Grounding Kit

[projectx]

Betty's garage no longer makes grounding kits unfortunately. I missed out on this by just a few months!

Can anyone suggest alternatives?

thanks

[Tommy Kaira RL]

Buy your own cable and lugs and make your own. Then they will be the right length.

[scotty nm35]

Make your own, they arent anything special. Get some OFC audio wire and make up a solid copper plate for the engine with tapped threads. Make sure you use spring washers so the bolts bite in and not come loose.

[projectx]

I guess i could make my own. I was going to take the lazy option but might as well save some money.

thanks for the reply's..

[projectx]

Ok finally got all the gear i need to make to make my own kit. Can anyone recommend which parts it would be beneficial to add better grounding points? I know the throttle bodies could use it.. what else? Im trying to achieve faster smoother gear changes and less lag.

[projectx]

Also, do u think it's necessary to solder the connectors to the cable or is clamping enough?

[sonicii]

Just crimp with the appropriate crimping tool, solder tends to crack with vibration and movement.

[projectx]

Ok. That makes sense. If you solder and then crimp, the solder will just crack off.

[Tommy Kaira RL]

I think he is saying just crimp it and don't use solder. Solder can create high resistive joints.

[projectx]

1331457883[/url]' post='6270243']

I think he is saying just crimp it and don't use solder.

Yeah i know. That's the plan.

[projectx]

Well it's in.. I'm happy to report it was not in vain. I've only drivin it twice since the install but the difference is already evident. The biggest difference is in sport mode but it's noticeably better in auto too. Also I chirped into second gear today. It's never done that before!

[Vimana]

As an auto electrician of 14 years i fail to see how adding extra earths to various parts of your car makes any difference what so ever unless your car has significant high resistance and bad connections which is highly unlikely.

Ive fixed many bad earths on various cars, like the earlier R31 Skyline which had a slight voltage on the o2 sensor ground. This caused fuel mapping issues. My point it, unless your car has stray voltage on earth wires caused by bad connections to ground (very unlikely) a grounding kit will do nothing besides lighten your wallet.

[Alkatraz]

As an auto electrician of 14 years i fail to see how adding extra earths to various parts of your car makes any difference what so ever unless your car has significant high resistance and bad connections which is highly unlikely.

Ive fixed many bad earths on various cars, like the earlier R31 Skyline which had a slight voltage on the o2 sensor ground. This caused fuel mapping issues. My point it, unless your car has stray voltage on earth wires caused by bad connections to ground (very unlikely) a grounding kit will do nothing besides lighten your wallet.

Thank you for your comment.

Quick questions.....do you own a V36 Skyline? Have you installed grounding wires on said V36 and done back to back testing?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, then thanks for the input but until you can answer yes to both, it doesnt really provide any great insite.

[sonicii]

As an auto electrician of 14 years i fail to see how adding extra earths to various parts of your car makes any difference what so ever unless your car has significant high resistance and bad connections which is highly unlikely.

Ive fixed many bad earths on various cars, like the earlier R31 Skyline which had a slight voltage on the o2 sensor ground. This caused fuel mapping issues. My point it, unless your car has stray voltage on earth wires caused by bad connections to ground (very unlikely) a grounding kit will do nothing besides lighten your wallet.

I tend to agree. I see grounding kits as an opportunity for a company to make some money off people who don't want to clean their factory ground points. I put a kit on my J30 Maxima many years ago, it did absolutely nothing. As for the V35/36, there has been differing opinions, some say it made no noticeable difference, others say it only sharpened the auto shifts. Either way, I have an 6MT and my technical background tells me not to bother with a grounding kit.

You really don't need an intimate knowledge of every car to make a technical determination on a product like this.

[Vimana]

doesnt matter what car it is. if a grounding kit makes a difference all you are doing is putting a bandaid over a fault like dirty or rusty connections, and i doubt your car has this.

example. if you put a new ground to your block and then a new ground to the head you have done nothing. the engine is one massive earth bus of 0 ohms. 20 earths to the motor is no better than 1 properly sized one. these cars and all modern cars have massive earths already otherwise your starter motor would not work because it is the largest current drawing device in the car.

do a google search on it. the only example i can find that proved it works was on a rusty old subaru. and it worked because the cars original earth point were totally rusty.

if you understood ohms law you can apply this to any car. multiple earths to the same motor is no better than one of correct size.

[sonicii]

Agreed. I am not trying to point the finger at anyone or insult anyone. But sometimes it can be hard to separate the placebo effect from actual benefits on issues like this. For example, I have had people swear that a strut tower brace has reduced body roll, even though it is impossible for a strut tower brace to do such a thing.. I even have a picture of a newspaper artice with someone claiming a transmission cooler has improved engine power by about 10%..

Personally I can't technically understand how a grounding kit can possibly do anything on a car with good factory connections and ground points, but at the same time, someone may see real benefits from a kit, quite possibly due to an existing, but unknown, fault with their wiring.

At the end of the day, people are going to add these kits anyway and many are going to claim benefits. so it isn't really worth the battle..

[projectx]

I was a sceptic. But i figured ill give it a go. Whats $50 on a 40k car if it improves something thats really bugging you?? Its not like you remortgaged your house for it.. I never said it was a massive difference, but it does feel a little different. If it is placebo then so be it.. Its done.

[sonicii]

^^ this is pretty much the reason I installed one on my J30 years ago, many people clamied significant improvements, and I figured for a few $$ (I made my own too and is was much less than $50), it is worth the experiement..

[Alkatraz]

The Paddle shift changes in my car sped up a decent amount, especially down shifts which are now almost instant.

In standard auto the car hunts for gears less.

It is still no Ferrari inspired box but definitely improved.

The car is 0% faster.

MPG is EXACTLY the same.

Dozens of people on myg37.com say the same thing.

Dozens also say that their car now has 10hp more and are obviously idiots.

You can quote as many electrical facts to me as you like, explaining why the grounding wires have done ABSOLUTELY nothing and that it is just a worldwide aftermarket parts provider conspiracy. The above are the facts, as I have experienced them, in my car, with my own senses. Whether the skinny grounding wires that Nissan installed are not sufficient and somehow affect the ECU, I do not know. These cars have waaaay too many electrical systems for me to even want to try to comprehend what affects what. All I know is, the grounding wires made a difference and I am happy. End of story for me.

[Tommy Kaira RL]

Ive made up lots of kits and all my customers agree it made a difference. Try looking at the Ecu signals on a CRO you can see how the signal is smoother after the kit was installed. So in that case for example the Ecu wont be trying to adjust everything to signal that isn't constant. I agree it wont give more power but it will make the car feel smoother.

Manufacturers use the smallest earth wire that will still do the job to save on costs.