Manx clone - noise in audio - LED light related?

[andk5591]

Total build for customer. Had a blue tooth head unit. Power amp installed in rear seat area along with speaker box. ALL LED lighting. New Rebel wiring harness. EVERYTHING is grounded properly.

Getting noise in the audio system when High beams switched on, hear click when turn signals flash. Disconnected head unit from amp and noise goes away. BUT I also understand that the head unit is a preamp.

Just for shits and goggles swapped the headlight relay from an OEM to a newer style and it made no difference. Didnt thing. it would.

And all of this is being done without the car running.

The car owner supplied a device for 2 stroke applications and LEDs, but honestly I don't remember exactly what it is or is for. We have not installed it. Will look at that when I get back to the shop tomorrow. Any suggestions?
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D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[Dale M.]

Filter capacitor in supply to head unit?

Dale
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“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Wulfthang]

Is the blinker for the turn signals mechanical or electronic? If it's electronic, then it beats me.

If it's a mechanical blinker, then the sound system is picking up the spark when the blinker relay opens and closes, the headlight relay pops, etc. It'll most likely buzz when you start the car from the ignition spark.

You could try a capacitor filter like Dale M suggested or even a true filtered power supply like a Buck-Boost converter regulator but honestly, I think the sound system integral power supply system is bad. They're supposed to have a strong filter system built in to prevent stuff like that. Do you have another unit that you can swap in to try?

Just on a long shot: I once did a sound system installation in my custom "Love Machine" van and it would pick up all kinds of interference noise from everything inside the van. Slide the seat back? Static from the sound system! Open the ashtray? Static! Static from the engine, static from the keys dangling in the ignition , etc. Anything!

It turned out to be something so simple. I didn't need or want the receiver to be hooked up so I never installed an antenna on the roof. The loose flopping around antenna cable was shorting out on the metal body and picking up all kinds of odd noises! Insulated the end and all static went away.

[andk5591]

We figured it out....operator error. My tech and I were miscommunicating regarding the amp input sensitivity switch. We were sending low level, not speaker level from the head unit and the way the amp was set, it was expecting speaker level, so it was amplifying the hell out of everything. I still need to test this with the engine running before we button it up, but I think we got it bay the balls.
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[dustymojave]

Hopefully your customer's buggy has wheels, not balls. Although I've seen a Manx-type buggy with "bull ballz" hanging from the bumper...
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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[jake18274]

Not sure where to find these days but yes a inline noise filter will be required and will fix this issue. GM cars use to have this issue I work in a Dealership as the service manager and we would install in line niose filter to eliminate the static noise now a days new radio system do not need it gm does not even make one any longer. Radio Shake is gone, Do some online website searching and i would hope you should find one that will work for this situation. Cant remember all the details just we fixed a bunch with issue just like this. was uaually caused by a rear window defroster when turned on.

[andk5591]

As it turns out we had multiple causes and problems. Matching the signal input switch correctly was important. We had some of the ferrite filters and they fixed it another noise...then they didn't. What we are doing is testing and setting up a ground up build, so we were using temporary batteries hooked up with jumper cables. The one intermittent problem was cause my the jumper cable to car power wire was marginal...So it would introduce noise...then if we bumped the cable, it would clear up....Dumb mistake.....
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[Wulfthang]

Electricity can do some strange stuff! I studied electronics for several years way back in the early 70's. Back then, we were still learning vacuum tubes! I went to work for Kawasaki building race engines and tranys but also electrical systems for race bikes. Some racing classes required that the bike be capable of being street legal so they had to have working lights. Others could run with nothing, including a charging system. They ran a total loss ignition system.

One day, a bike had all of it's lights flashing like a turn signal but ALL of them including the headlight. I worked on that ^$@*&$! thing for hours and spent a lot of time on the phone with a Kawasaki Tech rep. I finally found it. The dual filament tail light bulb...brake and tail light...had one filament broken off. It laid across the other filament and would short out...until it got hot after about two seconds. Then it would bend up and all would be well...until it cooled down, etc. etc.

The Kawasaki Tech Rep said it was flat out impossible and wanted me to send him the bulb. I refused and kept it. I even installed it in my personal bike and it started flashing all of the lights there too. Electricity always follows common sense rules bit sometimes it's common sense doesn't make any sense!