Trogdor636 Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 (edited) So I found this ground just kinda dangling. It comes from the body underneath the power steering pump bracket/holder, is it supposed to go to the exhaust manifold cover? Edited June 26, 2011 by Trogdor636 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 I don't think it matters where you ground it as long as it's actually grounded, but you likely know this already. And I don't know the original location of that ground, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nunya Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Don't know where it goes but the fact there's a bolt in it would make me suggest looking around in the area it will reach (without being stretched or tight) for a threaded hole lacking a bolt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted June 26, 2011 Author Share Posted June 26, 2011 Don't know where it goes but the fact there's a bolt in it would make me suggest looking around in the area it will reach (without being stretched or tight) for a threaded hole lacking a bolt. Yep. I looked. Nothing seemed to jump out at me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuong Nguyen Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 If you don't see a ground going to the exhaust manifold/heatshield than that would be it. Mine snapped off when I replaced the manifolds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted June 26, 2011 Author Share Posted June 26, 2011 If you don't see a ground going to the exhaust manifold/heatshield than that would be it. Mine snapped off when I replaced the manifolds. Thats sort of what I figured. The bolt looks exactly like the ones already in the heatshield. So now I assume I missing a bolt somewhere, or the previous owner did some junkyard digging. I thought I remembered my 2WD KA Hardbody with a ground going to the heatshield, figured it might be the same on the Pathy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverton Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 That ground strap goes to either the exhaust manifold as one of the bolts that holds the exhaust shield to the manifold, or on the block itself. but I'm voting for the heatshield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor636 Posted June 26, 2011 Author Share Posted June 26, 2011 Went and looked at my buddies. Sure enough, it goes on the heatshield, replaces that bolt that is in the pic. Extra bolts for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westslope Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Am experiencing glitchy electrical issues...... mws wrote in 2007: Posted 29 March 2007 - 04:18 PM That is a braided and bare copper ground strap, right? The simple answer: Probably not, but try to reattach somewhere on the engine block. The not so simple answer (Technophobes, RUN AWAY!) There are a lot of what appear to be "redundant" ground straps on modern computerized automobiles to assure various devices all see as close to 0 volts as possible on their ground legs, and far more importantly, that all sensors see as close to the exact same voltage at ground as possible. Nothing is ever exactly 0.00 volts except the ground plate in the battery. Everything before that is ever so slightly higher, due to the resistance in the conductors. The longer the path and the higher the resistivity of the path, the higher the "ground" voltage will be. If one component really close to the battery is seeing, say, 0.01 volts as ground, and another sees, say, 0.5 volts due to a long, high resistance ground path, things can start to malfunction due to sensors sending funky signals and currents flowing in abnormal ways. Maybe even frying transistors and other sensitive components. This is a very difficult problem to diagnose and repair. The solution? Try to avoid it! Hence, lots of ground straps from various components to a common "reference ground". This reference ground will be close to 0.00 due to the big cable to battery terminal, but will never be exactly 0.00. That is acceptable as long as all sensors see the same voltage as ground. In my techno world, that is called the reference ground. Not truly 0.00 volts, but a common reference of say, 0.020 volts. In the Pathy, the engine block is treated as the "reference" ground, and all sensitive electronics and sensors have the shortest possible and highest conducting ground paths to this common ground. Since copper has much less resistance than steel and the path is shorter, it causes less ground voltage variability than relying on the steel of the chassis as the ground conductor. So, is it problem if one or two come loose? Maybe, maybe not. But it could lead to some funky glitches. I suspect the other end of strap you see there is connected near the transistor module to give it a nice reference ground. Those are not too cheap to replace, so I would try to reconnect it somewhere on the engine block to minimize risk of it stressing the transistor and causing premature failure. And if a strap breaks or looks corroded, I replace it with a LARGER copper braid, solder the braid to the ring, clean the mounting surface, and seal up with dielectric grease to reduce resistance and risk of problems even more. Most would call that overkill. But guess how many times I've been stranded on the side of the road for "phantom" electrical glitches and failures? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westslope Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Is not that ground strap already attached to the exhaust manifold cover? In my vehicle there is a strap attached to the passenger rear exhaust manifold. At the other end is a plastic clip attachment and no obvious place on the ..... chassis to attach it. I assume chassis because why would you ground the exhaust manifold to the engine block? So I found this ground just kinda dangling. It comes from the body underneath the power steering pump bracket/holder, is it supposed to go to the exhaust manifold cover? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 There is one of those ground straps on each side. They go from the chassis to each exhaust manifold. The connector plugs into something on the chassis. Neither is critical really, but remove enough grounds and you'll have problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 (edited) I have headers so I don't have either grounds. They didn't change anything for me. The real ground goes from the engine to the chassis directly to the negative battery post. The heat shield grounds are really useless just like those stupid heat shields that I like to just rip off and recycle for scrap. Not having heat shields on your exhaust manifolds will cause the studs to live longer without breaking in half. Edited September 14, 2011 by Tungsten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 The thing is that there is a non-zero distance between all the ground points, as mentioned by westslope above. Presumably by saving your exhaust studs you roast the rest of your engine compartment faster thought without the shields. Not that it necessarily makes a huge difference either way... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westslope Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 There are number of issues being discussed in this thread. 1) The exhaust manifold heat shields. Mine are off. (I have them in the shed.) 2) Grounding. Whether the ground strap is attached to the heat shield or directly to the exhaust manifold should not make a difference. That said, I would still like to figure out where the passenger side exhaust manifold ground strap clips on to the chassis. I'll have to examine a bunch of junked pathies to figure that one out. Or ask the folks at the dealership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I would like to know where they go as well, if you wouldn't mind snapping a few pictures while you're there. I don't have any of those grounds anymore and while I haven't noticed anything huge, I think a few of my little intermittent electrical gremlins could be related. And I don't think the heat shields (which I still have on) have anything to do with the exhaust stud life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I still have both grounds, so I can take some pics sometime, maybe later tonight, not sure. Kinda hectic... probably partially because I spend too much time posting on the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edicer2 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 i ditched my grounds when i got headers and havent had a problem yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 (edited) Ok, I didn't take any pics but here is where the grounds attach: Driver's side: to a spade terminal on a bolt directly below the evap canister. Passenger side: to a spade terminal on a bolt just in front of (towards the front of the vehicle) the fuel filter (and down a little bit). This one might be hidden behind some stuff, like the main engine ground. I would not be surprised if either spade was broken off. Both are on the vehicle body if that wasn't obvious. Edited September 15, 2011 by sewebster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westslope Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Excellent. I'll check the driver side tab a little later today. 10^3 thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westslope Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Found it sewebster. Needed to move the point of attachment to the passenger-side exhaust manifold forward. Would photograph if it wasn't so tight and dark. The ground straps from both left and right exhaust manifolds are now connected to the engine well body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Where can you buy this ground strap stuff, because I think wire might not be a good idea for that close to the exhaust lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Where can you buy this ground strap stuff, because I think wire might not be a good idea for that close to the exhaust lol. I'm thinking either some electrical supply place, or maybe even something like home depot to try to get some strapping to ground pipes and stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 The thing is that there is a non-zero distance between all the ground points, as mentioned by westslope above. Presumably by saving your exhaust studs you roast the rest of your engine compartment faster thought without the shields. Not that it necessarily makes a huge difference either way... On a first gen Pathfinder, you do not get anything roasted by removing those heat shields. Whoever said anything about roasting components without the heat shields is a moron. Nothing comes close to those exhaust manifolds to even be roasted. Also, those ground straps can be attached elsewhere besides the hot exhaust manifolds and be just as close to the engine. The exhaust manifolds would be the last place I would put ground straps. Putting ground straps on exhaust manifolds or even heat shields is a stupid idea because heat creates resistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 I'm the moron I guess. I'm not saying that removing the shields is going to instantly kill anything, but I'm pretty sure the temperature of stuff in the engine compartment will rise a bit. So, for instance, insulation on wires near the exhaust could become brittle faster etc. Or it could be that the Nissan engineers put them in solely to frustrate you. I doubt they were too concerned with the resistance change due to temperature, they just picked the shields/manifolds as a convenient place to add some grounds since they stick out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 (edited) Or it could be that the Nissan engineers put them in solely to frustrate you. Bingo. The engine bay will be slightly warmer without the heat shields but it has no effect on the insulation of wires. The only reason why I think that heat shields are even there is to prevent something cool from touching the hot manifolds while the engine is running and warping/cracking them. Other than that they are pretty useless and some newer vehicles don't even have heat shields over exhaust manifolds. My drivers side heat shield just rusted off and was gone from rattling and breaking away. Edited September 16, 2011 by Tungsten 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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