noise filter?

[Hot Hands]

i've got my radio hooked directly up to the battery, but i'm still getting some whine from the engine while driving. will a noise filter fix this? i saw a 20amp in line filter at autozone for around $15.... is that gonna get me smooth and clear?

[drdx]

It may, but often you can change power wire routing, antenna placement and coax routing, or grounding resolve the issue. I've never had much luck with those inline power lead filters but you won't know without trying. Is it constant whine or consistent with RPM's/ignition? Some vehicles are known for fuel pump interference and that can be a hard fix.

-drdx

[blackcoal]

a good way to test to see what the problem is, take and unscrew your coax from the back of your radio and power your radio up. if you still get the noise its coming through your power wires, if there is no longer any engine noise coming from you radio hook the coax up and see if it returns.

if the noise does return then your problem is in your coax picking up stray RF. extra grounding will fix this issue, also does not hurt to upgrade your coax either.


and if its a Ford your noise is probably coming from your fuel pump, or at least the pump is contributing to the noise. this is a very common problem with fords.

[Foxhunter]

Above are good answers. It's best to try to eliminate the problem as much as possible at the source. A filter should be either a last resort or a system enhancement.

If you exhaust your options try a real "brute force" noise filter either by itself or combined with a large capacitor. Although not using them right now I have two large filters that I hooked to both the negative and positive power leads. They do work. I used two of the large ones in the top of the pic. About 6-inches long and 3-LBs.