Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I just did the MAFS ground mod today. I read in a past thread about the car running smoother after this mod. I stripped the black wire on the connector that plug into the MAFS. Then I spliced in a wire onto it and ground it. That's what I suppose to do right? Anyway, I didn't notice any difference. I know the car isn't suppose to be faster just with this mod. However, I thought the car suppose to run smoother? Hm...I wonder would my car haven't had a oil change yet have anything to do with it. It's close to 4k miles since my last oil change. I didn't take off the negative battery cable when I did this. Am I suppose to? Shouldn't make any difference, right?

bobjohnson

iTrader: (2)

never heard of it, but ill try it too. ill tell ya tommrow whats up with me.

mzmtg

iTrader: (11)

Did you need it?

If your ground was ok to begin with, you wouldnt notice a difference. Mine was way out of spec before I did it. Of course, I didnt notice much difference either...

ny96max

you shoulndt have to remove the battery ground when you do this Mike.

BTW: i have a quick question, when you had your Sprint springs did you cut 2 coils off the rears? and how even was the drop?

thanks,

Ant

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Ben: that could be it. I think my ground was good to begin with. Oh well, no harm, the mod only took me a few minutes to do.


Ant: yes I did cut two coils off the rear. The drop was very even. I suggest you cut one coil off first and see how it is first.

Chunger

iTrader: (1)

Use an Multimeter to check the ground before doing this...

"If it ain't broke...."

D1NOnly34

iTrader: (4)

what are we testing for in the multimeter? I want to check my MAFs if it is workign fine or not. I have a DMM, what specs should a good MAFs read?

96shogunmax

iTrader: (9)

Ant, I cut one coil off of mine, pics on the homepage.


Mike, I did this to mine and noticed a slight difference.

TooMAX

iTrader: (1)

You can backprobe the middle wire (ground) in the MAF connector. At idle, it should read 9 mV or less. This will not check MAF condition, only ensure it has a good ground reference.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I don't know if it's just in my head, but after doing this, it seem the car doesn't perform as well. Seem to lag a bit more. And it has nothing to do with the auto tranny. Before I did this, the car feel like it responded better. Anyway, I just removed the splice and returned it back to how it was.

Mishmosh

iTrader: (3)

I thought throttle response was a noticeably better with the MAF ground. Of course, I was never really good at judging mods unless it was a clear slap in the face.

Cumalot: this mod may not do anything but certainly it shouldn't hurt. Did you cut the ground wire and reroute it or did you tap into it? I just used a tap to battery ground (where my "hyper"ground wires were all connected to). The black MAF wire (to the ECU) was still intact.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Mishmosh: I didn't cut the black MAF wire. I just tap a wire onto the black wire and ground it. I used the hole below the AT resistor thing as ground, the driver side strut tower.

2naboy

iTrader: (1)

I did not notice any difference on mine either. I used the hole where my intake box had been secured to.

endus

iTrader: (1)

I love this site and most of you guys know way way more about engine type stuff than I do BUT the lack of electrical knowledge on this site is kind of frightening.

Mishmosh

iTrader: (3)

What's wrong with bolstering a ground return that may be compromised?

Chunger

iTrader: (1)

Actually it would be better to remove the harness and check the resistance on the ground wire (obviously with the ign. off). I forget the "factory spec", though.

chris j vurnis

Well, my ground reference was supposedly out of spec but I didn't add any ground wires. All I did was clean the MAF interior heating element with isopropyl alcohol and my car runs better.

Now that I have conquered the MAF, I am now thinking of starting a battle with my EGR system.

endus

iTrader: (1)

Well, I get the feeling that not everyone here gets the fact that the wiring to the MAF _INCLUDES_ a ground....just like any electrical connection. It sounds like people think that they are adding something new here because they are expecting to have the car run better by adding a ground...and some are surprised when this "mod" doesn't do anything for them.

The other thing is that if the grounds in your car are so corroded/bad that it's actually affecting how well the car runs, the answer is not to add some ghetto shunt for the MAF. The answer is to figure out why the stock grounding is not doing it's job. It's not like Nissan just didn't want to provide an adequate ground from the factory because it would be too expensive or something...the stock ground is fine as long as your electrical system is working properly. It's not like we're running hundreds of amps of current through the MAF and the paltry stock wiring just isn't up to the task that a "performance oriented driver" demands...LOL. If the stock wiring is not doing it's job, the best way to deal with the problem is to fix it and not use some wierd workaround. The reason being that down the line you're better off as it may prevent other problems.

I see this too with the hyper ground stuff people talk about. My 12 volt electrical theory isn't all that it could be, but I would suspect that if you are running a lot of audio equipment, etc. you might see some benefit to cleaning the grounds and adding a couple more connections just to make doubly sure that the ground isn't a limiting factor. However, people talk about that stuff like it's some kind of magic that's going to automatically improve the performance of their system. I have no problem with people doing it, but I would guess at least 80% of the people who do it have absoloutely no idea WHY they are doing it.

cam_honestiam

iTrader: (2)

Adding a ground to the MAFS is a solution that has been produced by knowledgeable people that have a fairly respectable understanding of the properties of electricity.
The fact is that Nissan has done a poor job grounding the car. Case closed. Sensors produce inaccurate readings all the time, and often, the only solution is to reconfigure the ground wires. Why? Because if electricity has resistance in the line (i.e., bad grounding), it may cause the readings from some sensors to be inaccurate. Why? Because many of the sensors measure voltage only, and rises or drops in voltage measured by the sensor are processed by the ECU and changes are made according to those readings. If there is a bad ground, the resistance on the sensor may not read correctly, so the incorrect reading is sent to the ECU and an adjustment is made that is unnecessary—one that could have been prevented had the sensor given the proper reading initially.
One case in point was my situation. I noticed that in my car, the ground for the battery terminal connected to a point in the car that was not bared metal (in fact, the connecting point was painted...bad ground in my opinion). I exposed the metal and re-grounded. Previous to doing so, I had a problem where upon starting the vehicle, the car would rev to 1100 RPMs or so as it should, but then it would drop to near baseline, sometimes sputtering out. Nobody could diagnose the situation, but I read about adding a ground to the MAFS stock black wire so that any resistance in the line would be dropped as it should (since the sensor now had an additional route through which the electricity could be dispersed). The result was that my MAFS would suggest a cold start when it should be cold-started. Before I added the ground to the MAFS stock black wire, the MAFS would give an inaccurate reading, causing the ECU to think it was a warm start. Not enough fuel was being injected, so the car would die right after the ignition turned over. Since replacing the MAFS would not fix the ground wire routing (and cost over $100.00), I figured the half-hour free solution of adding an extra grounding path would be better. My theory has proved accurate for my situation. I do not notice more power, better response, or anything such as this—but my car has started perfectly ever since I did the mod. The solution that the dealer would have charged tons of money to figure out (for a problem that they had never heard of before) was solved simply and conveniently. It is not ghetto, it is genius.

Mishmosh

iTrader: (3)

I disagree. I think anyone who's tried to do the hyperground or the MAF grounding knows what the theoretical goal is. Anybody who's taken basic physics knows about (+) and (-). We all know the car has a ground. We all know that oxidation is inevitable and oxidation is no friend of conduction. And as Cam mentioned, the stock grounding is far from exemplary.