******** Wiring Harness HELP !!!!

[ToyotaCamaro]

HELP

I put in the wiring harness which gives me the pre-outs for my amp and sub. I hooked the cables to the Rear Right and Rear Left. When I turned on the radio, I got a crazy squeal from the rear speakers. I tried the front pre-outs and the same thing happened only coming out the front speakers. The first time I had everything connected, Power, Ground, Remote, and Signals and the amp smoked a little. After that I disconnected power to the amp. No smoke but still got the squeal from my speakers. If I discounted the RCAs, Everything in the car worked perfectly with the harness still in.

Any help would be much appreciated. And this is not my first install, in fact the amp has been in 5 of my previous cars.

[dreamst8]

Hmmm smoke is not good... Do you have acess to another amp to bypass that one?

Try that and at the same time swap the RCA cables with anything else you have to make sure you didnt have a grounding issue.

Its a pretty straight forward connection, unless the harness got wired incorrectly, but SubThumb is great help, may want to give him a ring and go over it to ensure..

Good luck, keep us posted...

Merry Christmas!

[Hicompression]

Originally Posted by ToyotaCamaro

...and the amp smoked a little.

Ummm...not good. Didja ask Steve at ********? I had no problems with my harness. Maybe the wiring is different between a Toyota Camaro and a Chevrolet Camaro.

[Moriartii]

ROFL!!! Could be a new recall with the Toyota Camaro!!!
Give Steve a shout at ******** he will get you squared away for sure, his customer service is excellent. You may have a bad RCA connector, if I remember correctly I think Steve hand solders the RCA's on the harness. With that many going out the door one or two may get wonky. If not that he can assist you in troubleshooting.

Plus what was the amp? You mentioned has been in the last five of your installs? Could have just been the amps time.

Cheers
K

[ToyotaCamaro]

Update.

First off, I hope I never gave the impression that it had anything to do with Steve's product. I think it's an amazing harness and I was thrilled that I didn't have to cut any wires. I put this thread out because I was in a panic wanting it work properly and not wanting to damage the existing system.

Steve emailed me this morning with some possible solutions. I had mentioned that when I turned on the radio, I got a squeal through my rear speakers. This was due to the signal shorting in amp because of the voltage of the RCA signal. Steve said this can be common in older amps. He said that some guys have had luck with a ground loop isolator which goes in between the harness and the RCA cable. 30 bucks at the local stereo shop and worked perfectly.

Took some minor tuning and a lot of DynoMat but sounds incredible.


THANKS STEVE !!!!

10 inch Kicker L5 with a 200 watt Rockford Mono-block

[AUS10BMX]

Got my harness and wiring yesterday/today, just hooked everything up (left all the wires long and amp/sub sitting outside of car) to see if it would work before I really installed everything in the car. Everything came on but I had squealing really loud in the rear speakers. :(

With the volume just on 1 it went crazy. And when it turned off the sub "popped" a few seconds later... So I guess I got stuck with both problems some were having.

So how do I go about treating both problems?

My friend said I would need a HI/LO converter, or ground loop isolator to fix the squealing. So what about the pop?

Any suggestions or help would be great.

Using Fosgate 600.i bd/12" L7 Kicker

[USNSCPO]

When it comes to the BA system, we need to get one essential fact out to everyone who will be adding an amp to the factory radio:

There is a 6 volt DC (DIRECT CURRENT BAD BAD BAD) on the speaker leads in addition to the AC signal current.

Many, many amps cannot deal with this. Mine couldn't, it shorted and sent a power spike into the factory wiring frying the radio and the entire front panel/heater controls/screen. Took the dealer a month to get the parts in and repair it.

Even if using the ******** harness, one must use a LOC (low power output converter) to remove the 6vdc signal. Steve also sells a nice cheap LOC.

[AUS10BMX]

So this...

http://********.com/Car-Audio-Produc...Converter.html

And what about the pop sound of the 2 amps not shutting off at same time?

[ToyotaCamaro]

I used a ground loop isolator but now you have thinking my stock system may still be in danger. Everything sounds incredible so am I in the clear?

When you test it, have another in the back of the car with the RCA leads in hand. If the squealing happens, have them disconnect them immediately. I wouldn't try it until you have the ground loop isolator installed. Shouldn't even say install, it just plugs in, super simple.

[ToyotaCamaro]

Originally Posted by AUS10BMX

So this...

http://********.com/Car-Audio-Produc...Converter.html

And what about the pop sound of the 2 amps not shutting off at same time?

My amp actually smoked the first time the squealing happened, each time I tested it after that I kept the power disconnected from the amp.

The link you have posted is a line out converter, if I'm not mistaken, buying Steve's harness eliminated the need for that. With that one, you splice into the wires on your rear speakers, all four channel into one set of RCA's.

I wish I could explain what a Ground Loop Isolator does but it worked for me.

[AUS10BMX]

What loop did you use by chance? Sounds like we had the same problem.

It just sucks having to experiment it seems like.

I completely understand how some amps are just not gonna work... Yet some have had nooo problems at all, plugged it in no worries and worked.

[USNSCPO]

Sorry to butt in here, but Steve's harness does not include anything to remove the 6vdc signal. He's even said so himself another thread. Its just a really nice, but simple wire tap that is designed so you don't have to permanently splice into your wiring. It doesn't do any signal processing or changing. I'm using his harness to tap the front and rear leads, then into a PAC2 (LOC), then into my amp. I highly recommend something similar. A LOC will also remove the 6vdc signal, as will a ground loop isolator. Both should work fine, or at least the one Steve sells in the link will work fine.

And get this. My first amp attempt worked great for almost 2 weeks before it did its damage to my radio. So, naturally I thought everything was cool--until it blew. Its simply not worth risking damage to your hard earned equipment. $17 is really cheap insurance! Although, it may be too late... you released the magic blue smoke! That stuff is expensive and can never be put back in!

Without being there with my trusty MM, I can't say for certain what is causing the squeal, but I'd put real $$ on it being the 6vdc signal and the way your amp is dealing with it.

The popping on/off could be a number of things, but by first getting the 6vdc signal out of the lines, it may solve it. Glad to help troubleshoot with ya, but we need to address one issue at a time.

There is a simple way to check this out, but you will need a multi-meter. Set it to DC volts, then onto one of the RCA's (one pin inside, one on the outside) in the ******** harness. You should have no reading at all. If you then set your MM to AC volts, you should see a varying signal, which is the actual music. Walmart and RadioShack sell cheap multi-meters... perhaps $25 to $30 bucks.

Good luck and do let us know what happens! Merry Christmas!

Originally Posted by ToyotaCamaro

My amp actually smoked the first time the squealing happened, each time I tested it after that I kept the power disconnected from the amp.

The link you have posted is a line out converter, if I'm not mistaken, buying Steve's harness eliminated the need for that. With that one, you splice into the wires on your rear speakers, all four channel into one set of RCA's.

I wish I could explain what a Ground Loop Isolator does but it worked for me.

[ToyotaCamaro]

Originally Posted by AUS10BMX

So this...

http://********.com/Car-Audio-Produc...Converter.html

And what about the pop sound of the 2 amps not shutting off at same time?

My mistake, I just read Steve's email to me again. This is exactly what you need. I was thinking that it would go in between the harness and RCA cable which it does but it has to be spliced into the harness. The Ground Loop Isolator worked for me but after reading that there's a chance that I could have damage down the road, I decided that 17 bucks was really cheap insurance. I'll probably run both the LOC and the Ground Loop Isolator. In the mean time, I'm disconnecting the sub, it's just not worth it.

[USNSCPO]

Good call! ^^^^^

You could say I have strong feelings about this because:

(1) I've been installing audio equipment semi-professionally off/on since the late '80s and should have checked for this first-- its a basic step... "but I read it on the internet" that the camaro's signal was clean.
(2) If you could measure the magnitude of my stupidity/laziness, it would be the dealer's bill to GM for the repair-- $2,3867! Thank God I didn't get stuck with that! Fully covered by the warranty.
(3) I really dig ******** products-- I've never seen a vendor focus on vehicle specific products to the degree that Steve does. Because of this, I made the assumption (just like 99% of us) that all I needed was his harness. Again, I shoulda checked-- see above....

I really think Steve needs to start putting some kind of warning in the package with his harness, and perhaps on his website. It would have prevented my mistake and will likely prevent many others in the future.

/rant

If you want both LOC and ground-loop isolation in one package that will make using an amp even easier, check out PAC Audio's stuff. I've been using there stuff for years. I've been using the same PAC2 in 3 different cars now. Good stuff. http://pac-audio.com/Products.aspx?CategoryId=28