Earthing Mod

[wrx182]

OK....did a 3 point earthing last weekend:

1 from negative terminal to driver strut tower

1 from negative terminal to driver's side intake manifold

1 from passenger side intake manifold to passenger strut tower


i notice no difference what-so-ever.

do i have to do 5-point or more for a noticable difference?

[nhluhr]

here in the USA we call it Grounding

[jimb]

But 'earthing' sounds so much more mysterious. The word alone adds horsepower.

-jb

[t.rod]

So it doesn't idle better or anything. hmmm.
Just for fun I'll try this to my RS and see what happens. It cost me $0 cause I have extra wire.

[Frank]

what awg of wire did you use? Maybe it didn't draw enough. 5 is standard i believe. 7 is also popular.

[RiftsWRX]

Perhaps your expecting too much...

I have a very sensative a$$, so I can usually notice little things and changes.. which I did...

But the true test was when my wife and I went out to dinner and, not having mentioned anything beforehand, she asked me if something was different..

I asked her why she'd say that.


She said, because it just feels smoother, like it's working less.



Jorge (RiftsWRX)
www.ProjectWRX.com

[Leonardo]

Where in hell thid this pop up?

Does it really do a difference?

sounds like the "snake oil bottle" to me!

Leo

[Frank]

i posted about this a while ago. The whole theory is that by directly grounding the body to the engine and the chassis you effectively reduce electrical interference to the ECU thus producing better results. The argument is "look how many grounds are already there" but... you can't have enough grounds.

[RiftsWRX]

Well I won't speak for others experiances Leo... but I noticed a good difference in regards to part throttle and mid range smoothness right away.

Jorge (RiftsWRX)
www.ProjectWRX.com

[Frank]

jorge, which wire did you end up using?

[Altered BeasT]

heheheHAHAH

Yeah, I have another mod even cheaper and more noticable. Put a dab of vasoline petroleum jelly on the center of your rear liscense plate. This does 2 things:
makes it much harder for cops to get a good radar reflection to see your speed, and also draws air from behind you to help push for better gas mileage and acceleration.

I tried the alien mod once, where you throw an alien in the back seat to help the car's cornering. It was great, but he was really pi$$ed and it almost resulted in a global incident.

For real though guys, I'm not going to 100% doubt this helps cause I'm a very open minded person. I just don't think a 2002 model performance car would come from the factory with poor grounding and resulting in ECU interference. Of all the design and tests and $ spent, grounding is always an over kill cause it's cheap and easy. Just probe the engine block to the chassis reading voltage and rev the car, if you're getting any voltage maybe it does need another ground. This been done? Maybe poor design on where it's grounded? Close to a sensor it's having an effect on? Jorge, maybe with all the work you're done on your car, removing bolts and brackets you ending up hurting the factory grounding.

There's hundreds of people that will swear the tornado air intake spiral thing adds power. I even got one to try it out years ago (over 4 years ago). I'll just say, it was dyno proven to hurt power if anything. Others showed the same results even after they noted it feeling like it had more response and power.....

[anotherB4]

http://i-club.com/forums/showthread....hreadid=113196

Good luck!!

[Frank]

its not that its poor, it just doesn't eliminate all interference. Just like the Factory exhaust doesn't relieve all backpressure. Thats why you upgrade the exhaust. Just like your car comes from the factory with xx.xx degrees of toe and camber. It's not perfect, you can change the camber by getting a performance alignment and changing the spec. every little bit helps right.

[bongo]

so will this keep me from getting shocked every freakin' time i get out of my car?

[mitch808]

Originally posted by Altered BeasT
heheheHAHAH

Yeah, I have another mod even cheaper and more noticable. Put a dab of vasoline petroleum jelly on the center of your rear liscense plate. This does 2 things:
makes it much harder for cops to get a good radar reflection to see your speed, and also draws air from behind you to help push for better gas mileage and acceleration.

I tried the alien mod once, where you throw an alien in the back seat to help the car's cornering. It was great, but he was really pi$$ed and it almost resulted in a global incident.

Sarcasm is not appreciated by me.

For real though guys, I'm not going to 100% doubt this helps cause I'm a very open minded person. I just don't think a 2002 model performance car would come from the factory with poor grounding and resulting in ECU interference. Of all the design and tests and $ spent, grounding is always an over kill cause it's cheap and easy. Just probe the engine block to the chassis reading voltage and rev the car, if you're getting any voltage maybe it does need another ground. This been done? Maybe poor design on where it's grounded? Close to a sensor it's having an effect on? Jorge, maybe with all the work you're done on your car, removing bolts and brackets you ending up hurting the factory grounding.

you think it's cheap? Imagine building 20k + cars, the cost adds up so just the bare minimum can keep over all costs down. I'm sure they skimped on the grounding as with all manufacturers.

There's hundreds of people that will swear the tornado air intake spiral thing adds power. I even got one to try it out years ago (over 4 years ago). I'll just say, it was dyno proven to hurt power if anything. Others showed the same results even after they noted it feeling like it had more response and power.....

No argument there, it's snake oil.

[Altered BeasT]

Originally posted by mitch808
you think it's cheap? Imagine building 20k + cars, the cost adds up so just the bare minimum can keep over all costs down. I'm sure they skimped on the grounding as with all manufacturers.

Yes, I think it's cheap. To add a couple more ground cables to the WRX at the factory would take nil time in R&D and at most $3 a car for parts. For 20K cars, that's $60,000 in parts and R&D would probably be nothing because they already spent the $ on R&D to design it in the 1st place with I guarantee plenty of data to make a case if it was an issue. They could have saved much more $ on eliminating a couple of not needed clips, not to mention that sun visor above the rear view mirror. I really doubt they skimped on it. Like I said though, I'm open minded about it, I just like to look at it as a whole, that way I'm not fooled by a suger pill. That kit that anotherB4 linked to looks like a chance to make money once you've convinced people.

[Altered BeasT]

Sarcasm is not appreciated by me.

waaa, next please.

[jimb]

I'd scream bloody murder too, but only if I saw a vendor or something selling a kit touting big increases. The truth of the matter is it's free, so there really isn't any loss in trying it out. Works, than fine, doesn't work, no loss.

-jb

[RiftsWRX]

exactly :/



Jorge (RiftsWRX)
www.ProjectWRX.com

[wrx182]

i used 4 gauge wire

if i wanted to add 2 more leads...where would they come from and go to?

thanks.

[anotherB4]

Where did that come from???

Did you - ALtered BeasT - actually read the thread?

High end audio shops have been grounding/earthing stuff for ages, and in this case it is not being sold as one of those megapower upgrades. The pics were posted by others - not by myself anyway...

Sorry if you aren't interested...and have nothing to offer the discussion by way of constructive input...

Peace y'all.

<sits back, enjoying snake oil, warm and cozy in flame suit >

[Altered BeasT]

Originally posted by anotherB4
Where did that come from???

Did you - ALtered BeasT - actually read the thread?

High end audio shops have been grounding/earthing stuff for ages, and in this case it is not being sold as one of those megapower upgrades. The pics were posted by others - not by myself anyway...

Sorry if you aren't interested...and have nothing to offer the discussion by way of constructive input...

Peace y'all.

<sits back, enjoying snake oil, warm and cozy in flame suit >

All I said was the kit in the pic you linked looks like a CHANCE to make $. Someone builds up hype and puts together a $1 kit to make a few hundred. Had nothing to do with you, or anything written in the post, I commented on the looks of the kit in the pic.
I know about high end stereo shops. I worked for Warehouse Electronics in Yuma, AZ for years installing while I was collecting college credits and was playing Marine I didn't just throw grounds on brand new cars coming in, or even consider it. I did have to ground older cars due to problems with existing factory ones.
I never said I wasn't interested, I said I was open minded about it. I'm not one to jump on everything like this though. I'm pretty sure it would do nothing for me, but I'm welcoming someone to prove me wrong. Yeah, what would it hurt to do it anyways? Well, what does it hurt to walk around a ladder to avoid bad luck? Not much effort, but I'll walk right under it because I'm not easily influenced by what someone says =)
How could it be proved, well, someone would have to measure voltage from the chassis to the block. Also monitor the sensors before and after for a difference. It's all good, but this would be almost more fitting under the rumor forum. Just a newbie though.

[jimb]

I think the common thread running through here is not to go buy anything, instead, find someone with some scrap cable, maybe get a nice set of bling bling battery terminals and try it. Don't spend more than 15 bucks.

-jb

[Ken Levin]

So - has anyone done a before and after voltage reading??

Happy Motoring!

[shirokuma]

Originally posted by Altered BeasT

How could it be proved, well, someone would have to measure voltage from the chassis to the block. Also monitor the sensors before and after for a difference. It's all good, but this would be almost more fitting under the rumor forum. Just a newbie though.

Hello newbie.

Somebody has measured it out, over several different cars. There was a difference. In fact, Subaru believed it warranted fixing - if you look at a D revision B4 vs. a A, B, and C revision B4 legacy, the grounding wires on the intake manifold were increased in size by 300%. And one of the first Subaru STI WRX's (current model) had a hand-made, beefier grounding system put in by STI - we found this out when we checked it.

Now, of course this could be an attempt to sell you wiring with connectors - I mean, 3 separate pro tuning shops now sell wiring kits - but for some reason, we posted information on how to do it yourself for $15, and pointed out that there was no reason that there would be any difference between a DIY and a "pro" job other than bragging rights to say you burnt through your cash to do it. There must be something sneakier going on, though. The Truth Is Out There.

But, I think you just read the message and spit something out without checking in to it, to be honest. Good luck on your posting, but don't be surprised if people here don't take you very seriously for a while.

Paul Hansen