Hello people, have a strange problem with some interference. I'll talk you through it and try and explain it as best I can.

How it used to be

My sound system consists of 2 amps, 1 powering door components, the other a subwoofer.

I have 1 set of RCA's, remote lead and power running down the left channel, and the other set of RCA's running down the right hand channel. The battery connection seems secure, and the earth point is securely fixed to my rear light.

Everytime I have turned the HID's on there has been a slight crackle through the speakers, but then it soon dissappears...no problem to me.

Out of the blue, how it was today

I was driving my girlfriend to uni, and half way there, I notice that there is a very loud clicking noise coming from the left side tweeter. This does not affect sound quality at all but you can still hear it in the background.

It appears to get louder and more prominent when stationary, and seems to calm down when moving.

The clicking occurs when the headunit is turned on, regardless of whether it is muted or turned to max.

Also

When I have my headunit on, turning on the HID's results in a very loud and prolonged clicking and crackling, which also causes the warning lights on the dash to flicker..... Once again, this problem does not occur when the headunit is turned off.

Also, strangely, one of the HID's has coincidently stopped working. I cannot help to think that this is somehow related to what is going on today?

Has anyone got any suggestions, it will be much appreciated. This is the last thing I need right now, especially in the freezing weather when I can't do anything about it, and when I have so much uni work!

Please note, nothing has changed at all since it was all working fine before.

Cheers,

Indy

This is strange now....

Remember I said that turning on the headlights was making a loud and prolonged crackling sound....well I have now remove the faulty ballast (other one is still there) and now there is no loud and prolonged crackling ( just the minor crackling from before )....but the clicking from the tweeter is still occuring, even with no ballasts connected at all and with all the lights turned off.

I am going to purchase a new ballast, and connect it up but what could it be then?

I'd try a better earth point than the lights - rear seat bolt? If the earth on the lights isn't good enough, it'll be pushing a current back up the circuit in search of an earth.

I'd try a better earth point than the lights - rear seat bolt? If the earth on the lights isn't good enough, it'll be pushing a current back up the circuit in search of an earth.

I will try the rear seat belt point.

What confuses me though is this whole issue with the HID's, and the fact that the earth has been in the same location for over a year, and suddenly out of the blue without me changing anything this happens?

A ballast is essentially a transformer and a capacitor that creates a charge large enough to ignite the High Intensity Discharge bulb. If yours is a cheapo chinky china one, or it is faulty, it will create a large amount of interference as it operates at high voltages, therefore disrupting your sound quality. Your tweeter or crossover may be permanently damaged, so the clicking wont go away. If you are running crossovers, id try swapping them over to see if its the crossover or tweeter.

p.s definitely not getting a HID kit from ebay!

Edited 30 November, 200916 yr by foxy218

Humble pie!

A ballast is essentially a transformer and a capacitor that creates a charge large enough to ignite the High Intensity Discharge bulb. If yours is a cheapo chinky china one, or it is faulty, it will create a large amount of interference as it operates at high voltages, therefore disrupting your sound quality. Your tweeter or crossover may be permanently damaged, so the clicking wont go away. If you are running crossovers, id try swapping them over to see if its the crossover or tweeter.

p.s definitely not getting a HID kit from ebay!

As said above, it has not disrupted sound quality at all.

I have bought a new ballast, and will see what happens.

Have we pretty much decided that it isn't because my remote wire is running in the same channel as my power wire, and that the problem lies in the grounding/earthing department?

That's a strange one as I always run the phono's and cd changer shizz down the drivers and the power and amp remote down the passenger and I've never had a problem ever.

I'd say change the earthing point as a good start, although I have used the rear lights without an issue.

Edited 30 November, 200916 yr by Rich

That's a strange one as I always run the phono's and cd changer shizz down the drivers and the power and amp remote down the passenger and I've never had a problem ever.

I'd say change the earthing point as a good start, although I have used the rear lights without an issue.

It definately can't be the amp earth, as I checked it and it is solid and very well connected. The problem also occurs when the lights are off.

I noticed earlier, a slight dip in power then it came straight back, so I am thinking it could be the engine earth. Need to check the actual battery and alternator earth etc.

How do you tell if the actual car engine earths are good? Like it's all well and good saying to check it but what am I actually looking for?

But this only happens when the headunit is on so it can't be that, argh confusing.

i still say its interfierance from the alternator.

As i said on FB, noise suppressor. al look on halfords website....

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/...yId_165626#dtab

What confuses me though is what would suddenly cause it to start now after a year of everything being fine?

HID's drawing more current from the battery/alternator?

Edited 1 December, 200916 yr by neil_dubgt

HID's drawing more current from the battery/alternator?

The HID's have been on for months now though.

Although one of them did pack in coicidentally the same day this clicking started, but then when I removed both ballasts it continued.

See, the HID's drawing too much power is a valid one.

Does it happen with the lights off? when you disconnect them ?

Would a power cap help ?

Is the noise there with the amp turned off?

Does the alternator have the power to charge it all? Bigger battery?

The noise still happens with HID ballasts disconnected.

It also happens when all lights are turned off.

I said that I would disconnect the amp earth and see if the problem persists through the headunit, but I was told that this would solve nothing?

I have a feeling it could be alternator related.

dont HIDs draw less power than standard bulbs though?

dont HIDs draw less power than standard bulbs though?

That's what I thought, and the power comes from the ballast?

I'll be upgrading to OEM projectors soon enough, but need this audio problem sorting first!

Does the noise happen with the engine not running?

If so use a voltmeter across things and see what's draining the current.

But if its only happened it's a strange one, a good idea would be turning various things off to see if you can get it to go away and if you can then you can try and work out what the problem is.

It's definately audio based Rich.

As soon as the headunit is switched off, it stops?

I can't really check it with the engine not running as it usually starts after you've been driving for a couple of minutes.

It gets bad everytime you take your foot off the gas

that's a really strange one.

It's definately interference from something, I'd be inclined towards the alternator but can't see how it would make a buzzing, maybe a cheeky auto electrician job?

Off Topic:

dont HIDs draw less power than standard bulbs though?

They do. only 35watts on most (can now get 55+ ones too). the ballast has 2 sides, one side works for a split second and turns12V it into a "firing/starting" charge of 23KV when you switch them on and to keep the bulb burning the other runs a 90V constant.

When the 90V system fails the ballast keeps firing the starter causing the light to strobe, damaging both the ballast and bulb in the long run.

If you have Bi-xenons fitted you are using 35W on both high and low beam so thats 70W load on the alternator, with standard bulbs dip is 55W (x2 = 110) full beam is 60W so thats a 120W so your alternator and car wiring has an easier time with HID's.

On Topic: could be a short somewhere on the speaker wires. Check the brushes and regulator on the alternator they can cause weird electrical problems when they wear out.

Edited 1 December, 200916 yr by Cymro

that's a really strange one.

It's definately interference from something, I'd be inclined towards the alternator but can't see how it would make a buzzing, maybe a cheeky auto electrician job?

It's more of a regular click, click, click from the speakers.

I was thinking auto electrician too!

Good thing is you don't have to pay them till they've solved it! So I'll get it down to one if I can't figure it out!

it's just easy to go to them, they're not overpriced either.

a click is definately interference, it's just strange it's come from nowhere.

what about just unplugging the one tweeter?