Earthing / grounding kits, which type best?

Earthing / grounding kits, which type best?

Author
Discussion

RB Will

Original Poster:

9,940 posts

247 months

Saturday 2nd July 2022
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Hi all, not very up to speed on electronics.
Been advised getting some decent earthing may sort a couple of problems I'm having with my old (22 year old) Subaru, renowned for crap earthing from factory.

Was hoping to just buy a kit of some sort to install myself easily. There seems to be 2 general types and I was wondering if one was better than the other?

One type seems to be to daisy chain round the engine bay going from one earthing point to the next.

The other type has wires running individually back from each earthing point back to a hub / connector block that then mounts to or near to the negative terminal of the battery.

Seen websites that say each is better than the other type. Is one type better or are they both as good as each other?

Secondly should I splash out and buy one of the kits or make my own? What sort of wire would I need, connectors, block etc?

Thanks for any help

mushtafa

18 posts

29 months

Sunday 3rd July 2022
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Just update the main earth cable from battery to body, and body/battery to engine. Job done.

Zulu 10

734 posts

245 months

Monday 4th July 2022
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Earths should never be daisy chained because that aggravates one of the problems which you are trying to overcome. Instead, all the earths should be brought to a single star point which has a very low impedance connection to battery negative.

Rather than use cable, it is more electromagnetically effective to use copper braid which has a lower impedance. If you're in a hurry you can get it from Radio Spares, or if not, then I buy mine from AliExpress. https://sincelian.aliexpress.com/store/3729001/sea...

There's nothing to stop you applying heat shrink tubing over the braid to disguise it.

Edited by Zulu 10 on Monday 4th July 07:55

Polly Grigora

11,209 posts

116 months

Monday 4th July 2022
quotequote all
RB Will said:
Hi all, not very up to speed on electronics.
Been advised getting some decent earthing may sort a couple of problems I'm having with my old (22 year old) Subaru, renowned for crap earthing from factory.
Suggest that you first test for volt-drops in the circuits that are giving you grief or those you think might be

There could be other problems causing malfunctions

Much work is needed to rewire all vehicle earths

You need to know what circuits are needing attention before being able to plan a good method of correction