Sound system opinions and help.

[The_Stig]

So im picking up a 2002 1.8t GTI tomorrow and there is 1 thing about it that bothers me.
The Dude before him as put in an Apline deck (i think its alpine) and the same brand of speakers through out the car. The speakers are also hooked up to a rockford amp behind the seats.

Now problem 1 is the cubby hole above the deck is ugly as hell, so im not sure if that is able to be swapped? (not to mention the deck looks shitty also)

But the big problem is, if the volume is at zero, and you rev the engine, you hear a wirling/high pitched squeeling come from the speakers, the higher you rev the rpms the noise follows.

Any ideas?

[stefan]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

bad ground on deck or amp causes alternator whine. OEM cubby looks ok, I assume yours is not OEM? maybe you can get one at the dealer.

[RedMile04]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Yeah the cubby should never look bad, as it should just be the OEM one. Unless the stock deck was Double Din and he had to put in a cheap aftermarket cubby. Like stefan said, pick up an oem one at the dealer.

[The_Stig]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Alright maybe ill do that. Ill have to check the grounds if i can. Yeah its a cheap after market one. Cuz i have the oem one in my jetta and it looks great.

Do you guys know how the Aftermarket decks and cubbys are removed? I might just swap it from my jetta?

[RobG]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Buy an AVIC-D3 and call it done.

[stefan]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

cubby is a snap in (or at least OEM one is).

for ground, try just running the deck ground right to your car body, and not to the ground in the harness.

[RedMile04]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Remove the deck, then the cubby, just like OEM.

[The_Jerbel]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Yeah a bad ground OR running the wiring near any electrical unit in the car will cause that whine as well. Try not to run wiring close to a fuel pump, or anything else electronically controlled in the car.

[The_Stig]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Yeah i think its stupid he has an amp for the speakers. Maybe i will just yank the amp out and have them run off the deck. Not sure.

I do have a double din sitting around, not sure if that would work with the after market speakers and amp though?

[FlyBoy]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

A separate amp for the speakers can provide better sound quality, and can allow higher power output than a deck puts out. I have an amp running my components, but have never really tuned it to be competition quality or anything.

[Stonewall]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Amp power is way better then head unit power. Try regrounding the amp first, make sure the grounding spot is free of paint and is bare metal. If that doesn't fix it reground the deck (ie don't use the stock harness). If that doesn't work run a new ground wire for the next to the same ground spot as the amplifier. That is a last straw solution but it works 99% of the time.

[The_Stig]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Alright cool thanks guys. Ill do some tinkering once i pick up the car this evening.

[Kordain]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

ID keep the amp if its not in the way. better sound quality than stock and we dont know what the power of the head unit is it may be crappy 20watt or somat (doubt it but you dont know.

As for the whinning noise, bad ground would do it but you should also look to see if the filter has been kept on the power cable to the head unit. Typically its a small ferite or toroidial filter but it will just look like a inch long black plastic box clipped onto the power cable. I think the power cable is the yellow one typically? that or the red. These filters are specifically included to take out the engine interference.

as to pulling the cubby i ahve to take my deck out to get mine out
as to pulling the deck out you may need the extractor tools to release the clips, never had an alpine so im not sure. if you download the owners manual from the alpine site it will tell you

K..

good luck.

[RedMile04]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Yeah keep the amp like everyone has said. Unfortunately your double din wont fit since the harness is different pre 03 when the double din was introduced.

[The_Stig]

Re: Sound system opinions and help.

Well i picked up the car last night and the stereo is worst than i thought. The alpine deck doesent even fit right and you can just pull it right out. The cubby hole is aweful, and worst of all, he has replaced all the vw speakers with alpine type s. They seriously sound soo bad and have zero bass. Doesent even sound like the tweaters are working right.

I thought the type s speakers were decent? Maybe a chance its just wired wrong?