sbuswell

I did search, but did not find what I needed to know. I saw these gold series grounding wires at autozone there were three different types of cables, like sidepost to starter and 2 others I cannot remember for some stupid reason. There were 3 different wires. all were 4 gauge with gold plated connectors. 5 feet a piece. Now I was going to eventually get the HGS, but these cables were $12 a piece so $36 total apposed to $110+ for the HGS, do I need more than 3 connections, I thought it was four and what are the connections referred to as? I thought it was battery to ground near driverside headlight, battery to alternator, battery to starter and battery to chassis. please let me know what a should pick up and if these autozone wires are good quality, they seem to be.

tweedle99

iTrader: (2)

I just make my own from some audio power cable. I just went over some of the existing grounding points, which usually some little 24ga wires, plus I added some additional ones to engine block.

t0ast

I agree - make your own. For the kits, you're just paying for pretty packaging and paying the Autozone's rent. Wire is wire, and you can just buy connectors separately. Try: http://www.knukonceptz.com/ They have good prices, and I haven't had any problems with their amp wiring kit for my sub.

youngBuk

i think its only 3 connections " battery to alternator, battery to starter and battery to chassis

tweedle99

iTrader: (2)

I didn't even do the batter to alternator or starter just to multiple points on the chassis. I connected all my ground serially not "home-run" like most kits.

check out these guys http://www.groundfusion.com/ They were highly recommended on the IS300 forum.

sbuswell

I would rather not crimp the connectors on the wire myself. the ones at autozone aren't expensive. does anyone know the length needed, i think 5ft each would be enough, right?

tweedle99

iTrader: (2)

Here it is, my little diagram when I made my grouding kit.

t0ast

Interesting, they have our forum listed as acura-tl.com, but they don't have a kit specifically made for the TL.

sbuswell

Thanks for the diagram, seems you went all the way and did it right. Any suggestions on replacing neg/pos terminal wires? how hard is it to crimp on a new connector anyway?(I have never done it before.

ou sig

you dont want a crimp on style connector for your main one on your battery - look for a screw on style.

sbuswell

right now I have my pos/neg jerry rigged. negative corroded off so I wedged it in there. I want to put another O-ring connector there, but wire is a stub. Can I use a screw on type connector in this situation and I assume you can buy one at most auto parts stores.

ou sig

you can always just go to AutoZone or somewhere like that and they will help you on the spot & they should have most any connector you need - you want to have good connections everywhere, but especially right at your battery.

tweedle99

iTrader: (2)

Been think about it but havn't have time to execute. Was looking at http://www.knukonceptz.com site and they got a cool battery terminal. It can accomodate 1/0 and 4 ga plus the post on top. Much better than OEM.



Our negative post has 2 wires going out, tranny and grounding post next to it. Was thinking about replacing the one to the tranny w/ 1/0 and the ground post w/ a 4 ga. Then my grounding kit can just be connected via the post on top.

ou sig

sorry, but I really cant follow what you did here at all...

tweedle99

iTrader: (2)

Each number represents a grounding point. Everything is relative due to slight differences in the model year. If you go look under your hood at point 1, there should be a bolt in the frame and so on. I tried to use existing bolt to simplify my installation.

My brother '99 has a lot less stuff under the hood than my '02 TL-S. His grounding points are a little bit different than mine

No 7 is actually a bolt on the Tranny

ou sig

ok thats what I was thinking (sorry but I didnt look very good at my engine before I said that) - I could see most of those, but do you not ground by the driver headlight anymore? and what is the length of these wires? I mean, you say you wired them in series so I assume you take (8) and (6) to ground at (5) on the body. where is (4) and why did you ground at the intake manafold (6)?

sorry bout all the questions, but its just hard to see w/o a real picture. I am probably going to do this pretty soon cause Im kinda bored and it cant hurt - the stock ground wire that goes to the engine block is bare half way down (I have no idea why). I will probably run new power wire from the alternator to the fuse box and then to the battery while I am at it

thanks for the help though

sbuswell

can I just do it simple and go batt/alt, batt/starter, batt/chassis to get a better ground? wouldn't that only be 3 wires?

ou sig

I dont see a ground wire on the alternator...but running one from the battery to the altenator wouldnt be necessary. but the last 2 you mention (same as stock) would be good to do - there is also a ground on the top of the tranny to the body that you could replace. There are others also

sbuswell

i think i will do just batt/starter and batt/chassis and call it quits. also I need to replace connector on negative wire. I believe 20-25 should do it.

tweedle99

iTrader: (2)

No 4 is actually next to the Throttle body. You can do what you think is necessay but I just want to improve the electrical flow inside the engine bay.

Yes you can just do 3 points and be done with. My take on it is that engine is not a one homogenous piece of metal. It is made up of multiple parts of different metal types connected by nuts and bolts and usually w/ gasket in between. Electricity usually seek path of least resistance and having multiple grounding points on the engine should decrease the resistance back to the battery.

sbuswell

I want to replace my negative battery terminal. I was thinking of running 4ga from negative to tranny and then 4ga from negative to mounting post, where is that mounting post? also from positive to chassis, then positive to starter. does this sound right? I was looking at terminals on ebay also and saw some mice ones for 10-15 a piece that have the top post connection with the 4-8ga holes. Should I get 2 new platinum terminals for both pos/neg terminals? also the connections on the terminals I saw just looked like holes how do you connect your wire, is there a screw that comes down and presses the wire to the terminal?

sbuswell

PM sent to tweedle99. Guys I want to get this done today if anyone can answer my stupid questions I would be greatly appreciative. Thanks.

Shaun

tweedle99

iTrader: (2)

It's more like a grounding spot than mounting post. The negative grounding spotis right next to the battery above the driver-side headlight. Just trace the original wires.

Yes, there are a lot of battery terminals out there. It's all depend on your needs, do you have a huge sound system or other accessories which might requires additional connection? Like I said on my earlier post, I like the one on knukonceptz.com. That one has 2 screw-down connection but then it also got a mounting post on top to put whatever on it. IMHO, it's very flixible. Others might have more holes but that's it when you use them all up.

The connection w/ the wires are made w/ the screw you see. Loosen the screw, usually hex key, enough for your wires. Then tighten the screw down when you inserted the wires inside the hole.

sbuswell

I figured it out. I got two Tsunami gold terminals. They look awesome and very easy to use. They use an allen wrench to tighten them. I also upgraded the postive grounds from batt/chassis and batt/engine block, very nice cable was used. It was all pretty easy, but time consuming because engine block ground was hard to get at, but got it done and car now starts faster and stronger, lights seems brighter, stereo seems stronger and car seems to accelerate quicker(better throttle response). Overall seems to have been 35.00 well spent!

extremetls

can 0 guage wire be used to replace the stock wires that go from the battery to the engine and what not?

fsttyms1

Yes but it would be pricy. 4 gauge is more than adiquit. Quality wire is the key

extremetls

i already have some thanks for the info though... wasnt sure if it had to be 4 so i figured i would ask. thanks. now all i need is the groudn terminals.

have any clue how many of those i would need?

fsttyms1

depends on how many you do
from tweedle99 drawing

sbuswell

I just upgraded to 4ga from postive to chassis and positive to engine block and upgraded both top post battery terminals and it seems to have made a nice difference. Car idles smoother(can't feel and hiccups or vibration at all), headlights are a little brighter, stereo is a little clearer and acceleration is smoother and a tad quicker throttle response.

ou sig

you mean the Negative to chassis and engine block (not positive)

extremetls

im not gonna add more, just replace the stock ones...

sbuswell

yes negative my bad. also I cut and stripped the old positive cables and cleaned them up and connected those to the new terminal, much better connection!