proper grounding technique in automotive

I wouldn't buy "faster response to drive-by-wire," amd things like "brighter headlights" are only going to be a very small improvement (assuming there are no *faults* in the system), but radio reception might improve due to a reduction of RFI.

They use star washers that "bite" through the paint when they're properly torqued down. You also might find that, if you remove the nuts or bolts, there's an area that was masked so that you are getting a solid ground, you just can't see it.

----Joel

You are assuming that the engineers who design cars are stupid. I don't think that's so. The "less static shock" thing is beyond silly.

Which cars are drive-by-wire?

John

A380?

martin

Fly-by-miswire.

John

Not stupid but they don't always seem to come up with the smartest solution. Had a European version of the Plymouth Horizon when I was young. The alternator mount broke numerous times, usually in the dead of night out in the boonies. Replaced the whole darn thing with steel members and bingo, problem solved. Then after the umpteenth water pump took a dump, usually also way out in the boonies, I retrofitted one in that had ball bearings. Never took a dump again. And the retail cost of that pump was almost exactly the same as the one from Chrysler. The licensed tech there, BTW, told me that "you can't do that". Oh really...

Apparently not all cars have this star washers, I have already identified mazda and toyota doesn't use this star washers. I disassmbled them just today. I imagine there should be serrations on the washers and contacting plane as commonlu used on many consumer electronic products, plus the surfaces of consumer products are not painted.

========================================================== They use star washers that "bite" through the paint when they're properly

Woah, slow down I never wanted to give that suggestion that engineers are stupid. I'm thinking there is a mis communication between design and manufacturing. I think that grounding on a solid unpainted surface is the way to go or the star washer. But as for what I can see on 2 cars now there are no solid contact. Even the ground screw threads on the body is painted.

My concern is the grounding on the painted surface, the drive by wire, brighter lamps, reception and static shocks are not important. If the intention is to ground the battery on the painted surface can it be compensated by thicker wires or larger screws by the designer?

========================================================== You are assuming that the engineers who design cars are stupid. I

assuming that the engineers who design cars are stupid. I

Some of the luxury cars have drive-by-wire throttles. [Mercedes, Infiniti, maybe Lexus] Now the notion that fiddling with the ground would improve this is on shakey ground.

It's always a good idea to replace the ground cables from the battery, though you could probably clean up the ends. [For production vehicles, I buy new cables. For the antiques, you clean them up. Yeah, Caigs DeOxit.]

paint-cutting washers, non-painted nuts and studs screwed into nuts welded to the body,

Hilarious, but hogwash.

Improve electronic efficiency? We've had audiophools, now we have automophools [tm].

The earth connections made at manufacture may not even be ordinarily visible apart from the battery and alternator.

Modern vehicles provide earth to various connectors (Mercedes calls this their 'body builder' connections) that are derived from a bus bar approach.

Factory fit equipment gets installed and connected with solid power (both power and earth) connections that I don't think you'll be able to improve upon.

Secondary market equipment might not use an earth point (a bolt into the chassis) and doesn't on at least 14 types of vehicle I personally know of (the equipment I designed is fitted in them) but gets all power from the connectors mentioned above. On some vehicles, direct grounding of equipment is prohibited [fuel tankers for example] and there's even a spec for it.

So the bottom line is 'No, these grounding kits are a way to part fools from their money'.

Cheers

PeteS

I wasn't asking about the grounding wire kits & electronic efficiency tiger. I'm asking if it's good to connect the ground contacts on the painted surface of a cars body, I'm not talking about the after market grounding kits but the original connections from Toyota and Mazda (at least these 2 brands I have seen)

let me rephrase my question. On my Toyota and my friends Mazda, I found that the negative battery terminal is connected to the painted surface of the cars body. It's my knowledge that electrical connections on a painted surface is not a very good practice, or is there a way that the Toyota or Mazda are able to connect them without any impact to the electronic devices. As earier mentioned there are no star washer or any serrations on the connectors as well.

================================================= Hilarious, but hogwash.

"EdV" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com:

snip

off hand, wire connects to bolt and bolt connects to metal chasis.

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