Grounding Kit question
There is no empirical anything behind the theory and reasoning of grounding kits. All the evidence of a change in vehicle behavior is anecdotal and hearsay. In all the research I've done on the subject, in all the threads and articles, the car guys say it's sliced bread and all the electrical engineers say it's ridiculous hooey.
Grounding kits may come in handy if you are having noise or other audio interference issues, but other than that, everything I've seen says there's no other reasonable or valid reason to do it.
There's nothing wrong with Nissan's engineering on ground points. It seems ludicrous to imagine that Nissan's engineers (and everybody else) wouldn't incorporate a design enhancement that would literally cost them pennies into their manufacturing process if it actually offered all of these amazing enhancements. Manufacturers don't do a lot of things to engines and components primarily because it costs too much money to meet the price point of a vehicle set in the manufacturing process - this 'mod' doesn't fulfill that criteria, so there must be another reason why Nissan doesn't include this on all new vehicles - perhaps because it doesn't work?
Anyway, this is the one of the long running back-n-forths in the mod world. People who like them won't be swayed by my post, and people who are skeptical already agree, so I'll just shut it down. If they aren't hurting anything then who am I to say anything, I suppose.
Grounding kits may come in handy if you are having noise or other audio interference issues, but other than that, everything I've seen says there's no other reasonable or valid reason to do it.
There's nothing wrong with Nissan's engineering on ground points. It seems ludicrous to imagine that Nissan's engineers (and everybody else) wouldn't incorporate a design enhancement that would literally cost them pennies into their manufacturing process if it actually offered all of these amazing enhancements. Manufacturers don't do a lot of things to engines and components primarily because it costs too much money to meet the price point of a vehicle set in the manufacturing process - this 'mod' doesn't fulfill that criteria, so there must be another reason why Nissan doesn't include this on all new vehicles - perhaps because it doesn't work?
Anyway, this is the one of the long running back-n-forths in the mod world. People who like them won't be swayed by my post, and people who are skeptical already agree, so I'll just shut it down. If they aren't hurting anything then who am I to say anything, I suppose.
Last edited by ozzypriest; Dec 9, 2009 at 01:09 AM.
lol everyone is an electronic eng. oh wait I am. lol. it will and does help. If I had a dollar for all the alarms and issues I get on my drilling rig caused by wrong grounding or improper cable size i would be rich.
Oh I forgot. My sliderule says it makes things better for everyone but you. 
There is no empirical anything behind the theory and reasoning of grounding kits. All the evidence of a change in vehicle behavior is anecdotal and hearsay. In all the research I've done on the subject, in all the threads and articles, the car guys say it's sliced bread and all the electrical engineers say it's ridiculous hooey.
Grounding kits may come in handy if you are having noise or other audio interference issues, but other than that, everything I've seen says there's no other reasonable or valid reason to do it.
There's nothing wrong with Nissan's engineering on ground points. It seems ludicrous to imagine that Nissan's engineers (and everybody else) wouldn't incorporate a design enhancement that would literally cost them pennies into their manufacturing process if it actually offered all of these amazing enhancements. Manufacturers don't do a lot of things to engines and components primarily because it costs too much money to meet the price point of a vehicle set in the manufacturing process - this 'mod' doesn't fulfill that criteria, so there must be another reason why Nissan doesn't include this on all new vehicles - perhaps because it doesn't work?
Anyway, this is the one of the long running back-n-forths in the mod world. People who like them won't be swayed by my post, and people who are skeptical already agree, so I'll just shut it down. If they aren't hurting anything then who am I to say anything, I suppose.
Grounding kits may come in handy if you are having noise or other audio interference issues, but other than that, everything I've seen says there's no other reasonable or valid reason to do it.
There's nothing wrong with Nissan's engineering on ground points. It seems ludicrous to imagine that Nissan's engineers (and everybody else) wouldn't incorporate a design enhancement that would literally cost them pennies into their manufacturing process if it actually offered all of these amazing enhancements. Manufacturers don't do a lot of things to engines and components primarily because it costs too much money to meet the price point of a vehicle set in the manufacturing process - this 'mod' doesn't fulfill that criteria, so there must be another reason why Nissan doesn't include this on all new vehicles - perhaps because it doesn't work?
Anyway, this is the one of the long running back-n-forths in the mod world. People who like them won't be swayed by my post, and people who are skeptical already agree, so I'll just shut it down. If they aren't hurting anything then who am I to say anything, I suppose.
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Joined: Jul 2009
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From: Rocky Mountains
or 
or 
. Oh, and I noticed something about Black Betty and grounding kits...buy'em. I did & they work. 7AT shifts better, car pulls harder and idle is rock solid now. My newish x now squeals em on throttle exiting corners and chirps em 1 to 2 on straights...and it aint a tire thing. Doesn't add horsie's..just uses them better. If only someone would buy a set for the smiley's above. Oh, and didn't notice any difference in the audio...but the X cranks faster on start and LED's osscilate much quicker.
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Last edited by G37Sam; Dec 9, 2009 at 06:07 PM.
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From: Miami
I have an elaboration of my own...and this is where the whole concept of grounding kits first started.
There is definitely some benefit. How much I don't know, it would need to be measured at various spots located through out the chassis.
Your car rides on tires and so your electrical system is contained within your car. Your chassis itself is composed of various components of Aluminum, steel, zinc, magnesium, nylon, urethane, other hopefull exotic materials bla bla. All of these elements have an electrical resistance that are uniquely different and definitely greater resistance than Betty's copper wire. So with an inadequate or minimal grounding network you'll effectively have floating pools of various grounding points each of which have a specific shortest path of least resistance to the Current Sensor connected to the Battery Negative.
If every single electrical sensor connects back to the battery you'll have to have a hole in your firewall the size of a sewage pipe.
The grounding kit adds additional premium cabling to your existing wiring ( which every manufacturing process tries to minimize due to cost and time). This grounding kit will balance all the grounding locations and provide a definitive and fixed low resistance path back to the Battery Negative from all localized grounding points. This will allow all analog sensors (and there are many) that depend on a reference voltage-level to work more accurately amongst each other with lesser surges and fluctuations.
There is definitely some benefit. How much I don't know, it would need to be measured at various spots located through out the chassis.
Your car rides on tires and so your electrical system is contained within your car. Your chassis itself is composed of various components of Aluminum, steel, zinc, magnesium, nylon, urethane, other hopefull exotic materials bla bla. All of these elements have an electrical resistance that are uniquely different and definitely greater resistance than Betty's copper wire. So with an inadequate or minimal grounding network you'll effectively have floating pools of various grounding points each of which have a specific shortest path of least resistance to the Current Sensor connected to the Battery Negative.
If every single electrical sensor connects back to the battery you'll have to have a hole in your firewall the size of a sewage pipe.
The grounding kit adds additional premium cabling to your existing wiring ( which every manufacturing process tries to minimize due to cost and time). This grounding kit will balance all the grounding locations and provide a definitive and fixed low resistance path back to the Battery Negative from all localized grounding points. This will allow all analog sensors (and there are many) that depend on a reference voltage-level to work more accurately amongst each other with lesser surges and fluctuations.
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 273
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From: Council Bluffs Iowa
I have an elaboration of my own...and this is where the whole concept of grounding kits first started.
There is definitely some benefit. How much I don't know, it would need to be measured at various spots located through out the chassis.
Your car rides on tires and so your electrical system is contained within your car. Your chassis itself is composed of various components of Aluminum, steel, zinc, magnesium, nylon, urethane, other hopefull exotic materials bla bla. All of these elements have an electrical resistance that are uniquely different and definitely greater resistance than Betty's copper wire. So with an inadequate or minimal grounding network you'll effectively have floating pools of various grounding points each of which have a specific shortest path of least resistance to the Current Sensor connected to the Battery Negative.
If every single electrical sensor connects back to the battery you'll have to have a hole in your firewall the size of a sewage pipe.
The grounding kit adds additional premium cabling to your existing wiring ( which every manufacturing process tries to minimize due to cost and time). This grounding kit will balance all the grounding locations and provide a definitive and fixed low resistance path back to the Battery Negative from all localized grounding points. This will allow all analog sensors (and there are many) that depend on a reference voltage-level to work more accurately amongst each other with lesser surges and fluctuations.
There is definitely some benefit. How much I don't know, it would need to be measured at various spots located through out the chassis.
Your car rides on tires and so your electrical system is contained within your car. Your chassis itself is composed of various components of Aluminum, steel, zinc, magnesium, nylon, urethane, other hopefull exotic materials bla bla. All of these elements have an electrical resistance that are uniquely different and definitely greater resistance than Betty's copper wire. So with an inadequate or minimal grounding network you'll effectively have floating pools of various grounding points each of which have a specific shortest path of least resistance to the Current Sensor connected to the Battery Negative.
If every single electrical sensor connects back to the battery you'll have to have a hole in your firewall the size of a sewage pipe.
The grounding kit adds additional premium cabling to your existing wiring ( which every manufacturing process tries to minimize due to cost and time). This grounding kit will balance all the grounding locations and provide a definitive and fixed low resistance path back to the Battery Negative from all localized grounding points. This will allow all analog sensors (and there are many) that depend on a reference voltage-level to work more accurately amongst each other with lesser surges and fluctuations.
clean power will provide more accurate voltage to sensors and
voltage sensitive circuts than grounding will. Seems to me that
if a voltage sensitive circut is not getting the proper voltage, grounding
it will not fix the problem as you infer. If grounding is a real concern, it's
easy enough to weld a couple lengths of chain to the rear axle
and let them drag on the pavement. That will insure proper
grounding but don't drive in lightning storms. Maybe if you put in a new
"premium" battery and a better than stock "premium" voltage regulator
and "premium fusses", then rewire the entire car with "additional
premium cable" someone could do a cost/benefit analysis and
tell us what we already know.....it costs a lot and no other benefits
could be measured other than it looks cool. Do you guys really
think that considering the complexity of electrical systems in
modern automobiles, the engineers are not adequately grounding
components? Very interesting thread. Ozzy' pretty much summed it up.
