Hello all, I have a problem with my 5 door Mazda3. When hooking up my ipod to the stereo through the AUX jack, it works fine. however, if I also plug it in with the power adapter, I get a hum that increases in pitch with the RPMs of the motor. this works when i plug the power adapter into the dash and into the console. i assume this has to do with a grounding problem?

anyone else have this problem? i used the power adapter without incident in my previous car.

thanks

 

This is a common problem, and is most likely because Mazda didn't put the effort into it to have it grounded properly. First off make sure you complain to mazda (not necessarily your dealer, but corporate). If enough people complain then they may issue a TSB. Second go buy a 3.5mm ground loop isolator. You can also get them with RCA connectors, except then you're going to have to use adapters so you might as well just start with 3.5mm ones. You can get them from www.Crutchfield.com, and www.discountcarstereo.com for about $15.

 

will the local dealer fix it? or is it a design problem?

 

You can complain to the dealer about it, but until Mazda acknowledges it then they probably won't be able to do anything about it.