Hey audiophiles!

[MountainD]

I have a tick tick tick tick tick in the background of my music in the truck that I would love to get rid of. It happens both with just the ignition on, or when the car is running, which makes it particularly strange to me. I am running ahead unit and a four channel amplifier along with the subwoofer that is self powered. But I have no clue what could be causing this tick tick tick tick tick in the background. Does anyone have an idea of what could help get rid of that? Perhaps a filter? It isn’t the plugs of the 2.8 engine as those have already warmed up and gone off. There’s no other electronics that are running that I can tell. But there’s like a Halloween ghost story tick tick tick tick tick tick.

AI says it’s probably grounding or a ground loop. But I was pretty careful putting this together. I’ll check all those for sure but is there something else I should check as well?

 

[rocky]

Like a crazed malfunctioning relay like sound?

 

[Mirrajumper]

What ground pick ups are you using for the head unit and the subwoofer?

 

[jymmiejamz]

What about doing a dirty overlay on the power and ground for each component to a separate battery to isolate which component is causing the issue

 

[MountainD]

What about doing a dirty overlay on the power and ground for each component to a separate battery to isolate which component is causing the issue

Not a bad idea

 

[MountainD]

What ground pick ups are you using for the head unit and the subwoofer?

Sub out on head for self powered sub, rca’s out for 4 channel amp.

 

[MountainD]

Maybe I’ll start with a ground probe to each component right to battery to rule out ground. Won’t rule out ground loop, but doubt that’s it as I’m aware of those during initial wiring. Very rhythmic so can think what non-running component it’d be. Maybe a clock, but not running a clock.

 

[Giftshopduane]

Can you work backwards and isolate the components? Start with the sub probably easiest to unplug.. run a speaker to the head unit sans amp etc.. then I'd go direct 12v to head unit from batt.. where are you pulling 12v from? What about 12v memory? What about power and grounds to amp and sub, what's the source? Picking up in the harness or direct? What are you running for units? If it's a clean source and grounds are good wouldn't it be a component failure? Sorry just a lot of questions to answer.. Chris

 

[OregonLizard]

When I was chasing a phantom voltage drop my Power Probe connected to my jackery was a very valuable tool. That allowed me to give known good power and ground at various points.

 

[mitherial]

Power Probe is great. Beyond the full-feature version from Amazon, Harbor Freight has a discount version (still branded Power Probe fwiw)

 

[CDN38]

Maybe I’ll start with a ground probe to each component right to battery to rule out ground. Won’t rule out ground loop, but doubt that’s it as I’m aware of those during initial wiring. Very rhythmic so can think what non-running component it’d be. Maybe a clock, but not running a clock.

Chasing down grounding issues is annoying, almost annoying as tick tick tick. Try going battery direct to see if it's a component issue as Giftshopduane points out. Curious to see what you
find

 

[MountainD]

Maybe this weekend...