Funny crackling through stereo on full throttle.

[Percy]

So today I happened to drive along at cruise throttle in second then booted it, and when the old VOD/ turbo transition thingy happened at 4-4500ish rpm, a funny crackling noise came through the stereo and the engine did lots of hesitating and farting around.

It only lasted a couple of seconds, and didn't happen the next time I used full throttle straight from closed, only seemed to be when going from cruise throttle up to full noise.

Anybody have any idea what going on?

Things I have thought of are a dodgy earth somewhere, the throttle position sensor being a bit dicky, or maybe the MAF sensor?

Any one of which is possible as the car has done 230k...

The only one of those that could cause the crackling would be the dodgy earth I would have thought.

[boon]

I'm somehow inclined to say alternator is going funny, that's all I can think of.

Might be worth seeing if the stereo and the ECU share a ground somewhere down near the footwell, though.

Usually the stereo gets a bonus ground though, through the case being metal and the cage it sits in being welded to the car.

[Percy]

 boon said:

I'm somehow inclined to say alternator is going funny, that's all I can think of.

Might be worth seeing if the stereo and the ECU share a ground somewhere down near the footwell, though.

Usually the stereo gets a bonus ground though, through the case being metal and the cage it sits in being welded to the car.

Ahh, true, will check that point.

The stereo does have a dodgy connection somewhere anyway, might fix that see if it fixes both issues.

[Percy]

So I found the battery earth terminal was loose as a goose, tightened that, and we'll see if that helps.

Still can't find the dodgy stereo connection, the right channel keeps dropping to about half volume randomly, annoying!

[Percy]

So apparently the crackling issue is gone with new sparky plugs, and now clean coils, the passengers side coils were both soaked in oil.

Hopefully that helps someone later if they're having the same issue.

Still can't find the dodgy wiring causing the stereo to drop the rh front channel though, might be the head unit, joy.

[Guest]

Non resistor plugs?

[Percy]

 evowrx said:

Non resistor plugs?

Ahh, say what?

[Guest]

What were the plugs you pulled out and the replacements?

[Percy]

 evowrx said:

What were the plugs you pulled out and the replacements?

Ahh roger!

NGK PFR6G came out looked ok, just quite worn, one the insulator bit was greenish not grey/ brown like the others, no idea what that means.

NGK BKR6EIX went in, gapped to .75mm.