Hello everyone, my name is Zach, I am a senior in Electrical Engineering at the University of Alabama, and I am now the proud owner of a black 2007 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback. I recently upgraded from my '98 ford explorer which I loved, but wanted more speed and gas mileage. I am very happy with my purchase, and I would love to know your thoughts on what I should do first to it. I am interested in some (slight) mods to my car, but I like it looking stock and I also am very limited in funds...

So far I have discovered only one (big) issue with my Mazda 3. GROUND LOOP! There is a lot of sensor and alternator noise on this car when my aux cable and power cable are simultaneously plugged into any audio device. I rewired my cigarette lighter to be grounded at the same place as the radio and also ran the power to the same as the 12v wire for the radio. I did the second part to make my charger work when my car is turned off. It definitely did not fix the noise though, and trying to find the source of this noise will be my goal for the next while. I DO NOT want to use a ground loop isolator, because those suppress signals of a certain frequency (by definition) which are going to degrade sound quality. I know this isn't the best place to ask about it and I will post more in depth in the correct forum, because I have found very little help with this with regards to Mazda 3s, but I am sure that someone has isolated the source of the noise.

Sorry I rambled so much, but hello to all, and it will be nice to be a part of this forum!