FYI - for those who are interested in upgrading their battery (-) grounds...

There is a 6 AWG chassis to transmission (6 M/T) ground under the air filter housing. I added a 4 AWG battery ground cable to the chassis at this location with a 19" pre-made cable from AutoZone, which is the perfect length. You need the kind with bolt holes on each end.

The existing 4 AWG cable that is attached on the strut mount is soldered to the negative battery terminal, so removing the 10mm nut from the top of the terminal does not disconnect the battery. Just saying that so you know you don't have to worry about reprogramming your radio or anything. I also added a 12 AWG jumper (custom) from the M/T ground to the T/B.

Now there are (2) 4 AWG battery grounds, which in my experience, helps the efficiency of the charging system.

Total time to install was about 1 hour, including soldering the eye terminals on the T/B ground jumper. If you skip this step, you could have it done in 15 minutes, tops.

 

I suppose you just bolted them cables right on top of the painted surfaces ??

Only improvement needed is to unscrew lug adjacent to hood hinge for negative cable, and grind the paint to bare steel.. everybody should know paint is an insulator,, not a conductor.. do same for cable at left frame rail and right strut tower.. all done

 

Actually, I did scrape off the paint under the chassis ground by the transmission. Keep in mind that dielectric grease is required on the bare metal you scrape the paint off of because of the certainty of galvanic corrosion.

I agree that paint is an insulator. But all of the body grounds use thread cutter bolts that clean out the hole and rely upon the threads for the connection, not the painted sheet metal underneath. This is true of every harness-to-ground connection on the entire vehicle.

Also, the improvement I was going for was increasing the ampacity potential of the system by adding another 4 AWG cable. To me, the single 4 AWG ground cable was a probable bottleneck.

 

An rust develops in the threads of the fastener, and now we insulate the threaded connection with brown powder rust acting as barrier.. seen it already here on a handfull of our cars.. large metal lug on large bare metal surface provide a lot more load carry than 1 or 2 6mm bolt full of paint or rust.

 

Agreed, just don't forget the grease.

I use anti-seize on all non-torqued body bolts that I remove for some reason or another. It works similar to dielectric if it is compatible to the metals being joined. Heck, synthetic wheel bearing grease cured problems with fretting corrosion in an A/T wiring harness for me before.

Oxidation is an insulator whether you can see it (rust) or not, so protect against it!

 

Skip adding another ground to the body. Go straight from the battery to the engine block or transmission.

 

That's actually what I did, I piggy-backed it down at the chassis bolt under the airbox that the transmission ground is attached to.

 

Do you feel any difference in the car

 

No offense, but why do we need to add a new ground for the battery? What's wrong with the OEM battery ground? What is to be gained? Hoping to learn something. Thanks.

 

Upgrading ground wires is usually reserved for adding audio systems to cars, but is helpful anytime you want to maximize the grounding of your electrical system. It can be for any reason even for something "just to do" on a bored afternoon.

Upgrading a car's electrical system: do you need the big 3?
How To Perform The Big 3 Upgrade | Learning Center | Sonic Electronix

 

How To Perform The Big 3 Upgrade | Learning Center | Sonic Electronix[/url]

I removed both of my grounding cables on the 2013, buffed the paint off the connectors, reassembled.

Seemed the thing to do. That body grounding tab had been sprayed with the vehicle's color paint by the robots. Seemed logical that bare-metal-to-bare-metal would be light year's ahead of the factory method: a metal screw holding the ground lug to the body tab. Only grounding provided under the factory scenario were the screw threads contacting the screw hole.

Going to check this on the 2017 when I get home. If needed, I'll repeat the procedure. I'm also from the school of thought that a better ground is a good thing!

 

In my case, I had an extra cable that I wanted to make use of.

I can't say that this helped anything, but I didn't have an issue to begin with anyway.

 

Sounds logical: Extra cable, time, and it can only make an improvement, theoretically from an electronic engineering standpoint. Good project. :wink:

 

My wife's Mazda5 had a pathetic body ground from the battery to the inner fender with a single bolt through thin sheet metal. Needless to say, I upgraded her main grounding points as well.

 

Most Asian cars use the body for ground. It is problematic if there is any corrosion that starts. At the minimum I add a main ground from the engine to the battery ground.

 

Just curious but whats the point of regrounding? I know my father-in-law did that to his Maxima before just curious as to what it benefits exactly?

 

Not trying to be a smart a$$, but there's any number of great reasons for this listed above your post. And all of them have merit.

I especially like the @Red Raspberry comment: "Engine-To-Battery-Ground" scenario. Gonna look at this option this weekend!!!! Great, practical idea.

 

Just remembered I have an extra 4 AWG battery cable terminated at both ends...laying around the garage. All I need to do is find an accessible bolt on the 2017's engine with the other to the battery ground. Tah-da......
:thumbsup:

 

I was working on the Accent yesterday and saw where one of the two ground points off the battery go. One is right by the battery and the other is down in the fender area. That one was all rusty bolts and lugs.

 

I just stay away from adding any cables directly to the battery. Just a neater appearance as you can easily use where the OEM ground wire attaches to the frame.