mkaye

i have had my LS400 for the past 3 yrs (286000 Km)
i installed a Kenwood radio/gps when i got it
i can hear a faint whine now, which i haven't heard before
i had the charging system checked & everything is OK
ignition wires maybe?

mark

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

bad ground.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

If the ignition wires are quite old, checking resistance and the insulation for any deterioration may be good, more so for the engine running well and getting proper spark. Try another ground point. Re-check the head unit wiring for solid connections.

Yamae

I have seen some people having a similar problem as mkaye is experiencing. I visit nearby auto repair shops time to time to help them to fix ECUs and other electronics related equipments. A whine noise from aftermarket audio / visual equipments is rather a common problem to me. Some start to whine right after the installation and some others a few to several years after the installation.

What I found was that those aftermarket equipments have a poor line noise filter in it or parts used at the filter are not good enough compared with genuine equipments. This tends to cause a whine noise. Parts wear out fairly young sometimes too.

Was your Kenwood made in China?
I have experienced some Kenwood products assembled in China didn't last long. Replacing those filter capacitors can fix the problem in most of the case. Adding an external filter is another choice too.

Many Japanese electronics industries are now facing serious situations. Profits are marginal or negative and they tend to assemble their products at countries where labor costs are cheaper. Some companies are using local parts in stead of parts from Japan which are expensive. This makes the situation worse. I'm afraid people would say that there once were very good and high quality products made in Japan but no more.