i have a client that gave me his buddyclub grounding kit off his acura, i was wondering if it would give me more horsepower and better mpg, he said on most cars there is always gains in both, thanks...

 

in my experience, there is no appreciable difference. It may not fit if it was car specific. a generic kit may fit though.

 

ya he ownes his own shop in ontario, ca, he said it would work.. just wondering if would cause anything to go wrong on the car>..

 

no. it just grounds the car better which some say makes things smoother. i installed one on my brother's is300 and it made no difference. i hear it works better for automatics, but since you have a 6mt it really doesn't matter. i'd say it's mostly a cosmetic mod. Even then some kits look nasty after awhile due to the heat and turn brownish.

 

I guess I'm out of touch ... but what does a grounding kit do?

 

3-5 Horsepower increase- Increased Fuel Mileage- Better Electrical Current (Headlights Brighter, Stereo stronger, etc. but does it work i have no idea..

 

Um, isn't the car already grounded through the wheels? How else would I get shocked to death every time get out of a car with cloth seats and then touch the body? Sounds like snake oil. Hey, anyone want an electric turbo or some high performance blinker fluid?

 

Of course there's only one way to truly know...

That said, I also believe that it will be more trouble than it's worth.

 

It will only help if there is something wrong or lacking with the existing setup.

 

no, the car is insulated from electrical ground by the wheels. rubber is an insulator. this is why you are safe remaining in the car should you be in a lightning storm or if a power line falls on your car. current will flow through the path of least resistance and while your car is insulated by the tires the resistance is very high, therefore the current will not flow through your car and possibly through you.

the static electricity your talking about is a slightly different phenomenon. with static electricity you are building a charge on your body which discharges to the car because of the electrical potential difference between your body and the car's body. think of it this way, the doorknobs in your house are not grounded, but you can be shocked by them too if you are shuffling your feet on a rug.

the guys on the subaru forums swear up and down they see power increases of around 5-10hp from the grounding kits. it's a legitimate upgrade but may not yield the same increases on every car due to differences in manufacturing and electrical connections. it should smooth out your idle and help maintain a better electrical/charging system.

if your car has bad electrical connections from the factory then this will yield better performance.

Remmy

 

I heard it improves throttle response which is what really bothers me, but only for AT

 

There's no real difference in grounding kits. You just need to make sure that the length of each cable will fit your car.

 

As someone that has tried 3 different kits on my G35 (Sun Auto, Stillen, and GroundingGear), I can tell you that it does make a difference!

Not only are there construction quality differences (some significant in the E-bay kits I've seen, as well as the ones done in home workshops), but the actual grounding points used are markedly different! Some have even boosted the wire counts out of necessity because of the points used (some think that more=better, but it doesn't). The performance difference can be noticeable, so don't believe that all kits are the same.

As far as them making a difference in manual transmission equipped cars, one friend has it in his 6MT350z, and another in his 6MT G35. The throttle response is noticeable, as well as the smoothness! The Z fellow states that it also pulls harder in the mid gears going up hills on certain stretches of road. He wasn't expecting much, if anything when I talked him into the GroundingGear, and is now a convert.

Skeptics (as I was), come and go on the forums. Right now, a buddy is waiting for the GroundingGear for his 2007 G. I'm sure that the knock-off kit makers are waiting for the real thing so they can copy it.