Report on electrical system improvements

yendor

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone.

I can now specifically report about the installation of a Stiffening cap and grounding in my E46.

Here is a list of what's installed:
a. 2x 4GA ground cables in the engine bay
b. 2x 4GA ground cables in boot for battery
c. 1x 1Farad capacitor across battery terminals

I can safely say that got not much diff in terms of performance but the car starts like it is on steroids... The starter just cranks like crazy and the engine kicks into life really fast.

So far i have measured the fuel consumption and there is no marked difference.

I have a feeling that for a new E46, the grounding does not give that much of a difference but for an older car perhaps there may be greater gains as the negative terminals may have some corrossion and such. When i measured the voltage drop across the chassis and battery terminal, the reading was <250mv when cranking before the cables. After cables, the losses dropped to <50mv so not really very exciting..... :|

So much so for now..... :)
 
Rodney,

2 point for engine bay is definitely not enuf la...

I have done quite a few cars and we can feel the diff...

U r a hands on guy so u should remove the engine cap on top to tap another point from the ignition coil, take another one near the alternator and one near the DME box area.

If u r fussy enuf, trunk a cable from the battery to the front and connect up everything, i would say u will get more diff... I will be more than willing to show u my setup if u r interested... :thumbsup:
 
Had my old E36 323 done by Alan. Agree that I felt the diff. Good job bro! Many thanks for going out of your way to do the grounding for me.
 
Hi Alan.

I am a little skeptical about the running of long cables as the resistance increases with length. The aluminium block of the engine is pretty huge chunk of metal and it's resistance is virtually zero. I am not too sure about the performance gain cos I am quite lead footed. :silenced:

So cannot quantify if there is a real performance advantage. Car is smooth as always (also quite new too..) The points that you mentioned are pretty close to where i have located my cables... perhaps a little meetup is in order? :)

The grounding was done at home.... DIY type.
 
The engine block might be a big chunk of metal but don forget the negative pole of the battery is only clipped to the metal bodywork next to the battery. Not forgetting that the bodywork is also painted which again increases resistance.

With the battery located at the boot, unlike most car, that is in the engine compartment, the resistance will built up.

What i did was to run a similiar size cable as the positive cable to the engine bay, creates a connection point and hook all cable to this point and then there will be a direct transfer back to the battery at the rear.

As for the rear, especially those whith ice setup, try to connect the negative pole to the battery directly instead of plugging to the chassis cos i have measure that between the battery and the tyre well, it runs a 24ohm of resistance ??? dunno how and why that happened so i grounded my trunk as well kekeke.....

Anyway, PM me the time and place and we can have a chat about this... I still got my wire cutter and wire clipper at home collecting dust, u can always use it if u want....

If i got time, i will do a write up on wat i have done....

Cheers...
 
piggyboyz said:
The engine block might be a big chunk of metal but don forget the negative pole of the battery is only clipped to the metal bodywork next to the battery. Not forgetting that the bodywork is also painted which again increases resistance.

With the battery located at the boot, unlike most car, that is in the engine compartment, the resistance will built up.

What i did was to run a similiar size cable as the positive cable to the engine bay, creates a connection point and hook all cable to this point and then there will be a direct transfer back to the battery at the rear.

As for the rear, especially those whith ice setup, try to connect the negative pole to the battery directly instead of plugging to the chassis cos i have measure that between the battery and the tyre well, it runs a 24ohm of resistance ??? dunno how and why that happened so i grounded my trunk as well kekeke.....

Anyway, PM me the time and place and we can have a chat about this... I still got my wire cutter and wire clipper at home collecting dust, u can always use it if u want....

If i got time, i will do a write up on wat i have done....

Cheers...

Bro,
When you going for my MINI?
Put place put time........

Cheers!
:)
 
I had additional grounding done for my previous old car (9 years E200) and the result was obvious from the bright headlight. But for my new E46, I did wonder if there will be any difference. The fact that the battery is in the boot does make it appear reasonable that a direct negative cable should be brought to the front.

Mr Piggyboyz, how thick should this cable be? Is there a convenient hole to put it through the firewall?

Maybe a kopi-meet would be interesting. Seeing is believing.
 
I have mine done from batt to engine bay too.. using a 50A rated cable. but would like to see your setup of where to ground the necessary components where i missed out.. :)
Points which i have grounded..
ignition coils 1 & 6 (double insulated)
aircon compressor
alternator
chassis
ECU compartment (impt)
both headlight support
engine block
idle control valve

I have even tried using ferrite coils to isolate high freq noises from the engine sensors... :screwedu: however, it loses power!! signal too clean.. hahaha

I am sure many bros will wanna meetup to discuss about grounding tips!
Or shall we wait for your write-up with pics to show which are the impt points to ground?

cheers..
Adrian



piggyboyz said:
The engine block might be a big chunk of metal but don forget the negative pole of the battery is only clipped to the metal bodywork next to the battery. Not forgetting that the bodywork is also painted which again increases resistance.

With the battery located at the boot, unlike most car, that is in the engine compartment, the resistance will built up.

What i did was to run a similiar size cable as the positive cable to the engine bay, creates a connection point and hook all cable to this point and then there will be a direct transfer back to the battery at the rear.

As for the rear, especially those whith ice setup, try to connect the negative pole to the battery directly instead of plugging to the chassis cos i have measure that between the battery and the tyre well, it runs a 24ohm of resistance ??? dunno how and why that happened so i grounded my trunk as well kekeke.....

Anyway, PM me the time and place and we can have a chat about this... I still got my wire cutter and wire clipper at home collecting dust, u can always use it if u want....

If i got time, i will do a write up on wat i have done....

Cheers...
 
Additional Grounding Points

If Piggyboyz is availalbe, I suggest two options:

(a) Have a meeting at Kallang next weekend, or

(b) Wait for end March meeting and organise a special corner so that more people are around to benefit from the 'briefing'. Have a tag on top of your car roof, see pix below.
 
ok guys....

i really don mind showing wat i have done on my cars.. next sunday sounds good as well but Kallang is a bad choice, somewhere indoor will be better...

I suggest some HDB MSCP if possible so that we can avoid the scorching sun or rain...

Let me thnk of a good place and i will post details ASAP... :)

Those who wish to DIY things like changing spark plugs, re-gapping or changing air filter or doing extra air intake to the car etc can come along as well.. will be glad to tell whatever i know..

:)
 

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