2G Is it ok to ground the alternator?

[my95tsi]

Ok my voltager sometimes dips to 11.3 at idel with all my accesories going. It's a newer alternator and it works fine while driving but idle is an issues. I was going to add a 4 gauge wire to the alternator ground directly to ther battery ground. Will this help or is this dangerous. BTw is the alternator ground the other connection beside the red sleeved one?

 

[StreetSleeper34]

Ok my voltager sometimes dips to 11.3 at idel with all my accesories going. It's a newer alternator and it works fine while driving but idle is an issues. I was going to add a 4 gauge wire to the alternator ground directly to ther battery ground. Will this help or is this dangerous. BTw is the alternator ground the other connection beside the red sleeved one?

Just use one of the bolts that the alternator is attached with and go from there. Also consider using a 10 gauge wire from the power of the alternator directly to the battery. This will allow the current to return to the battery much quicker than the factory wiring.

 

[Turbo Talon DL]

so, that bolt that those wires on the alt connect to that run over to the alt fuse is the ground? hhmm...correct me if im wrong.

 

[Defiant]

Your alternator is dead.

 

[steve]

so, that bolt that those wires on the alt connect to that run over to the alt fuse is the ground? hhmm...correct me if im wrong.

No they are talking about using one of the alternator mounting bolts to supplement the ground connection.
The stud on the rear of the alternator that the original wire runs to is the B+ (charging) output of the alternator, it runs to the fuse and then to the positive terminal of the battery.

 

[leakyfaucet]

Also consider using a 10 gauge wire from the power of the alternator directly to the battery.

Yeah, consider that if you also want to take the risk of your wiring harness exploding and catching your engine on fire.

The stock wiring has fuses to prevent a horrible failure like this. When you bypass the fuses, you're taking a big risk.

 

[Turbo Talon DL]

No they are talking about using one of the alternator mounting bolts to supplement the ground connection.


Cool, it was nice out today so i traced that wire. So you can use a ground strap on a bolt and it will help stabalize electrical system further?

 

[steve]

Cool, it was nice out today so i traced that wire. So you can use a ground strap on a bolt and it will help stabalize electrical system further?

I assume the wire you were tracing was the charging one back to the alternator fuse because there isn't a ground wire normally. Right now the alternator grounds through the block. Putting a ground strap/wire from say the lower mounting bolt to the frame or to the battery negative terminal won't hurt. Can't say for sure if it's going to help any.

Steve

 

[ClevSilverEclip]

On my '95 TSi, grounding the alternator DID help - somewhat.

I'd been occasionally dipping into the 11s at idle before I grafted the grounding kit from my '92 GS 2L DOHC over to my '95 TSi. Now, at idle, the lowest I've dipped to is around 12.1V with the engine up to temp, the stereo running at a reasonable level, fogs and headlight (HID) on, interior neon on (minor), rear defroster on, interior fan on #2 setting, and the windshield wiper on.

-A
/

 

[my95tsi]

How did you ground it? So far all i've grounded was i put an extra 4 gauge wire from the negative ternina to the firewall. Then i put one from the negative terminal to the throttle body and then from the throttle body to the block. The alternator is fine it the wiring that has something to do with it. So how exactly should i correctly ground the alternator?

 

[ClevSilverEclip]

I didn't do anything scientific - just loosened one of the mounting bracket bolts and put it to that. Aside from that, I've got one of those fancy APEXi kits which simply costs a lot and looks great but more than likely doesn't do anything more than just some plain heavy-gauge wire . Current setup is neg. and positive terminals of battery to main unit's input points, one wire to main firewall ground, one to transmission, one to alternator.

Seems like different cars (not talking about make/model, but actual individual cars) respond differently to different grounding points.

-A
/

 

[DSMeanie]

When I installed an Unorthodox underdrive pulley on my 1G I started experiencing electrical problems resulting 2 alternators and 1 battery within a year-and-a-half span. I did the following charging system mods with astonishing results:

1. Run an 8ga. wire from the alternator to the 100amp fusible link terminal. On the opposite side of the fusible, with the existing wire to the battery + terminal, I added a lenght of 4ga wire.

2. Run an 4ga. wire directly from the neg. battery terminal to the alternator mounting bolt. Also I reinforced all the grounding points underhood, engine block, intake manifold and inside of the car with 4ga wire.

It's been 3 years now and I still have the same alternator not to mention the car runs better than ever and brighter lights overall.

 

[karbon]

Putting a ground strap/wire from say the lower mounting bolt to the frame or to the battery negative terminal won't hurt. Can't say for sure if it's going to help any.

Can't hurt but I sure hope that the ground to the block has a MUCH lower impedance (should be next to nothing, if not, check for corrosion between all mounting points between the block and alternator) than a more restrictive wire to battery ground. Most of us here seek to eliminate things like messy vaccuum lines and wires from our engine bay, but if you want to stick in redundant ground paths, more power to you

 

[DROOPY209]

I understand clearly what you are talking about.

Back in the day when I used to work in the high-end car audio shops, we used to install some expensive amps that would draw too much power from the alternator and battery, into some cars that probably couldnt handle it. Symptoms would include dimming headlights, battery light would come on, dead battery, and sometimes, the complete car would shut off. Problem being....the alternator. A quick fix that I used to do was to run a 4ga. wire from the battery negative terminal to the alternator bolt, a 4ga. wire from the firewall to the alternator, and a 4ga. wire from the alternator positive to the battery positive terminal, with a 80A fuse right in the middle of the wire.

This worked very well for every car that I encountered with low voltage problems.

Another solution is to get your alternator modified so that you can put out more amps at idle.