I have an 88 GT that I purchased about 6 months ago. There is a crackle / static noise in the passenger side front and rear speakers. I just assumed that the speakers needed replaced so I purchased NEW Kenwood KFC4675 4 x6" speakers for the rear and PIONEER TSA4103 4X10" for the front. I just replaced the rear speaker on the passenger side and tested it out and guess what? That noise is still there. What could it be?!? Any help is appreciated.

I have the same issue on my 88GT and I think it's a grounding issue. If I run my radio with the engine running, but on a channel with no noise or with my IPod on pause, I get the crackle. If I turn the engine off and just run the radio off of battery only, the crackle goes away. However, I have yet to trouble shoot the issue. I'm sure I have a bad/deteriorated ground somewhere as I also get ticking on gauges when turn signals are on, etc. Hope this helps to at least narrow it down.

No, I don't think that we have the same problem. When I tested out the new speaker, I didn't start the car, I had the sound turned completely down, but it was on a local station. I still have the original Delco radio (am/fm cassette, equelizer). When I first purchased the car, I sent the radio off to have an auxillary input added for my ipod. Don't know if that has anything to do with it, just some more information.

It is radio interference being picked up in the wires, most likely. 20 year old technolgy is more likely to get interference than the wiring in a brand new car. And there are a lot more radio signals and electronics around to cause interference, than there were 20 years ago.

And like was already said, bad grounds don't help the situation. You may have a loose one in the circuit somewhere too.

Load your engine up in the dark: IE, have someone hold the break with it in gear and give a lil gas but not enough to let the car move. Watch for sparks from your ignition wires, coil, etc. And make sure all of your spark wires are firmly seated to the plug, A badly worn distributor cap can cause RF noise too.

------------------
[IMG]




trueleo.com
RSpiderII@aol.com

Very interesting and coincidental post. I have the exact same problem in the same location that appeared after my car sat for these past 3 yrs waiting for me to finish my engine build. I'd say it's a connection problem, definitely in my case, I just haven't taken the time to correct. If I move the RCA jack at the AMP that feeds the right side speaker it crackles a good bit. I also get the noise with the radio turned off but that's because the amp is still on. Everything plugged in needs to be unplugged and the contacts cleaned.

What you say makes a lot of sense in my case. Prior to removing the radio, I don't remember having the noisy speakers. The car then sit in my unheated garage for the month of December while I waited for the radio to be returned. After re-installing it is when I noticed the problem. Tomorrow I will remove it again and clean all of the connections and see how that works out. I'll be sure to post the results.

------------------
Mike in Indy

quote Originally posted by Joseph Upson: Very interesting and coincidental post. I have the exact same problem in the same location that appeared after my car sat for these past 3 yrs waiting for me to finish my engine build. I'd say it's a connection problem, definitely in my case, I just haven't taken the time to correct. If I move the RCA jack at the AMP that feeds the right side speaker it crackles a good bit. I also get the noise with the radio turned off but that's because the amp is still on. Everything plugged in needs to be unplugged and the contacts cleaned.

I removed the radio and speakers, cleaned all of the contacks and I still have the same problem. This has prompted me to go ahead and replace the stock unit with a Kenwood CD/MP3/satellite stereo using a custom mounting plate from Humount.com. So after I run all of the wiring myself, I shouldn't have that annoying crackling noise.

------------------
Mike in Indy

My GMC S-15 with a 2.8 has this same problem. New plugs, cap, rotor and plug wires 3 months ago.

I did all that when I purchased the car less than 1000 miles ago (October 2010), so I don't think that is the issue. The more I think about it, the more I feel that when I sent the radio to have an auxillary input added that something happened to the radio to cause the crackling. It's only audible when the volume is fairly low or completely turned down and goes away when the power to the unit is turned off. The RPM's have nothing to do with the noise and what it reminds me of is the old radios that would crack and pop due to a faulty volume control.

------------------
Mike in Indy

I know that it's taken a while for me to post this, but I replaced the stock stereo with a Kenwood KDC-MP528 and the annoying buzzing noise went away. I'm sure that when I had the original unit modified that something was done at that time to cause the problem.

If it only happened when something was plugged in to the aux input, then it could just be that the wires for that were picking up extra interference that wouldn't normally be picked up. The aftermarket stereo has plenty of filtering on it, that will squelch the noise.

quote Originally posted by docholliday: I did all that when I purchased the car less than 1000 miles ago (October 2010), so I don't think that is the issue. The more I think about it, the more I feel that when I sent the radio to have an auxillary input added that something happened to the radio to cause the crackling. It's only audible when the volume is fairly low or completely turned down and goes away when the power to the unit is turned off. The RPM's have nothing to do with the noise and what it reminds me of is the old radios that would crack and pop due to a faulty volume control.

It might just be dirt in there. My home Pioneer stereo circa 1974 crackled terribly this morning, first time I tried using it in a year or so. My borther bought a similar demo that had been sitting in a store window for months. He had to have it cleaned, then it worked fine. They told him there was tons of dust in there.

Mine was doing the same thing, with an aftermarket system. It mainly crackled every time I hit the brake pedal. I was planning on having it looked at when I get it back.

I bought my step daughter a new head unit for Xmas and spent a couple hours rewiring today. The prev installer cross wired neg/pos wires and on top of that, used a common ground for all negative wires. I couldn't believe the difference with the new head unit and having everything wired correctly. I'm surprised it worked at all (it sounded like crap which is why I bought the new head unit).

Steve

[This message has been edited by recoil (edited 12-25-2011).]

I had tried all of the things that were mentioned above and it still made the buzzing noise with a CD, IPOD or when listening to a music station. If I had re-installed it by just connecting wires together, the problem would more than likely been my mistake, but since it was put in with the factory plugs, there wasn't much that I could have screwed up. Here's how it looks now after installing the new KENWOOD unit using a Humount face plate.

[This message has been edited by docholliday (edited 12-25-2011).]

Docholliday,
Where did you get the Pontiac Fiero GT faceplate surround for your Kenwood stereo?

quote Originally posted by canfirst: Docholliday, Where did you get the Pontiac Fiero GT faceplate surround for your Kenwood stereo?

Looks great, huh? The letters in red light up when the key is on. Found it here. http://maptechenterprises.com/storefront/

[This message has been edited by docholliday (edited 12-27-2011).]