very faint but it's there. Kenwood excelon head unit and 5chan amp. Noise varies a bit with throttle. Equipment is all decent / good quality. Is this something I have to live with as a hybrid owner? I have a short ground from the amp in the spare well area at the factory battery ground point. Anybody have a dead silent amplified system in these cars? Any input would be apprec.
What KIND of noise ? Is it there ALL of the time ? Can you detect it even with music playing at a low volume ?? Among other things, it could be the CD/DVD drive running when it shouldn't.
Does the sound vary only with the engine? Or also in the EV mode? Do you have any low level inputs running near the amp's power leads/speaker wires? Separating them to run along differents sides of the vehicle can help to reduce the noise. Engine noise can also be caused by a ground loop issue. This can be somewhat tuned down with the voltage input/output adjustments on the amp, using lower settings. Another possibility to reduce/eliminate the noise is to use a ground loop isolator on the inputs to the amp. Hope this helps. I'm just beginning to start the installation of an audio upgrade. Just waiting on all of the pieces to be delivered. This will be my first installation in a hybrid.
Hi rjpalaypay, I did a similar install: [LINKS →] → Click → Click ...and had similar engine noise issues. I did not have this in the 2011 Red Prius 5 I had so I was confused. When the car was on battery, no noise. Just before the ICE kicked in, I would hear a whirring start up and then the noise would track with the RPMs when pressing the gas pedal. I even added a switch to turn off the Amps so I could not hear it all of the time. I tried moving grounds and +12 all the way back to the battery to no effect, and Shielded the zBox as well - no difference. [PIC →] I saw sfprankster's suggestion for a ground loop isolator (Thanks you!) and remembered I had one from a previous install. I installed it by the AMP [PIC →] and it seems to have fixed the noise issue. I used this one: [LINK] I did not have to attach the grounds. My concern was I would lose the High-end Frequency but every thing sounds great - and no noise! I Hope this helps! -Z ☺
