So much engine earthing....

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:27 am

My NB has a heap of earthing in the engine bay. If go go to garage then look up my car, you will see what I mean. The spark plug cables have an extra layer of insulation with silver earth straps coming from them. Earth points are all wired together shown with red cable. Does anyone know the reason for this and what difference it makes to my car? I have never seen this done before. Cheers Stevo

poison · Post by **poison** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:36 am

Is it one of these http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 626368.htm

Some people believe they give you extra power, fuel efficiency etc etc. Much like those magnetic fuel saver devices really, both rely on the placebo effect. At least the earthling kit can look nice.

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:11 pm

It certainly looks "aftermarket". After seeing the radio/navi/tv in your other posting, I suspect that could be the reason. Someone may have deemed it necessary to keep down the ignition noise for the TV or GPS.

brownie · Post by **brownie** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:35 pm

"NYOLGY" leads are what they are and they hand build them at around $100 a lead !!,Your've got a cool set of leads there.

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:30 am

Thanks Brownie, But whats so good about them? Cheers Stevo

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:04 pm

Yes Brownie, They do have the words "Nology Hotwires" printed on them. Just googled and found their website. Cheers Stevo http://www.nology.com/hot.html

brownie · Post by **brownie** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:14 pm

Hope the site explained it for you,I was reading a old Miata magazine today compareing them with a couple of other brands and they reckon there was a difference around the 3200rpm mark in torque,by seat of the pants feeling but not really any positive proof and there words "They look hot" and very high end quailty.

Post by **zorruno** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:40 pm

Stevo wrote:whats so good about them?

I think they are scientifically proven to extract more money out of owners' wallets than any other plug lead currently on the market...

cheers

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 1:56 pm

The only reason they make the car go better is that if you spent that much
on fancy leads, of course it will go better!
Bit like buying fancy gold plated monster cables to interconnect your
digital audio gear. How many people fork out more than $100.00 for a fancy
lead when a $10.00 one is just as good? Mind you, people pay 1000 times the
cost of water because it's in a plastic bottle!

Grant.

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Post by **jif** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:06 pm

I do kinda think there may be some benefit in making the ground path as close to optimum as possible, and maybe helping to eliminate ground loops. Esp where the existing ground is corroded or under-sized. I used to have a head deck that had a copper plated chassis, given that it wasn't visible once installed there must've been some benefit to it..?

So I'd pay the $10-20 that it's worth, but probably pass on the $100's worth of marketing !

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Post by **jif** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:09 pm

hmmm, interesting...!

www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/grounding.htm

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poison · Post by **poison** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:46 pm

Good power cabling for Car audio is a must given a 1 ohm loss due to a poor earth or undersized cable will result in a voltage drop and a measurable loss in sound performance, but like anything there are reasonable measures, extremes not required. A good example of this is when the car stereo lights dim when turned up loud. But for HT leads or Engine earths… I don’t think so, although I must say that they did look damn good. And most of us are guilty of spending money on “Look Good” items, take mag wheels for a start, most are the same weight (or more) than stock, and then there’s all those chrome bits and pieces, paint, etc etc. Non of it for anything but looks. So if it looks good do it..

FYI Copper plate chassis in theory was to stop all the EMI, I recall a mate of mine spending a grand on a couple of thick mu-metal plates to sit below each of his home stereo amps. So how far do you go? Cars are full of EMI and poor power regulation noise, a positive example is my G-tech meter, it just plugs into the cigarette lighter but gets enough EMI through the system to give a spot on RPM reading just from noise in the power feed.

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poison · Post by **poison** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:36 pm

Good article, he also dumps on the additional ground points but does seem ken on keeping normal ground points clean. I’d agree this is good maintenance especially re-starting problems, and I guess with more and more critical ECU sensors (again on a 12VDC system) any dirty earth (or any dirty power connection) will result in a poor or inaccurate reading. But as far as HP/torque gains… no way.

From: jif [mailto:electrical@mx5forum.co.nz]

hmmm, interesting...!

www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/grounding.htm

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Grant · Post by **Grant** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:56 pm

I agree that good cable is required and different types for different needs.
However for normal DC wiring and at audio frequencies all you need is plenty
of copper. That is get wire with a suitable area or gauge to handle the
current. It is not necessary to buy grossly overpriced stuff with pretty
plastic coatings and very thinly gold plated connectors! As long as the
resistance is low so there is no (or minimal) voltage drop all is fine.
The fancy cable business though must be a good one to be in as that's all
you can get at the likes of Harvey Norman etc. Obviously has great mark up
right through the supply chain.
The copper plate chassis is also more marketing than good science. It is
very rare to find radio equipment in copper plated chassis, even up in the
microwave regions. When it is used there, it is to reduce losses due to skin
effect because of the frequencies used. For effective shielding of radio
transmission and reception equipment, die cast aluminium is nearly always
used as it does a good job and is a lot cheaper than copper. Copper looks
good though so that always helps convince people it must be worth the extra
money.
I think a lot of improvement when replacing ground leads, ignition leads
etc. comes from the fact that in the process the root cause of the problem
is fixed. The corroded and loose ground is repaired, the faulty ignition
leads replaced, the battery terminals cleaned and tightened. That's what
makes the car go better, not the fact it now has expensive pretty looking
marketing hyped leads.

Grant

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