mr2's. fires. ground potential. what you NEED to be doing to your car right now.

[countyboy3188]

my friends na burnt up a few months back. it was def a sad thing to see.

[MidnyteRunner]

Can you provide pictures of what it looks like and how to do it? im a noob and just got my MR2 last thursday. i would hate to see my first car to go in flames so i want to get this done ASAP

[PainBreak]

Hey Tom, you might want to correct your OP.

Do not, I repeat DO NOT smear dielectric grease on there before making the connection.

Dielectric grease is non-conductive. You're essentially undermining any benefit you hoped you achieve by adding a redundant ground.

Dielectric grease is meant to be smeared on the outside of electrical connections as an electric and moisture insulator.

Pretty damned funny, though, that you spent so much time and effort on this post, then effectively told everyone to add an insulator between the negative terminal and the chassis.

[runabout93]

^ I didn't even notice that he worded it that way... but, now that I read it over again, it certainly sounds it. So, I concur... make sure you have mated the connection before applying Dielectric grease. I use wd40 to clean the area, make the connection, and then apply the grease. Remember dielectric grease was designed to seal off contaminants and not short out the adjacent connections. That's why you can smear or spary it across a circuit board and it won't fry.

[SR20FL]

When I did my first engine swap, I left that exact transmission big ground cable disconnected. I tried to start the engine I had just put in, and the starter used my brand new just installed SS braided clutch line for a ground. Then the firewall padding had caught on fire. I grabbed the garden hose and quickly put it out. Lesson learned.


From then on I made sure all my grounds were clean and secured.

[blackdemon]

You guys just saved me, I also just got my 2, and I'm in the process of rebuilding, and I almost caught fire Saturday, cuz of an intercooler fan switch, that was possibly just jerry rigged together. Again not offending the previous owners, it was dark (5am) and I went to turn the fan on, and notice the light wasn't on, so I reattempted and the exposed wires touched, sparked, and started a small fire by my leg, luckily all I had was a rag, so I smoothered it that way, did scare the daylights out of me. I already have a fire extiguisher in there just in case, and I"ll be adding the additional accesories that were listed here as well, even though my tool box has some of them.

[mr2swol]

Originally Posted by BRAUVIC

He makes an outstanding point. I have done my own maintenance for years. I do projects and custom stuff all the time, but when I stop to think about it... I never pay attention to my grounds. Well here is first hand work of what can happen if you don't keep up with grounds:

i dunno know man.... if i was in your place. the captain goes down with his ship.

[bandito]

I been having the same similar issues like you guys.

Thought it was the alt. replaced myself(a pain if your need to do it and have no lift and it better to drop it out the bottom).

Changed new batteries.

thought everything was swell. drove okay for two days. drove another day and not even 30 mph booster gauge starts spiking. engine starts sputtering. popped it out of gear to coast to a stop. saw smoke coming out of the speedo gauge needle. said WTF!!!!!! (looked like my car was boobied trap to blow up or something). pulled over shut engine off. more smoke coming out of the odometer. speedo needle melts off. popped the engine lid up saw trottle cable melting in front of my eyes cracking and smeltering. gas started to leak out. popped the hood in a panic to disconnect the battery. saw smoke. thought my mr2 was gonna explode or catch fire. found a wench and disconnected battery.

after a tow to a buddy shop and on the lift. figuring it was a major grounding error and STILL could NOT pinpoint where the short or damage started. All i found was just damages but not the pinpoint.

ground harness from left side frame to engine block melted.
trottle cable melted
driver side e-brake cable underneath car melted
speedo cable that mounts on tranny to instrument cluster heated to the point where it melted off the speedo needle.

luckily i was able to start the car up(thought i fried alot of things out). after starting the car back up the first two times alot of black smoke came out. figured it could be the ecu wacking out when grounding issues blew up in my face and caused gas to spew eccessively into the motor. and the black smoke was from the extra gas.
drove around today and seemed ok but I still fear the same will happen but worst next time.


dont drive your car till you figure it out. this will happen or worst to you!!!!

after reading this post from a link from a fellow member, I am going to add more grounds and cross my fingers and hope it wont happen again.

[mr2v63vz]

hey not to be a noob but is there a min/max guage on a ground cable?

[Medusa]

Use braided strap. A nice thick one. Something that can handle a good bit of current.

[CJMR2T]

Like Medusa said, braided strappes work great.. If you'd like to go with regular round cable... I wouldn't go smaller the 4ga.. There really isn't a maximum size as you cant really have too big of a ground. Now more size isn't going really bennifit you as much as having multipule grounds... Like in the OP, The more you have, the more safty you have in the event of 1 failing...

[Medusa]

I would still stick with braided strap though because in addition to conducting very well, it will help suppress RFI. Grounding your hood, engine lid, and trunk lid will also greatly reduce RFI.

[MCLOVIN]

this thread is awsome for info!! thank you very much for all this info.... this wil help me in my mr2 project

[TomsMR2]

Originally Posted by PainBreak

Hey Tom, you might want to correct your OP.

Do not, I repeat DO NOT smear dielectric grease on there before making the connection.

Dielectric grease is non-conductive. You're essentially undermining any benefit you hoped you achieve by adding a redundant ground.

Dielectric grease is meant to be smeared on the outside of electrical connections as an electric and moisture insulator.

Pretty damned funny, though, that you spent so much time and effort on this post, then effectively told everyone to add an insulator between the negative terminal and the chassis.

you could never put enough grease to stop contact.. its going to smush the grease out between the parts and contact metal to metal, the bolt is going to smush the grease off the eylet and contact.. and then the big one, the bolt has enough compressive force to force everything out of the threads, and then off the eyelet and make contact anyway.

just like on sparkplugs.. the slight tension from the springy connector in a plug wire is enough to displace grease and make contact. thats kinda the real kicker, we're talking about bolted together grounds when spring tension on plug wires is enough to get past the grease

dielectric grease is used on electronics because it wont cause shorts between greased components. it doesnt conduct freely across itself. you can have a plug with a positive and negative terminal, smear a glob of dielectric grease in there (check out your diag port for an example) and it wont short the positive to negative. when you plug that connector in, it makes secure contact by displacing grease.

if it makes you feel better, go ahead and put it on the outside. either way, you're not stopping contact.

[conor]

Woo, grounds!

[smartdj]

after reading this im doing mine tomorow as im working on her anyway .top read!

[canadam]

Originally Posted by canadam

Does anyone have a list of grounds that are in the engine bay that is a little more intuitive than the ground pages listed in the BGB? I want to be sure I've done this, as well as connected all OEM grounds before I put the battery in this thing.

Still looking for a full list of grounds in a 3SGTE engine bay...

[ShackC]

Originally Posted by PETC

I keep a little 5 lb fire extinguisher in my 2, but I've heard many stories of people emptying the contents of them onto a fire and having it continue to burn.

You guys probably know this and i'm not totally sure about the automotive fire extinguishers, but for house hold type there is an ABC type fire extinguisher which is good for multiple types of fires.
Maybe keep a larger one or two in the rig.

Anyone installed a grounding kit? or nology plug wires? not sure of a difference but hey.

[TomsMR2]

nology wires are a waste of money.. pure retarded.

grounding kits dont make power, and all their performance claims are false.. but sometimes its a cheap way to get wires and eyelets. just toss the distribution blocks that come with it, they dont even make sense.

i think the stainless steel straps look nice. no plastic to melt. good stuff. you can really use whatever though.

[ShackC]

seems like some money makers is all. Never tried them but they do look cool.
Its probably been said but just keeping your deuces guts clean, will help even more.
Along with all the other stuff.