MX-3.com

After doing a bit of reading around here.. and after noticing that my headlights dim when I hit the brakes.. I have decided to replace the ground straps on my ride. Anyone have a suggestion or two on what gauge cable would be best and or good connectors? TIA

Tunes67

get one of them ebay ground kits. They're greap and work great so i've heard. Pretty sure they're 4 gauge

Nah.. just gonna hit a welding shop and get the cables there.. I hate e-bay LOL Thanks for the reply though

Tunes67

Have a look at Gro's how to here http://www.projectmazda.com/howto/groundwire/

I did a 4 gauge set and made them up myself.

I would also go ahead and upgrade your power wire from your alt. to your battery also....

Hey check out my cardomain site like pg 5 or 6 for the Summit Racing Groundstrap drawing. I added a 4 gauge braded ground strap in place of the original one and my headlights do not dim and more and my Passenger one seems brighter. Just added the one and it seemed to work nice.

Thanks for the tips guys.. I replaced two this time out. Got some 4 gauge wire from Central Welding Supply and some connectors.. soldered them up with a propane torch and replaced the cable on the passenger side from the head to the passenger wheel well top and then made another to replace the main negative battery terminal connection. This helped out a LOT, no more dimming and it even had the kinda weird side effect of dropping my idle 200 RPM.. will have to reset that tomorrow. Both headlights seem quite a bit brighter.. dont even have to drive with highbeams on all the time now

Wide_mx3 - Thats a good idea.. I will hit that one next.

Grants - Thanks for the link, couple of things there I didnt think of

I'll get my hands on a digital camera here soon so I can get some pics of my ride and show you how any of my mods come out. Thanks again guys


Tunes67

Great to hear it made a difference! Well done

do you dash lights still dim when you hit the brake?

mine still does. I upgraded, both head ground straps to 4gauge, gold terminals on the battery, new negative battery wire. And it still does it!!!

were there any other straps you changed?

Oddly enough.. my dash lights dont dim when I hit the brakes.. but they do still dim when I switch from low beam to hi beam. This is more pronounced with the more power I have running.. like the heater or my stereo or even if I hit the rear window defroster button. I am gonna check my alternator connections and get the alternator checked soon as well. Going to load test my battery as well. On the positive side, my head lights dont dim at all any more since doing these cable upgrades. I am also planning to run a couple more ground cables similar to what Gro did.. but I want to also add one directly to the block someplace.. need to investigate further and likely I wont get a chance to dink with it more till next weekend.

Tunes67

mine does that..alternator issue possibly? i may have to get a biger alternator wire..what about those things they sell no ebay.. battery stabalizxer or something like that.

Heh.. hit a welding supply store.. for what those kits go for on e-bay you can build 4 sets of better quality. I bought 6 feet of 4 gauge wire for $5.32.. 16 connectors of various sizes (4 of each size) for $8.00 .. had the solder and the propane torch.. I have only replaced 2 of the connections so far.. will get the others next weekend. Need to get some measurements and I want to get the alternator out and tested.

Tunes67

I've heard that the alternator in the 1.6 is vairly weak ( my brand new one only puts out 60a ). A lot of people have been putting on the 1.8 alternator rated at 90a and I guess all you have to do is swap the pully and mount it upside down.... regular wiring hook up works with it.

yup, I got one from the gs for my rs. looks fairly straitforward install wise, will be doing the swap as soon as I get some ground wires and a new battery

I'll have to look into that and see how much a GS alternator would cost.. or maybe I can snag one out of a bone yard and have it rebuilt. Not sure it would really be neccessary though.. I dont run power hungry audio equipment.. my car is pretty much stock in that regard. I did notice recently that my horn has stopped functioning.. brake lights still work so I dont think its a fuse.. but I will be checking the fuses today anyway just in case. Beginning to wonder if the previous owner damaged the alternator when he was jumpstarting the car after having let it sit for 2 months which allowed the battery to die. Also wondering if maybe the battery is having issues since it was killed and wasnt revived on a proper charger.. have heard that for this car you shouldnt jumpstart the car and you should only put in a fully charged battery. Guess I will swap in the battery from the Subaru before I off it this week. In anycase.. I dont think there is a short anywhere.. I am thinking worst case scenario its just the alternator has a blown diode or something making its already weak output even weaker.

Tunes67