Yes they do. The stock grounding on the EVO is...well ***. It costs $10 to do - $20 to make it look nice with gold connectors and the like. Takes all of 20 minutes.

 

I think it was UMiami80 on this board that showed me. Before the grounding kit, his voltmeter would read 12-13 volts and would fluctuate with the accessories on. After the grounding kit, it held 14 volts with less fluctuation.

 

How can you equate a better ground with more horsepower, anyway? If we were driving electric cars, you might have something.

But the sensors that make the engine do fun things (cam angle, crank angle, etc...) are all digital. They are either on or off. No in-betweens. A better ground won't change anything with those sensors.

If you were getting misfires, then a better ground might help you out in the ignition department. But if you aren't getting misfires, then you don't have a problem to solve. Higher voltage to the ignition isn't going to make a difference in the combustion chamber, unless you weren't getting any ignition in the first place. But chances are if you weren't getting ignition, you have bigger problems than your ground.

Don't get me wrong, good grounding is important. But every car sold these days has good grounding. We aren't driving 15 year old VWs.

 

^^^
did you read the post above you... it is proven by testing that our grounds suck. call it whatever you want... my idle is a lot better when the car is cold... I won't go as far as to say the car is faster or much better, but I do think things are a little better in a very unscientific way.

 

i believe they work in the sense that it provides better current flow TO the grounding points not directly making more HP. i made my own kit utilizing soldered ends and self sealing shrink tubing to help prevent oxidation to the 8 gauge wiring i used. think of it as a direct link between the "field" of the battery and the grounding point.

if anyone has noticed, the grounding points have several smaller wires going to them-meaning that each one may have a separate current draw. by providing a direct connection from the battery, you will achieve a better current flow.

shortest path=less resistance

another way to think of it is-once the car is started, the alternator will take over and charge the vehicle. their is a "field" that the alternator generates to charge the battery. the field is the negative and positive field. current flows from the negative side to the positive side-if im not mistaken. this gets into electronic theory...any engineers should chime in about now...you should see an increase in voltage/resistance by "upgrading" your grounding points directly and it would provide a better flow/current to each item. remember like it was said earlier in a post-it is a circuit and needs to be a complete circle in order for it to operate properly.


So with the question of "do they really work?" dont see why it couldnt help. i noticed a shorter start up time for my car. it only takes a half a crank to fire up instead of the two and a half cranks before.

also, quite a few of these kits are UNIVERSAL and not car specific. i made mine car specific and it is not a bunch of wires hanging out all over the engine bay looking like spider man had spun a web like most kits out there. nice, neat, and tucked away-have to look for it. i have plenty of pics of the install and on my car if anyone is interested.

happy boosting...

 

I have ground wires. They do work.

- My headlights are brighter
- idle is better
- mpg has gone up by an average of 20 miles per tank
- the power delivery under acceleration is a tiny bit smoother with less hesitation.

I do not feel any difference in the hp/tq .... but then again, I wasn't expecting to.

- Jason

 

You really need to learn a couple things about basic electronics and electricity before making statements like this. Having a lousy/faulty ground can most definitely cause a drop in HP. Digital components that operate on +5vdc and ground will not operate effectively if they are only seeing +4vdc due to a bad ground. If your ground reference is sitting at +1vdc and your "high" is at +5vdc then you have only a 4vdc delta/difference which will cause some electronic devices to not function correctly.

Now...

IF the stock grounding locations are indeed "bad", or not as good as they could be, then in theory there could be HP gains found from "fixing" the grounds with better wire, better connectors, and better ground points. Probably not much HP though. You would more than likely only see a benefit in your electronic devices (lights, stereo, etc) There could also be a "ground loop" problem, but I dont know much about this so I wont comment further.

SO... in theory, this grounding kit will "help" Just don't expect enough WHP to make your car noticably faster.

and, to those of you who referenced "dyno proven results" from a grounding kit...only believe the "dyno results" if it's YOUR CAR on the dyno and you actually did a before-and-after pull on the same day, same temp, same tuner, same underwear, same socks, etc...

 

The only difference I saw with the ground wires on my car was the HID's were a lot brighter and that is it.. Nothing more.. cars not any quicker, doesn't start any better, doesn't give better acceleration..just the lights..
The only neutral comment came when my brother drove the car and came back asking me whether I thought the lights were brighter..not knowing bout the ground wires..

 

Tests like lights being brighter, and cars idling better can also be a function of the weather outside, and other factors. Its just too subjective. You all have points, but quantifying those improvements is really difficult.

Again, I have some previous posts on grounding, there is a lot of good information there.

In order to get a good analysis done, the car would have to undergo EMI type testing. They would try to quantify the noise all the sensors see in the car, and the subsequent reactions the eletronics would operate with given a more 'noisy' system.

From personal experience, most cars don't have a lot of 'good' ground points anyways. I bet if I were to take off all my ground locations, and 'clean' and even 'plate' the connectors, I'd see an improvement. Is it worth a 30 to 50 buck improvement? Well that's for the 'market' (supply/demand) to decide.

What I don't see in cars a lot (EVO included) is a star ground type connection. This helps reduce a couple of errors called ground loops, and helping not have a 'ground' loops (which is a ground that is above or below another ground point in voltage) can help sensors really tell what's going on. Also ... sensor mounting is a good thing to do. A little anti-sneeze will help the threads not 'oxidize' over and cause grounding problems.

Most of the time, you're not going to see a 'ground' improvement with a DC meter. They just don't see 'enough' of the frequencies that could actually be having an issue.

Cheers,

jcnel.

 

So here's a question ... when I relocate my battery to the trunk, where should I ground it, and should I learn how to implement a star ground type connection to get the best possible grounding?

l8r)

 

Wow, I thought I was the only one who noticed something in the bedroom! They sure worked fine for my European wife giving it up much more when she was in the car.

They don't call it a hummer for nothing!