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I tried turning the gain down (from about 1/2) all the way and it still popped. I also disconnected the fan which didn't do anything either. I messed with the RCA connections and they seemed fine I guess...like not pinched or anything like I thought. But, this is the way the RCA cable came, but it doesn't take much effort to pull it off. I didn't bump it or anything but is it supposed to be that way or should I pinch the outside ring a little so it's harder to pull off. My instinct here says no.

I need some more ideas! Anybody?

Change your ground. Usually seat belt bolts are a no-no.

also if you have any other ausio source with RCA outputs, like a boombox or AV receiver, you can try that instead of the head unit. see if the problem persists. that will tell you if the preout stage of the headunit is damaged somehow, or if the head unit is the cause of the problem.

I had a similar problem but it was more like a scream when the truck was running. After about three hours and a total rewire including a direct 4g ground I pulled out my pioneer 7700MP and put in a clarion I had and boom problem gone. I just got a phone call that my pioneer has been fixed also if you had any slack in your patch cord don't roll the excess if you have rolled up excess try to unroll it and straighten it out a little.

Pioneers seem to be the cause of noise for a lot of people. My AVIc-N1 is terrible. You can hear the CD start spinning, you can hear the laser moving inside and everything....

Well, I think that upon further inspection, my RCA cord might be too close to the underdash fuse box maybe. Could this do it? I could reroute it and also, I have the extra coiled up so ya, I'll straighten that out. I might reroute the power wire too to make it the max distance from the receiver and RCA as possible. Should have done this in the first place...

As for the popping, I might try a different RCA chord and also maybe my mp3 player straight into the amp if the RCA chord fails. What are the connections like on the inside of RCA's like on the inside of the receiver and amp? Are they soldered to a board or something? Could a broken solder cause this? Not that I would want to take apart that stuff but could that match my symptoms. I might have two independent problems going on with the hiss and the pop.

The amp ground is not a seat belt bolt. There was a factory wire harness going under where the amp is now that had a wire split off of it and grounded under that 10 mm bolt about half way between the two front passenger seat bolts. I sanded the paint off the floor and snugged down the factory ground on top of the amp ground.

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions. Any more ideas?

Team A I. What was it that they fixed on your Pioneer deck?

I heard the deck that is currently in my car in the previous owner's car and it sounded perfect...

Not sure. When I first got it the deck sounded awsome, then after some time I started getting the same symptoms as you so I grounded the HU directly to the chassis, then it sounded great again, then a little while later the hiss started coming back, I kinda ignored it out of laziness then when I installed my front stage and hooked up my xover and second amp I turned on the system on acc power and it was awsome, then I started the truck and bam, Screaming alt noise, couldn't even hear the music, after I figured out it was the HU I took it back to best buy (forgive me) and they sent it off to be fixed and for there sake it had better be or i'ma gonna kill me some geek squad goobers so help me god.

dynome: You could try adding ground points to the chassis under the hood. As in adding a larger wire from the battery's negative terminal to a spot on the chassis (which can be in addition to the factory), one from the engine block to the chassis, etc.

I would try to reground the HU as well if you can (use a different spot).

Justin from Detroit wrote:Pioneers seem to be the cause of noise for a lot of people. My AVIc-N1 is terrible. You can hear the CD start spinning, you can hear the laser moving inside and everything....

^^^x2

In addition to that, I've seen a lot of Pioneer units that fail to ground at the RCAs. Take a wire and connect it between ground and the RCAs (will be the shield of the RCA, which is the outside part). I've seen a lot of Pioneers do that and it sounds like exactly the problem you're having.