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I just bought the XA2000 Eclipse from Justin, and the install went well. I haven't turned the car on yet, since it's late, but i did put the key in to use the radio. I'm getting some static at zero volume. It's the static I'd hear if I were to turn my home theater system to the max volume with no music playing. It doesn't seem to increase with volume, with enough volume I can't hear it at all, but at low volumes it's very noticeable.

Does this sound like a bad ground? Or..I did run the remote wire with the RCA's, which are supposed to be shielded, but would the remote still cause something like this? The static is constant on both channels. Could a batter that output's an oddly high voltage cause an issue like this? When I first installed my HU, I was looking for 12v constant, grounding to the chasis. Either my meter was off, or the battery is strange, as I was measuring 16v with the car off.

So, any thoughts as to the culprit would be great!

It could be the ground. I'd make sure wherever a ground wire is attached to metal, that there is no paint on it and the metal is bare. Another reason could be just the fact that they are cheap unshielded RCA's (I'm talking material cheap or just made incorrectly, not cost lol).

Another possibility could be your headunit itself.

A lot of times, the noise is a ground loop induced through the RCAs. So you could make a new ground for your HU, make sure your RCAs are good, and make sure you have a good ground for your amp.

how do I make sure the RCA's are "good"? Also, i tested my battery today with my multimeter, pole to pole, i got a difference of potential of 17.9v. That doesn't seem right, could this be causing the issue?

I'm not sure that's the correct way to test your voltage. I would think to get a real world voltage, you'd need to connect your probes between the power and ground of your amp, but don't quote me on that. I'm not well versed when it comes to electricity, so wait for one of the other guys to comment on that.
What HU are you running right now? If you're using a factory ground, it's worth finding a ground under your dash for the HU.
Checking if your RCAs are good would be checked by throwing another set on and listening to hear if the noise is still there :) Very scientific. Hehe.

I'll see what I can do with the HU ground, i am using the factory ground wire. As far as a second set of RCA's, I don't have any. So if they are the culprit, I'll have to live with it until i can verify otherwise. All I meant by the battery was that 17.9v seems high. Shouldn't it be around 12v? the alternator should keep it around 13v when the engine is running, I'll test it again when the engine is on.

ryboto wrote:how do I make sure the RCA's are "good"? Also, i tested my battery today with my multimeter, pole to pole, i got a difference of potential of 17.9v. That doesn't seem right, could this be causing the issue?

Dude. I think your volt meter is screwed.

JeremyC wrote:Dude. I think your volt meter is screwed.

it was measuring resistances correctly last I checked, i'll try measuring a battery or something as a reference.

so, I just checked my meter by testing a bunch of AA batteries, they all read between 1.3-1.5 volts. So, i'm going to assume it's working, and that my battery is outputting ~18V. So, I'm going to guess this is the reason I'm getting noise over the speakers, either this, or my HU's ground is bad, but, It's never given me trouble before.

ur battery cant ouput 18v's if its a 12v car battery.