How To: Ground Wire Replacement For Your Civic

civic_rice

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here's a short How-To on how to re-ground a Civic (or any car for that matter)
Hope you like it!

After completing, i've noticed a slightly higher but 'fresher' idle (93 civic dx)
This is the second vehicle I've done this with. I also did a '87 CRX and noticed the same higher 'fresher' idle, and the stereo pounded alot louder.



- roughly 3 feet of 4 guage audio cable
- 5 4 guage ring terminals

buy your terminals at West-Can auto parts, they're $2.75/2 inc. tax
buy your cable anywhere, should be about $9 for 3 feet

***Quick Directions***:
strip the ends of the cable, apply the ring terminals
clamp/solder the ring terminals on the cable ends

wow, that was hard.

-locate the ground wire
-undo the bolts, bolt on the new wire

-locate the ground wire
-undo the bolts, bolt on the new wire



(this one is optional, if you do it, be sure to buy a nice Audio battery terminal off Ebay or something for one of the cable ends)






and there she is, done!
any questions, comments ---> direct them to civic_rice@hotmail.com

Here's a link to my original post on VanCivics if you're interested in what other's have had to say:
http://www.vancouvercivics.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=13553
 

96greencivic

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Cool. Question, do you need to disconnect the batter before you do this?
 


EBPimpSi

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96greencivic said:
Cool. Question, do you need to disconnect the batter before you do this?
only time you have to disconnect the battery is when you're changing the ground on the battery...
 

EBPimpSi

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this lil mod is ususally called the "Big 3" in the audio forums. The 3 connections are:

1) Engine to chasis
2) Battery to chasis
3) Tranny to chasis
 


Mr. Lin

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Very nice. I'd probably fry myself trying.
 

Mr. Lin

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civic_rice said:
nah, they're just grounds ;)
knowing me, I'd grab the positive terminal of the battery and touch the frame.
 

h22dreamer

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i really dont get those pics are out of focuse and i dont know what im looking at.
 

h22dreamer

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what are those pics, where did the power wire go to. whats the reason. stuff like that i really dont get it.


 

h22dreamer

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the last pic i just posted what am looking at ? i see the battery and the ground on the battery attoches somewhere down there.????
 

anekin007

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im going to do a diy grounding kit soon. i heard better results if you do lineage or distributor block type of grounding kit so im choosing one of these over the oem style ground points. which one do you suggest? what type of wires are you using and how many strand count? also..i think your missing the intake manifold and alternator grounds.
 

mugen00

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Can you really tell the difference???
 

anekin007

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grounding the engine is like grounding a amp..if its not properly grounded out..you will not get the full power. look at your stock ground wires and points, they are ugly..your not getting any gains from it, your just getting all the lost power from the poor grounding. the 2001-up have better ground wires. well from the rxs i seen, they come with good stock ground wires. i suggest using high strand count wire, 100% oxygen free copper, gold wire terminal for best results.
 

Blowncivic1320

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Im about to do this tommorow because i got some audio cable left from wiring up my system
 

civic_rice

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h22dreamer said:
what are those pics, where did the power wire go to. whats the reason. stuff like that i really dont get it.


I appologize, my old digi cam is complete crap, but if you open your hood, and look near your battery, and near your tranny, you'll see the ground cables I'm talking about.

EDIT: and the last picture, the negative terminal on the battery is stock. I snapped the picture before getting around to replacing it. It is replaced now.
 

Enjoi

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Even if you don't get a slight power boost, it still looks sexy as hell.
 

loccusst

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You will get good throttle response. You should also connect all of the wires to one central location.
 

Blowncivic1320

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I just did mine and it looks way better...i didnt do all that single ground shiz i just replaced my wires with thicker ones from my stereo hookup leftovers
 

Enjoi

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Blowncivic1320 said:
I just did mine and it looks way better...i didnt do all that single ground shiz i just replaced my wires with thicker ones from my stereo hookup leftovers

Notice any differences besides cosmetics?
 

vandynamics

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umm i love the color but im used to red being hot. black being gound. im gonna do this, but with black wire instead of red. i dont like red in there. i know black looks worse. but function over fashion.
 


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