So, I purchased this grounding kit from the org in blue
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...0-shipped.html
I installed last night on my 1995 auto, and here are the results and comments

When first opening the box, I was impressed by workmanship being perfect and wires being prebent for position, and instructions included.
Installing went easy, just had to remove entire air intake system from TB out. And contort my hand in funny ways. Starter ground was be far the most difficult.
Fired the car up, drove about 10 ft, and bam, stalled.
Parked, drove about 10 ft, stalled.
Almost panicked. It was about midnight by the time I was done, I was at my cousins shop working on his rock crawler at the same time but, anways, let it idle for about 2mins, and then went down the street really easy.
Made it home, driving very gentle because I could not get a ticket because my licence's cerfue is 11. I got home, parked, and went to bed.

Woke up the next day, and drove. Almost immedietly I noticed better shifting of tranny. So gentle and nice now..... I love it. Lights seem to take a while to not dim as much but did happen, car seems to possibly start much faster on cold starts, not as much increase on hot though. All and all, from having on 24hrs, the kit was definitely worth $50, only took about and hour to install, and added a little color to the engine bay. This mod/upgrade was very good.

 

You do realize that having cleaned and reground the stock ground points you could have saved $46.00.

 

also it was $46??? for 6 peices of wire totaling $1.10? lol some products you wonder if its a good deal others you know your paying for the idea not the cost of materials. i agree its good to do but im runin to home depot and buying a couple bucks worth of wire instead.

 

Most grounding kits use 8ga audio wire (at least the one i have) and that is not $1.10. If you have not personally bought this kit yourself don't put down another org member for something THEY contributed to our community. Your the reason why not many members want to contribute to our parts selection.

All in all though. My brother used this kit. Simple install and helps out with all power his battery is draining for his audio equipment.

 

Unless you have a really old car with bad grounds, this does nothing at all.

 

Crimping connectors is really not very difficult. You can probably DIY one for much cheaper than $46.

I picked up 15 feet of 8ga automotive copper wire for $6 the other day for my headlight harness. A set of crimp ring terminals is $3.

 

It's more than $1.10, but certainly less than $46. Maybe $10 to make this?

Whoever is making these isn't adding value to justify a price premium. He's crimping a dozen terminals. If you're mechanically inclined enough to install something on your car, you're capable of crimping terminals. You can get the tool for five dollars, and it's very easy to do. You strip the jacket, put the copper in the crimp terminal, and push it closed.

If this required specialized knowledge or equipment to build, then I would say, "Yes, he is completely justified in selling it for $30 more than the materials cost, because he is doing something with it the average customer is not capable of doing"

It's basic economic sense. People will not pay extra for something that they are capable of doing much cheaper and faster by themselves. To justify a price markup, you need to do something that is either:
a) Use a process that the average customer would not understand
b) require specialized equipment that the average customer can't afford
c) be more time-consuming to make than the customer is willing to spend on it
d) require specialized knowledge or experience that the customer doesn't have

This product is neither of those things. It's simple, the tools to make it are $5 if you don't already have them (which you probably do, if you ever work on your car), and it's not very time consuming.

I hate how people try to guilt-trip the members of this site for not buying products which do not meet any of those criteria.

Look at NWP. They get plenty of business from this site. That's because, to make spacers, they need complicated and expensive machinery and lots fo design work into ensuring the fitment is correct. Nobody here can make NWP spacers on their own. The spacers are what, $200? In this case, the raw materials ALSO make up less than a quarter of the cost, but the remainder of the cost is having the specialized machinery to cut the spacers exactly the right size and shape, and the design work that went into making them fit. And, there are dyno-proven gains from them.

For a grounding kit, the raw materials also make up less tha a quarter of the cost, but there is no complicated or expensive equipment or design work. If you can use a dollar-store tape measure and a $5 wire cutting/stripping/crimping tool, you can make a grounding kit. Any improvements from it are subjective at best.

 

Psssh Watever. I really dont care that I paid to have the kit made, $50 was nothing for a mod that I could notice a difference.

 

You guys, yes you can go out locally and buy the parts for cheap. But Cart wanted to support the org. If ya'll will read the sellers post, he says that the high cost is because of the shipping costs to get the bulk wire to him. Hes not trying to rip anyone off.

Good review, glad it works.

 

grounding wires are good for old cars with crusty factory grounding points. clean them and you're good to go. most newer cars don't need them. $50 for a kit that cost $15 at most is robbery.

 

Isnt everything you buy robbery? A new car does not cost 20k+ to make. Clothes do not cost $20+ to make, an xbox 360 does not cost 200+ to make, even the kit does not cost the store $15.

 

It's not the wires themselves. it's knowing what to attach to what.

Even with freshly cleaned grounds on an almost-new vehicle, I noticed an improvement in shift and throttle response installing one of my ground kits after cleaning the wires (no change) and then installing the kit.

Those of you that haven't tried one and don't know the background behind WHY these do what they do, and think grounding the intake manifold to the strut tower is smart, then it's time to stop talking out your asses and actually try something.

Do I sell them? yeah. Was I skeptical about them at first? Yup. I said the same things you guys are saying. Then I designed and installed one for my car. then my wife's car. then several customer cars that I had coming through the shop for suspension work. every one- every single one- saw an immediate improvement in driveability on the car and was impressed with the difference the ground kits made.

installed a kit and it didn't make a difference? then lemme guess, you were grounding the strut tower to something unrelated on the engine? how many electrical sensors and components are grounded on the strut tower or the fender well? Think about it a while and you might start to figure things out.

 

No. Shipping isn't free, and labor isn't free either.

He's not making an unreasonable amount of profit from this. But the extra shipping costs, and the fact that he needs some compensation for his labor means that these require a significant price premium over just doing it yourself. He's not ripping people off, he just has overhead costs that can't be reduced to make it a cost-effective alternative to DIY except for those people with no wiring experience.

 

Good review. Makes me want a set too. Maybe you can get them to add this to the sticky for reviews! I dont believe its been added in there yet. Also, what exactly made you stall out a couple times? Did you do anything to fix it or did it just magicaly work in the morning?! Ha, that part confused me! lol

Also, it would seem to me that this is a good deal if you look around for them. You could always go DIY for cheap, or about $20's for generic. But there are kits out there that cost up to $160. NRG, HKS, AEM, Greddy, and plenty more make them, or did at one time. I would have to say that they could only charge that because they are made specificaly for that vehicle and all the guess work is taken out of the proccess... I would personaly spend the "extra" $15 or $20 to have all the problems solved for me! As cartman854 said, it came with instructions and the wires were already pre-bent... That just makes the install a breeze! Why waste 2 or 3 hours of my time crimping, cutting, heat shrinking, measuring, and investigating when its all done already! Not to mention the products he uses are some top notch stuff! Anywho, thats my $.02!

Ill be getting mine when I get home!

 

I bought a kit from the same guy and definitely noticed the difference. I had no stalling issue though.

For all you people who are *****ing about the price, just don't buy a kit and you won't have to worry about it.

 

As to the stalling issue, im not quite sure, I think I will go back thru tomorrow and make sure all the grounds are tight. It stalled again last night when I was driving up a deep grass hill, and gave it gas, than a car cut me off so I took my foot off and it stalled. I was only there because of the fireworks done by the city, and I figured out my car can fit on sidewalks... lol

 

Make sure you didn't remove any of the original grounds. the kit is supposed to add to them, not replace them. also make sure none of the small wires were broken during the install. older cars have a tendency to break the wiring when you start messign with it.

 

You guys think that using this grounding kit would help with dimming of lights when subs are hitting bass hard?

 

Thanks for sharing this man.

 

it should help a tiny bit... but probably not as much as you want it too... sounds more like you need a cap...



also, cartman, you said you removed your intake system from the tb out. make sure youve got everything hooked back up correctly and tight. sounds like you could have possibly left something loose.

 

What he said...lol

 

wait? so you got cut off driving down the sidewalk? LOL!

 

I recently purchased and installed a kit on my 4th gen.
It's a very nicely made kit, you can see the workmanship.
It's fit was just about as perfect as you can get.
Instructions were fine too.
Looks great, almost blends into the engine bay - perfect!

My car isn't any faster, it seems to run exactly the same.
What changed was the initial start up. It fires instantly, just a flick of the key and Max is running. Intermittently I've been getting extended cranks, that's completely gone after the grounding kit was installed.
The kit did exactly what I was hoping it would do.
That in itself is completely worth the 40 some odd dollars spent - Thank you!

 

years ago I purchased one of these kits from matt93se (?). I did install it, but mine is a little different than the one posted here. My kit has grounds for the ecu, negative battery, and alternator. only have to remove the small cover that hides the front injectors. works great and the startup was improved. idle seems to have smoothed out also.

 

Yup, that woulda been one of mine.

 

there are some who point out what a rip off the kits are, yet many people still buy them.

so to those who think the price is too high and a rip off - make a similar kit and sell it cheaper

 

No, when I was cut off I was going up a grassy hill thing. It was a madhouse. I should have recorded it lolz. I was one of the only cars in the field because of the difficulty to get in, mostly trucks were around, but I did see a new Charger...

 

good ****... i made my own with 0 gauge and just did "the big 3". why your car stalls..maybe one of the connections is loose....but i do wanna add more grounds, it don't hurt!

 

I still cant comprehend what made you drive over a side walk, up a hill, and into a field. And why were there no cops stopping ya'll lol

 

what did you have to do for the ecu ground?

 

so...a DIY w/pics seems a lot more helpfull than paying for wire and instruction, after looking into this i believe i will install some more grounds however i dont wanna pay to have someone tell me where to put them, most things on the org have write-ups i feel like that is what im paying for on this one its not what the org is about.


so that said anyone have a full list of ground points (i have seen a couple but which ons are the best?) i want to do as many as needed even a little over kill to see how much difference i can make, i am looking to improve downshifting/throtle response a bit.

 

I wd say the kits work. Hell, jus clean your grounds and u wd feel a difference.

I been meanin on doing this mod, jus been to hot outside.

 

lol same here its wayy too hot i went to look at em and went back in the house instead!

 

It was on the 4th of July, we drove to the bay/waterfront edge because they shoot the fireworks from a barge over the docks. I only had to drive on the sidewalk because it was a driveramp thing with a chain going across, so I had to squeeze past the wood guard and the edge of the curb.

 

The Emperor's New Clothes.

 

i might be in the wrong for putting this here but has anybody seend this and what do you think of this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/UNIVE...item19bd471068

 

its a generic grounding kit that will go from the battery negative terminal to the normal grounding points. the kit your looking at runs wires all over the engine bay. the kit in this review is one that replaces/adds to your normal grounding points. to me its a cleaner design since you dont have a spider web all over your engine bay...

 

I looked at that as a possiblility, but I didnt want to have grounds going to dumb spots or ground the wrong thing and have a bad situation.

 

Thanks for sharing the review. I learn something new.

 

Can we please wrap this up and Lock it? Theres been millions of discussions about grounding kits.

The End Verdict?

Grounding kits CAN help, but only on a car with insufficient grounds. But no new car will ever see benfits from more grounds.