qwikranger

Hi, first post here. I've been lurking for a little while though.

The cheap upgrade that has most intrigued me was to upgrade the factory ground points and I wouldn't have done it had I not encountered problems with my Bel Vector 95. I'd noticed that since I bought my '01 Civic 2 months ago that it had not been near as reliable as it had been in my F-150. Well, it has a voltage meter function on it and often times it would drop below 12 volts which left it on but not picking up any radar signals.

After I read about the ground wires upgrade, I went ahead and changed out the stock ground from battery to chassis, from chassis to motor mount and from the thermostat to the radiator housing. Well, after 1 day my radar detector in volt meter mode has not dropped below 12.6 volts and is pretty constant at 13.4 volts.

So I guess this is simple proof that it certainly does free up some voltage drops.

It only cost me $10 by going to Home depot and buying 5 ft. of 4 awg wire and 6 ring terminals. I had some steel wool lying around and stripped the ground points with that.

Mission accomplished!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

That's cool, but I don't think that's what happens. I have a grounding kit and my voltage drops below 12V all the time. There is an electronic load detector (ELD) that turns off the alternator when demand for power is low. This is something new on the civics and can often cause the car to run directly off the battery, thus showing less than 12V.