Thread: How many grounds in the engine bay?

I did a little bit of searching and thought I remembered seeing someone post pictures or diagrams of the grounds in the engine bay.

Anyone have a link to that thread, or could you tell me the grounding points in the engine bay? I'm thinking that my issues are partially related to grounding issues. IIRC, there's only one ground currently hooked up to the motor, and it's the yellow/black wire that's on the thermostat housing.

Shouldn't there be a few more grounds? (other than the two small grounds on top of the intake manifold.)

TIA

Theres one I know of on the alternator and I believe two for the headlights.

Thanks. I know of the alternator ground, but didn't know about any grounds on the headlights.

I'm looking for ground issues right now, as the coolant temp gauge in the cluster flutters when I give the car some healthy revs. Obviously, not having the drivetrain grounded properly can cause everything to fluctuate, including the MAF voltages, etc.

I need to go pick up some new battery terminals tomorrow, and re-do the battery connections.

man theres a ground attached to your exhaust to frame theres a small ground that goes from your tranny to the frame on the driver side theres grounds in your head lights theres the ground that goes from your battery to the frame and then from frame to thersmostat the 2 on your intake.. cant think of anymore

That is correct, Alternator ground gets oxidized very easily too. There are two headlight wires too.



The reason there is a ground from Exhaust to frame is because it is used for the Front O2 Sensor. But if you happen to put an SS piece of metal between that exhaust ground and the O2 Sensor you most likely will run a little rich.

Tekkie,

Here is my grounding diagram and some grounding points.

Full map:


Now the best thing to do would be to also connect Ground Point 7 and Ground Point 8. I've just been lazy to do that haha.

Here is the BEST grounding central point for O2 sensor, MAF, and other important things. This is the ECU ground too.

Here is what the Alternator ground wire looks like:


Funny thing is, it's gold plated and still got oxidized/rusted.


Here is where the passenger side headlight ground is at. I attached the alternator ground to it, and my custom ground that went to the strut tower.



Driver side headlight ground:


I have that ground going to the battery ground:



Battery ground goes here, then it goes to the intake manifold:

I should add, I guess as a rule of thumb, there is no such thing as having too many grounds

So did you guy notice a nice difference in idle and all when you regrounded the stuff? I was thinking about regrounding my car out also.

I think my grounding was in a good condition to begin with so I don't recall noticing any major differences.

I think the headlights got a little brighter hehe.

I still can drop the RPM's by turning on the window motor switch. But that seems to be just a flaw from Nissan hehe.

Something to think about; the moment you stop turning the bolt on the ground, it is on it's way to oxidization. Grab some dielectric grease, and put a dab on your electrical connections. It helps seal them and prevents oxidization, which is only good for continued grounding effectiveness. The dielectric grease is nonconductive (so you ask, why the hell am I putting it on connections I want to improve?), however it migrates easily under mechanical force (i.e. making the connection), yet is temperature stable (-40 t0 400F), so it isn't going to run out until temperatures get REALLY high (in which case, you have other fish to fry at that point), and it provides an O2 free connection.

Darrin