Hi guys I have a problem that is driving me insane.

Basically all of my car audio is aftermarket (H/U, amp, sub, door speakers, rear speakers) and I have had it in for a couple of years with no problems.

Amp is behind the right rear cubby hole in the boot and is ground to the boot release handle. RCA cables are run down the middle of the car avoiding power cables.

As I said I have had no problems since it was installed however for the past few days the head unit had been cutting out at random moments and getting weird ground loop sort of feedback occasionally. I assumed something had been jiggled loose because of all the potholes on the roads. I went to take the amp out and as I was taking out the live power cable it accidentally touched one of the metal connections on the RCA cables and sparked.

Now I didnt think too much of thsi and went on to check all of the connections in audio system. Everything was fine so I tried moving the grounds around a bit experimenting to see if anything would stop the ground loop feedback which was constantly on by this time. I tried plugging an iPod directly into the amp and the sound was fine so I assume the amp is fine (the spark didnt cause any damage?).
Upon experiemting further I found that by running a wire from the H/U ground to the metal connection on the RCA cables I was able to eliminate almost all the interference. I say almost because there is still a bit of feedback which gets stronger when I indicate right. Could the RCA cable have been damaged by the spark?
Anyone have any ideas of ways to cure this?

Thanks,
James

 

Are your RCA Cables from the PreAmp output from the HU to the Amp input?? If so, you probably blew the output driver of the HU.