doccable

No, but for $50, why not do it? I did, and have no complaints.

mdmaclean

Did the e-bay kit match what CanZoomer shows, with one point to point and a daisy chain for the rest?

Were you happy with the kit's quality?

Shooter

I made my grounding kit for less than $30 bucks. If you got a little time, its cheaper just to do it yourself. Spent 15 bucks on gold plated connectors and 12 bucks on wire and 2 bucks on plastic shrinkwrap for electrical connections. Bought monster cable grounding wire. used 8 gauge wire....soldered the ends to the connectors and that was it. no big deal.

mdmaclean

The kit sounds good, 4 gauge wire with gold connectors. Probably overkill, but if you are adding extra ground you might as well go all the way.

doccable

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mdmaclean
Did the e-bay kit match what CanZoomer shows, with one point to point and a daisy chain for the rest?

No, the whole thing, (four seperate spans of wire), was point to point. I did get just a little creative with the final routing of the wiring as opposed to the instructions provided. I must say that the instructions he included were really good.

Were you happy with the kit's quality?

Very much so. If I wasn't, I wouldn't recommend it. Actually, if I wasn't, I'd probably be "slamming" it, and the guy who sold it to me. :D
What's that saying about "...the horse you rode in on?"
-Doccable

mdmaclean

[QUOTE]Originally posted by doccable

Quote:

[i]I did get just a little creative with the final routing of the wiring as opposed to the instructions provided.

I have just purchased one. What creativity did you take?

Charles Cope

Another question for doccable..

The eBay kit (seller: z327) says the terminals are 5/16". Did you have to drill out some due to larger bolt sizes? See...

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=17339

doccable

No. I was able to install the kit without any modification to either the kit or the car. The only thing I did differently was on the right fender; he (z327) showed an excess amount of the grounding wire forming a loop at the grounding point on the fender. I routed the little bit of excess up in front at the ECU ground point.
Unfortunately, I don't have the photo from the instructions scanned, but here's my installation:

Charles Cope

Thanks! Great pic!

crf3629

I made and installed grounding wires as per CZ's illustration. I used 4 gauge braided wire obtained at Home Depot and heavy duty connectors found at a local Ace Hardware. I made four individual wires rather than try to get two of the wires into a single connector. I figured it would be easier to put two additional connectors onto the various bolts than to get two wires into one connector.

Everything went fine until I noticed this noise. There is a clicking noise that varies in frequency with RPMs and increases in level with load. At idle I don't hear anything. Rev the engine and I hear a faint clicking. When driving, the sound level goes up as the load on the engine increases; if the engine is pulling and I leave off the gas the sound stops; step on the gas and the sound comes back.

My first thought was that it was coming through the radio, but it's not. I removed the two grounding wires from connection A4 (left fender), connection A3 (engine ground), and connection A2 (right fender) and the noise WENT AWAY. The other two wires were in place. I put the wire back on between A2 and A3 and the noise CAME BACK. I made sure the wire wasn't touching anything that would transmit a noise from the engine to the body; the only thing the wire was contacting was the two connectors.

The noise sounds like the noise a fan would make if the blade were hitting something. It also reminded me of a bad spark plug wire that was arcing to ground, but I don't think it is electrical.

Could the noise be coming from the fuel injectors now have more travel because they are getting a better signal? The injectors would have a signal that varies by RPM, but would they get a stronger signal depending on load?

After two days with no response, I've opened a new thread at Tech Garage on this subject.

shebam

When I follow this link, "Buy it now" price shown is $22.99 plus $20 S&H by "Suzuka Element" -- is this the same item referred to in the posts? If so price has come down .... If not, did anyone install the Suzuka kit?

doccable

No, this isn't the same kit. I think someone else included the eBay link for the one that I purchased, if you can't find it, P/M me, and I'll send it to you.

-Doccable

crf3629

I made and installed grounding wires as per CZ's illustration. I used 4 gauge braided wire obtained at Home Depot and heavy duty connectors found at a local Ace Hardware. I made four individual wires rather than the layout shown. I figured it would be easier to put two additional connectors onto the various bolts than to get two wires into one connector. I soldered the connectors to the wires.

Everything went fine until I noticed this noise. There is a clicking noise that varies in frequency with RPMs and increases in level with load. At idle I don't hear anything. Rev the engine and I hear a faint clicking. When driving, the sound level goes up as the load on the engine increases; if the engine is pulling and I leave off the gas the sound stops; step on the gas and the sound comes back.

My first thought was that it was coming through the radio, but it's not. I removed the two grounding wires from connection A4 (left fender), connection A3 (engine ground), and connection A2 (right fender) and the noise WENT AWAY. The other two wires were in place. I put the wire back on between A2 and A3 and the noise CAME BACK. I made sure the wire wasn't touching anything that would transmit a noise from the engine to the body; the only thing the wire was contacting was the two connectors.

The noise sounds like the noise a fan would make if the blade were hitting something. It also reminded me of a bad spark plug wire that was arcing to ground, but I don't think it is electrical.

Could the noise be coming from the fuel injectors now have more travel because they are getting a better signal? The injectors would have a signal that varies by RPM, but would they get a stronger signal depending on load?

Omicron

Sounds like as good a theory as any, but you might want to post a message in the general forum pointing people to this thread, and asking anyone with grounding kits to respond.

slavearm

I am not experiencing any issues with it, but you might want to check the the ground going to the engine is not hitting anything. Since the sound frequency increases as your rpms do, you might be hitting a belt or something. If you are still having problems PM me and I will post pics of my grounding install and highlight the areas I think you might be having a problem at.

Slavearm

Omicron

So Doc, are you noticing any improvement in performance?

doccable

Not really, except that there was a noticable lag at 6k, then around 7.5k RPM. The lag is still there, but nowhere near as noticable. It's difficult to explain, but I can say that as far as a $50 mod goes? I can't complain. Now, when I finally get around to the stage 1 mod... I do expect a difference, especially for $750. :D

crf3629

Here's the latest...I made a 5 inch long wire using some 10 gauge wire and two connectors. I connected one end of the new 10 gauge wire to the engine ground bolt (along with the wire that is installed there by the factory) and connected the other end into the original grounding wires that I made earlier.

The sequence of events were these:

1. With the four grounding wires connected as per the diagram in CZ's post, remove the connections at the engine ground.

2. Connect the new, 5 inch long wire and the factory installed wire to the engine ground.

3. Using a spare nut and bolt, fasten the new wire and the two grounding kit wires (removed in step 1) together.

After doing this I no longer hear the funny noise described in my earlier post. My conclusion is that the heavy wire I'm using is transmitting the noise from the engine to the body and that the lighter wire doesn't transmit the sound. I feel that degradation of the grounding kit by the short piece of 10 gauge wire is minimal and plan to leave it this way for the time being. In the future, if I find a 4 gauge wire that is more flexible than what I currently have, I may replace the two wires that connect to the engine ground.

z327

IMHO - This why it is very important to use a high quality 100% OFC cable like you can get at a high end car audio shop or Ebay or Parts Express.

You won't get the same results and you may have problems like the one described here if you use cable from a hardware store or electrical supply.

The company I work for designs and installs power supplies for central offices, Sun servers, Cray computers etc... When we do a large system install we always use 100% OFC high strand count cable. It has to have very low resistance and be very flexible. Its not the same as the audio stuff. Its much more expensive, but that is how I became aware of the type of cable needed for a grounding kit.

my10ae

It's FREAKIN' ME OUT MAN!!!

You smell that Rabbit.... FEAR!! :D

rx8cited

Can someone provide a link to this illustration or thread containing it please?

thanks,
rx8cited

crf3629

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=14728

crf3629

I just ordered some 4 GA Power Cable from Parts Express. I'll let you know what things sound like after I get it installed.

Omicron

Ok, well I installed my kit yesterday. Got the exact same one as Doc, so I won't post another set of pictures as it looks exactly the same. Coupla comments...

• This is an excellent quality kit. Great quality materials, beautifully put together and includes really nice directions with color pics. The guy put some thought into it, and it shows. He even went so far as to stamp cable numbers (there's 4 of them of differing lengths) on the connectors.
• After installation, my DSC light was flashing and my TC light was on solidly the first time I started the car. However, after I drove it once, these went away. Just FYI.
• Thus far, I have not really noticed any dramatic improvement in performance, although I was not really expecting much. It does seem to make throttle response a bit snappier, but I can't be sure. I'll make a judgement in the next few days and add it here if I feel any improvements.
• This is a very easy mod to do if you have a 10mm and 12mm socket, and looks really good when completed. Basically a nice, inexpensive mod, that looks cool if nothing else. Recommended!

80CuIn

crf3629,
Don't know why no one has responded to you. Although, I don't have an answer, maybe no one else does either.
But I'll try. Have you tried to remove your grounding cables and check for the noise? Then reinstall them. Make sure you keep the grounding bolts tight. Don't know the torque, but they seem to be quite tight.
Maybe there is something incorrect about your home made cables. Don't know, just a guess. If it is, you may want to consider one of the kits mentioned on this thread.
Good Luck crf3629.

Al