Quote:
Originally Posted by wstar
Just to clear up some electrical misconceptions here (not that your overall point isn't close to the truth):
The speed of signals from your sensors and to your actuators is not affected by a grounding kit. Electricity's speed in a metal medium is a relatively reliable and stable value regardless of any wiring changes you make to a functioning circuit, and is an infinitesimally small component of the ECU's reaction time. Even if you somehow *added* several feet of signal path between the ECU and some sensor, it's not going to have any significant effect on the ECU's reaction time to the sensor's physical input due to electricity "speed".
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The speed of the signal from the sensors to the actuators IS affected by the ground path IF there is resistance between the sensors and the actuators. Hence a stronger/better ground will complete the signal more efficiently. Albeit minutely...
Quote:
Originally Posted by wstar
Obviously, if existing ground connections on the car (factory ground wires, and also metal mounting points between components) have rusted, deteriorated, or been disconnected completely, adding new ground wires connecting the two points is going to lower the resistance between those ground points, leveling out the ground plane.
By electrically leveling out the ground plane (decreasing the resistance between various points that are all considered "ground": anywhere on the engine block, the chassis, and the negative battery terminal), you *can* improve the accuracy of your sensors. One way or another, most sensor outputs are measures as volts or ohms, and if the sensor's ground has some resistance between it and the ECU's ground, those readings' accuracy can be off.
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Exactly my point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wstar
I still think mostly installing a grounding kit on a factory-new car is a placebo though, unless the car was defectively assembled, or you've made other changes that affect grounding. (Case in point: when I switched out my headers, I lost 2 factory grounding points from the engine block to the chassis). For the most part, Nissan probably grounded everything correctly when they built it  |
Agreed. The factory configuration is very well built and well grounded. However, adding addtional grounding paths and linking key components together to ground can only help further down the road when corrosion/wear and tear etc start to take their toll.
I think we are barking up the same tree, merely quibbling over the benefits.
