Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

haha... yeah... it's not something I'm really sure about. But maybe I need to now attach something like that to the radio antennae wire that runs to the radio.

Unless its the LED lights "box" that needs to be earthed or something. But like Christo's photo, I have just cable tied the little controller box to the bodywork.

Earthing could work. But I really have no idea. I run with 'old school' bulbs.

Ask Christo perhaos, he understands the stuff well.

Give Ant a shout he also knows these well...

Just a question: does it interfere with the radio, or with the sound system as a whole.

In other words, do CD's etc. play fine?

Peter, I never thought to check that. I'll try it later on my way home today.

Now where is Chuck Norris when you need him..... is Chuck scared of the Iron Maiden?......

Cedric, pop into a decent car audio installer and they'll sort you out quickly. If you really, really want to muck around by yourself there are some things you can try.

My guess is that the earth for the headlights is not up to scratch. The radio/amp did not complain before, so that suggests that the LED's driver circuitry may be to blame. Old rusted earth screws may need loosening, cleaning and re-fastening.

If that does not help, look at the audio bits next. They may always have had an underlying issue, but because there's no real electrical stuff on the TD42 it may have remained hidden from you. Disconnect the DIN cables coming from the radio and into the amplifier. Start the car & turn the lights on. If you still get the noise, your amp is to blame. If not, your head unit is to blame.

If it's the amp, buy a ground loop isolator and connect it in series with the DIN cables between the head unit and the amplifier.

If it's not the amp, disconnect the antenna from your head-unit and check again. A car aerial is really a monopole antenna, and one side must be WELL connected to the body. If the antenna's mounting screw is loose, or has rubber bits in between (some seemingly clever installers still do not understand how to install antennas), it will cause a noise. The screw must bite into the body work to be effective!

If that does not help, make sure that you have a DECENT earth on all items in question. A lot of folks reckon that they should both be earthed at the same place, because different places on the body will take different path to the battery, and thus cause a potential difference which can induce noise. The Patrol is known to have a dodgy earth on the body, courtesy of the body being rubber mounted onto the ladder frame. A lot of people add a separate earth strap between the chassis and the body to fix this, apparently the Nissan one is semi-useless.

If that does not help, run a dedicated positive for both the head unit and amp. That's what good installers do, and they do it for the same reason as above. You want your earth and positives at the same voltage.

But... I'd really suggest you take it to a car audio installer! You could easily spend a weekend or two and still have the noise, because they can be tough to trace...

Die led ligte het n invloed op jou radio ek het n bzt agter bumper opgesit sodra ek my parkeer ligte aansit maak dit dieselfde ook net as jy radio opvang maar as jy cd's speel of mp3 geen probleem nie het die drade toe uitgeplug toe gaan dit weg moes weer inplug kani sonder agter ligte ry nie sal maar die radio afsit. Engin klink beter as di str@nt op die radio.

Have the LED conversion on both the 4.5 and the 4.2TD bakkie as well as having had the BZT rear bumper on the 4.5 previously and have not had any interference with the sound system.

What I can say is in both vehicles I have good earths on the antennae's, have dedicated cabling for the head unit and amp and all sound cabling (RCA's and speaker wires) run through the roof to keep them away from the power cables. Where power and sound come close to each other (like near the amp) I shield the sound cabling with tin foil and then wrap over it with insulation tape.

Many thanks for the advice!!

Yeah it only seems the the interference noise happens when on a radio station, on CD's its perfect, on BT Audio its perfect, on "telephone" it's perfect, so just on FM and AM channels.

To add to the mystery, by chance my phones battery was dying out, so I plugged in my "Energizer" USB charger into the cigarette lighter to charge the phone a bit.... and there is interference with that on too. If I unplug it, noise gone, plug it back in... and there is noise.

So I'm thinking that it may just be the antennae earthing that is not that great. I have never really had fantastic radio reception from my Midas Bee-sting aerial. The OME electric telescopic one was the best...... till it didn't want to go up and down, and I swapped it out.

Ok, I assume I need to strip off the plastic splash guard in the wheel well out, and with a lot of profanity get my hands up into the tiny crevice where the aerial is to fit an earth wire from there and run that directly to the battery?...... hmmm maybe you are right Christo..... take it to a radio installation shop.

Cedric:

https://www.patrol4x4.com/forum/auto-el ... ic-369097/

See post #13 for ground of the antenna.