DIY: Grounding Contact Cleaning
Does your car sometimes experience dimming of lights? Does it occasionally need a few cranks before the engine fires up? Or does it show signs of a depleted
DIY: Grounding Contact Cleaning
Does your car sometimes experience dimming of lights? Does it occasionally need a few cranks before the engine fires up? Or does it show signs of a depleted battery even if your mechanic has confirmed both battery and alternator are perfectly fine?
If you answered yes to all above questions, it is possible that your car is suffering from poor electrical grounding especially when it’s close to a decade old or more.
Unlike electricity in our house, most vehicle electrical appliances use the chassis as its grounding point. As a result it is unsurprising if these grounding points degrade due to rust, corrosion and exposure to the elements. Fortunately though, most common ‘problematic’ grounding points are located under the hood where they can be cleaned without much hassle. Here’s how
Tools
- Sand paper/copper brush
- Antirust spray and lithium grease (optional)
- Screw driver or spanners
- Rags or old newspaper for cleanup
- Locate the ground cables of the car in the engine bay. One would usually be connecting the battery’s negative terminal to the chassis or engine/transmission; another would connect the engine block to the chassis
- using a screw driver or spanner, unscrew the screw or bolt that holds the connect point
- remove any signs of rust on both the connector ring and thread of the screw/bolt with the sand paper or copper brush
- Spray some antirust onto the screw hole and thread
- Refit the components and make sure the screw is tight. Spraying an additional layer of antirust would help protect the unpainted areas although coating with some lithium grease would last longer
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