Alternator whine

[Stegge]

I'm a victim of that damn alternator whine. I have searched the net for different solutions, but in most cases the whine appears when you have installed an amp and own RCA wiring. I have nothing like that installed, just the standard 4 speaker system and a JVC stereo.
The whine appears when I turn the headlights on (not parking). It gets even worse with the long-distance lights on.

How is this possible? Any ideas?

[k-roy]

That is what happened before my old alt. went bad. The reason it gets louder is there is more of a current draw, making the alt. work harder.

[AccordEpicenter]

make sure your battery and ground connections are good

[zero.counter]

PROPER GROUNDING
Ensure that you have a good ground on the stereo, moreso to the chassis. If it persists, use an inline noise filter.

[dXsquared]

therer is a little wire by the coil that deletes ground loop noise.. mine was unhooked... i hooked it back up and it killed all my alt noise...

Travis

[AccordEpicenter]

i bet it was your noise condenser

[Stegge]

Yeah the radio condenser is connected. But maybe it's fu**ed up. I better re-check it with a condenser-tester

I have also thought about making a new and better ground for the radio.

Better start working on it - (yess it's snowing outside... that makes everything even more fun.)

[Stegge]

Whoops!

I checked the radio condenser but it was fine (0,5 microF)

But then I pulled the ground wire between the engine and battery. It was almost broken!

I'm making a new one and let's see what happens...

[easyryder]

You r on the right track Grounding your unit properly will reduce (or eliminate) noise

[Stegge]

Ok, the new ground cables for the battery , engine and radio didn't help. The whine is still there. Despite that, now the car's idle has dropped so low that you could think it's a diesel engine. What's happening??
Probaby my alternator is about to go to heaven. Strange, because the charging voltage is OK
Hmm this is becoming more of a technical issue than a audio...