ARE THEY WORTH BOTHERING WITH OR BUYING ANY IDEAS

 

Look trick but a waste of £££. I ditched mine & just used a couple of the wires to replace the originals.

 

total waste of money!

 

Did my car a couple of weekends ago (MY00), wouldn't bother with buying an expensive off the shelf kit, buy some decent cable, ring connectors and adhesive lined heat shrink and make your own. Did my car with 5 poins for less than 20 quid.

Did it make any noticible difference - nope....

 

Agree..

 

I too did a DIY job on it too as for the sake of £20/£30 ir couldn't do any harm and it t all came out pretty tidily if I say so myself. There was a great little guide here: Virgin Media - welcome to PWP but Virgin appear to have changed things or he changed provider, not sure. If I haven't already binned the printed out guide I will scan it in and post later but not hopeful tbh. TALKING WITH CAPS LOCK ON IS STUPID, but I am sure you know that already .

 

Idle was smoother on mine after fitting.

 

Did mine a few weeks back...starting does seem a little better but that could be down to battery charge...

Def does make difference in resistance as I measured over 10-20 ohms drop to battery negative anywhere on the inlet manifold after fitting.

PS made my own kit with 6 connections...

Still not stopped my elec gauge from dancing around though but I think thats due to a poor earth inside the cabin. The ecu (via secs mon) is very steady on reading.

I'd say do it but dont buy a kit.

 

What are these earthing kits, and why do you fit them?
(Now i know its 2 earth the car before any1 says it lol, whats the reason for having a new kit tho?)

 

By adding parallel earth points you reduce the resistance back to the battery. Therefore improving the performance of all the sensors on the engine that tell the ECU what is going on. Which should result in a better running engine. Normally just giving the connections a good cleanup then applying some copper based grease to prevent corrosion should achieve a similar result. If you make your own soldering the connections on rather than crimping will be a better idea as this will not allow any corrosion to develop.

 

Off the top of my head I have them attached to the alternator, left and right sides of the inlet manifold, both shock mounts and never got around to feeding one down to the ecu. I crimped mine and then sunk the solder inside the crimp, sealing off the ends.

 

Im not very good with a soldering iron, would one of the £30 kits off ebay be any good?
Im having issues with lots of error codes on the CEL, Jolly Green Monster sujested my engine my need earthing.

 

 

The earthing kit will have a varying beneficial effect on different cars.
I know that on two of my cars there was a noticable improvement in the earthing as shown by my multi-meter but I cannot say there was any noticable performance improvement.
As the sensors feeding the ECU with information operate at relatively low voltage then any improved earthing has to be a good thing.
I have a kit with gold plated terminals and screws costing around £70 but also made a kit that may do the job just as well costing under £20 and a couple of hours of my time.

 

But if the software on the ECU is configured as such to run with said depleted earth then by contrast isnt improving the earth by lessening resistance and therefore changing the voltages to the ECU a bad thing? Seems pretty bloody obvious to me! I dont think people are seeing the bigger picture.

A) Nobody has ever quoted any performance gains from earthing kits and infact it could be detrimental.
B) It looks stupid
C) Its a waste of your time & money.

So in conclusion.. WHY bother?

 

People do quote performance improvement figures, but more commonly for kits which combine voltage stabilisation PLUS earthing.

Buddy Club Racing Spec Condenser

 

The bigger picture is that with time and varying climatic conditions, not to mention a corrosive environment created by road salt, the earthing on a car can deteriorate over time.

 

1) If your standard earthing is knackered, replace the bits that are knackered. There's nothing particularly wrong with the standard system if it's maintained. If you don't KNOW how the earthing system works. Read up on it first before fiddling with anything else.

2) Merely undoing and retightening the bolts/cables to fit said earthing kit may well do as much for improving conductivity as anything else.

3) Anyone every tried the "cage" mod. i.e. di-electric grease into the sensor connector housings.

4) Even after all of the above, specifically connecting sensitive areas near sensors and/or the ECU may have some benefit.

J.

 

I made my own and fitted it on a Sunday night but didn't 'road test' it . Next morning, late for work I jumped into the car having completely forgotten about the kit and noticed right away that it was a LOT smoother. Well worth it in my case

 

I think ill undo the old 1's clean them and re grease them thn put them back on
What grease whould be recomended?

 

Petrolium...... ie vaseline on the battery terminals


Always remember though when fitting these kits to keep the original battery earth starp fitted,these are not to replace the standard earth that must be retained.... just to improve it.

 

I dont think ill bother with a new kit, just gonna regrease the old straps, ill unscrew them all off the engine and grease um up.