Got Ground?

[VTEC_Inside]

I swear, you want to learn how to fix cars, pick up an old one and a good shop manual...

Still recovering from my last water infiltration episode...

I go to drive the Accord yesterday and every time I stepped on the brake pedal, the radio cuts out, the headlights flicker, the battery light flicks on, the door locks cycle, all for a split second... I'm like oh.. really... Nothing says bad ground like that now does it...

For whatever reason, other than referencing what seems to be like 12 different ground points (total), they are not located via diagrams in the shop manual...

Fortunately this was a really easy one, I wiggled the main ground off the battery and it was fine today. I'm going to be replacing all 3 underhood grounds now.

[Danish]

What do you mean by "wiggled the main ground off the battery"?

[280Z Turbo]

We had a bad ground on our Honda CRX racecar right before a race.

It had all those symptoms but we couldn't figure it out. We dropped the gas tank (for some reason), checked all the wiring, fuses, etc. It took us hours to clean a dirty ground cable next to the battery.

It's amazing what 1 engineering grad student and 3 engineers to-be can't figure out.

[S204STi]

Electricity is fun! 

[VTEC_Inside]

What do you mean by "wiggled the main ground off the battery"?

I've never really looked at where it goes, so I followed it off the battery to where it mounts to the chassis. I gave the wire a tug at the battery end and the chassis point to see if it was flat out broken or something. It was in one piece so I hopped in to drive home and the car was fine again.

[Danish]

I've never really looked at where it goes, so I followed it off the battery to where it mounts to the chassis. I gave the wire a tug at the battery end and the chassis point to see if it was flat out broken or something. It was in one piece so I hopped in to drive home and the car was fine again.

Oh.... of course.... you wiggled the main ground line coming off the battery

[Nebtek2002]

Don't ignore the positive side of the battery.

I had much the same problem that was actually a bad solder joint in the positive battery cable to the starter solenoid.

I cleaned both ends of both cables--the ground to the engine was a bit cruddy, but the other 3 ends LOOKED good.

A couple days later, the symptoms came back.

The car lacked an underhood light, so I turned on the dome light and squinted through the gap between the hood and cowl as I wiggled  all the wires. Wiggling the positive @ the starter made the dome light flicker.

The positive cable's starter end looked good, but when I split open the insulation, the starter end nearly fell off the cable.

Good hunting!

[VTEC_Inside]

Don't ignore the positive side of the battery.

I had much the same problem that was actually a bad solder joint in the positive battery cable to the starter solenoid.

I cleaned both ends of both cables--the ground to the engine was a bit cruddy, but the other 3 ends LOOKED good.

A couple days later, the symptoms came back.

The car lacked an underhood light, so I turned on the dome light and squinted through the gap between the hood and cowl as I wiggled  all the wires. Wiggling the positive @ the starter made the dome light flicker.

The positive cable's starter end looked good, but when I split open the insulation, the starter end nearly fell off the cable.

Good hunting!

Good idea. I've got a crystalline mountain forming around the positive terminal as it is.

I'm going to get some 4guage wire and cable ends tomorrow to make up new grounding cables and maybe add another. Will add some RED wire to the shopping list now.

[VTEC_Inside]

You would think it would be easy to find 4 guage wire along with some ring ends...

I got a couple rather ricey looking battery terminal fittings/ends/whatever (which I will be checking the resistance of before I use) pretty cheap.

Finally ended up going to a car stereo installation place to buy the wire and ring ends. 10ft of 4guage wire, 8 ring ends, $50, sigh... I hate shopping/searching for anything though so I just bought it and went home.

Now I need nicer weather again... Going to pull the battery right out, clean up the terminals, connectors, maybe even pull the tray, etc...