wire that was on the back of the radio adapter kit, which i just taped off. The car stereo is a Dual Unit, not sure of the exact model number.

I can get more details over the new year holiday, or next weekend, but I was just curious if anyone has ever ran into this?

Thanks!
 
We used to have an E-150 conversion van with rear TVs and a VHS player, with headphone jacks in the wall. We would also get that static/whine/whistle that correlated with RPMs. Never really looked into it.
 
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Orange is usually an illumination wire. It will dim the stereo display on some applications

Lots of things can cause that ignition squeal. Sometimes it's a ground loop issue. Sometimes it's a poorly shielded cord. Fords usually have somewhat noisy electrical systems. Sometimes you can eliminate it by cranking up the volume on the device above 75% and just using the stereo volume. (cranking up the volume on the phone usually gets rid of the hiss)
 
so the orange shouldn't cause a noise then? right? if its just illumination. It is strange that it only happens when he uses the aux on his stereo. But not the cd player or radio.

EDIT: Also when i hooked the black negative wire up, (the ground) I just hooked it directly into the other black wire, is it possible I need a better ground?
 
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Maybe try a different cable in the aux port?

Originally Posted By: actionstan
Also when i hooked the black negative wire up, (the ground) I just hooked it directly into the other black wire, is it possible I need a better ground?


that's all I've ever done...always worked fine for me....on an Olds(Pioneer), a Dodge(Kenwood), and a Toyota masquerading as a Pontiac(JVC)
 
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Try a better ground for the deck first. Factory ground connections are not very good. Use about a 12 or 14 gauge wire and extend the deck's ground wire to one of the kick panels, and ground it to clean bare metal under a factory-installed bolt or nut. As others have suggested, adjusting the volume levels on the phone may help. Turn it down as far as possible while keeping it where you still have good volume from the system by using the deck's volume control.

One other thing that may help is if the phone has a USB output on it and if the deck has a USB input it might help the noise to use a USB cord for input to the deck. The round aux jacks are known to cause noise and feedback with certain phones and MP3 players.

I am trying to be as polite as possible here but it might be better if you used a different brand of deck. Dual is not known to be very good quality. A better brand such as JVC, Pioneer, Sony or Alpine may do better.
 
I am starting to think it is a ground, I will try to make a ground to the frame directly from the head unit. Also in my search I have seen mention of RCA's causing this, his head unit has a place to plug in RCA cables, but the ports are not utilized.. Could these still cause a whine? Should I try terminating them?

I am also going to try a different aux cable to see if I can rule that out.
 
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Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Try a better ground for the deck first. Factory ground connections are not very good. Use about a 12 or 14 gauge wire and extend the deck's ground wire to one of the kick panels, and ground it to clean bare metal under a factory-installed bolt or nut. As others have suggested, adjusting the volume levels on the phone may help. Turn it down as far as possible while keeping it where you still have good volume from the system by using the deck's volume control.

One other thing that may help is if the phone has a USB output on it and if the deck has a USB input it might help the noise to use a USB cord for input to the deck. The round aux jacks are known to cause noise and feedback with certain phones and MP3 players.

I am trying to be as polite as possible here but it might be better if you used a different brand of deck. Dual is not known to be very good quality. A better brand such as JVC, Pioneer, Sony or Alpine may do better.


Thanks for all the info, With your last statement regarding the deck, I agree 100%, but.. it is my brothers car/stereo, and his girlfriend got it for him for Christmas, I didn't want to hurt anyone feelings, But I am not found of dual either, I am more of a Pioneer person.
 
if all else fails, there are noise reduction kits that are a coil on the positive feed to the radio and a capacitor between + and ground

IIRC, the coil reduced ignition noise, and the capacitor reduced the alternator whine that you have.
 
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He can upgrade the head unit all he wants, your not going to get significantly better sound, as the amp is separate.
Check the Taurus forums about the "Mach RCU" upgrade.
For $50, you replace the dinky 12 watt stock amp, with the 80 watt Mach premium audio system. Plug and play so.its easy too.
 
Have him try it with the charger unplugged from the phone.

While charging I get the same thing through the AUX in my Yaris.

Unplug from the charger, and the noise is gone.
 
Originally Posted By: michaelluscher
He can upgrade the head unit all he wants, your not going to get significantly better sound, as the amp is separate.
Check the Taurus forums about the "Mach RCU" upgrade.
For $50, you replace the dinky 12 watt stock amp, with the 80 watt Mach premium audio system. Plug and play so.its easy too.


I used to buy those from the junkyard for $30 and sell them online for quite a bit more!

In my Taurus I grabbed a Mach RCU and the set of speakers and tweeters. Those were excellent sound systems.

I think I still have a set of Mach tweeters.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: michaelluscher
He can upgrade the head unit all he wants, your not going to get significantly better sound, as the amp is separate.
Check the Taurus forums about the "Mach RCU" upgrade.
For $50, you replace the dinky 12 watt stock amp, with the 80 watt Mach premium audio system. Plug and play so.its easy too.


I used to buy those from the junkyard for $30 and sell them online for quite a bit more!

In my Taurus I grabbed a Mach RCU and the set of speakers and tweeters. Those were excellent sound systems.

I think I still have a set of Mach tweeters.


TCCA User: durasel Deals in them for us where the Pull-A-Part's don't exist
For $50 shipped, a noteworthy upgrade
grin.gif

Gonna do mine soon, But it's got bigger problems higher on the list
frown.gif
 
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