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I'm using a TomTom in my car all the time because it provides touch-screen controls for my iPod. The problem is that I get alternator whine when it's plugged in, so I have to unplug it to play the music. I think with all the unplugging/replugging I shorted something in the TomTom because now it will only play when it's plugged in.

Anyways my question is if I want to change the ground of the 12V Acc. plug, is all I have to do is take the negative ternimal (black I presume) wire coming out of the back of the plug and ground it seperately to the chassis? Is this wire just going back into the system ground or is it something else?

Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 263

Rather than re-wire the car's cigarette lighter it might be easier to adapt the TomTom's cig plug to be wired elsewhere into the car. Either use a female cig adaptor or solder wires directly on the metal connections of the cig plug (center is positive, outside is ground). Then run to accessory power at the ignition harness and chassis ground.

But yeah you could really do it either way.

 
Rep Power: 263

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1110266394715

I find this part works decently.

 
Rep Power: 235

Like christmaspie said, I wired in another cig. lighter right above where the drivers feet would be. Its out of the way, hidden completely and I can still easily unplug it if I want to take it in another car.

 
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Well I moved the cig plug to my center console before I experienced the alternator whine, should have tested it first I guess.

My question now is, where should I try to ground the acc.? Should I ground it where my HU is (it's stock) or to another part of the chassis? Where is a good place?

Or is my problem not a ground loop but this:

Excessive Accessories - If there are many accessories connected to the battery and / or the charging system, any one of these accessories could very easily cause the alternator to overwork itself and cause the diodes in the alternator to produce more ripple than usual.

If so, whats the solution to that?

 
Rep Power: 235

Right behind where the cigarette lighter, there is a bolt. Pull the bolt, sand down the area, and ground there.

Occasionally I have a gps, radar detector, phone charger, computer, and stereo all playing at the same time and still have no problems. My alternator is working 100%. That shouldn't be your problem.

 
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Isn't that bolt where the cig lighter is already grounded? And that's what I did do, I grounded it there this weekend. The whine was less, but still didn't go away. Now I don't know where to run my ground.

 
Rep Power: 230

I'm not familiar with tom tom's so bare with me. Does the tom tom just play the music through the gps device or does it send an fm frquency so you can listen to it through your headunit? or how does it connect? Again not familiar with them but alternator whine usually has to do with unshielded audio signal wires i.e. rca's, speaker wire, coaxial cable. If the tom tom only has power/negative wires then I would say it has something to do with them if you don't hear the whine any other way.

Are you sure you alternator is going bad? I would guess you don't have any subs or amps since you still have the factory radio but maybe someone before you did and it's just on its last leg. That is absolute worse case scenario but I have seen oem alternators go out in less then a month so maybe it's time is up.

 
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The TomTom is using a line-out, on the unit itself running into my HU. I have the stock HU with the 14 pin, set up with that aux adaptor you can buy. So my head-unit accepts aux cable instead of cd-changer. I used my iPod straight to the HU forever, no problems what so ever. I wanted the tomtom because I get gps and touchscreen iPod controls.

The TomTom played the music with no whine/noise as long as the power cable was disconnected. My first post explained that didn't work anymore (short? not really sure) so know I want to fix that whine.

Yes I do have a sub and amp hooked up as well, and have for long time with no problems. I have no problems with whine, noise anything as long as I don't use my TomTom.

Hope this clears my system up a bit, thanks for the help. I'm using shielded wire from RadioShack for my audio cable, not sure if that's shielded "enough".

 
Rep Power: 235

Yes its were it is grounded now, but if you sand it down really well you shouldn't have any whine. I have a ton of things grounded there.

 
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Alright, I'll sand it this weekend and see how it goes.

 
Rep Power: 230

You said the tom tom has line out, guessing that means rca's, and it could simply be your only problem. If the tom tom has speakers on the unit itself, try playing the music through them and see if you notice the noise still. Remember to have it plugged into the cig lighter. If the noise is there with the rca's plugged in but not when u disconnect them, replace the rcas with some triple shielded pair. If the problem persists, try in a friends car that has rca inputs as well as a cig lighter, but who doesn't have that.