Is this a good ground?

[Torgus 10+ year member]

isn't there a stickey on how to make grounds? and how to test if a ground is good...

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

noise could be a lot of things, but the ground is usually the suspect. That's why i ground straight to the battery

This is correct.

Straight to battery is a waste of cable. find a solid piece of metal like the frame of the car. that noise you hear is most likely your alternator. Fix your ground then if you still hear it you have more work do to find your ground loop.

Dude you are wrong. The best ground is the one with the least resistance. If you think that 10 pieces of welded steel are better than a piece of 1/0 copper, you are dead wrong. Just think about what you are saying and maybe you will see. Maybe.

Do you even know what a ground is? The ground is not just any piece of metal in the car. That is not the end of the loop. The end of the loop is the case of the alternator. So you are relying on welded steel to get the electrons back to the alternator and dragnix is using a wire. I don't know how you could possibly think your way is better.

Noob! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crazy.gif.c13912c32de98515d3142759a824dae7.gif

 

[xNaStYx 10+ year member]

So if I moved the carpet and found a bolt or made a hole for one down there would that be better? I don't really feel like running another wire to the front of my car and spending the money.

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

So if I moved the carpet and found a bolt or made a hole for one down there would that be better? I don't really feel like running another wire to the front of my car and spending the money.

That should be good. But as far as the noise, what HU do you have? You may need to ground your RCAs.

Edit: I see it in your sig....... Ground the RCAs and see if that works.

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

So if I moved the carpet and found a bolt or made a hole for one down there would that be better? I don't really feel like running another wire to the front of my car and spending the money.

If you can't run a dedicated wire, then find the biggest bolt near your amp. It probably will be for a seat belt or to hold your seats in. That would be the best place usually. Make sure you use a ring terminal on the end of the wire and that if you remove an important bolt like a seat belt that you make sure it is tightened properly.

 

[chereck04 10+ year member]

Yeah but if you run 18 feet of 0awg at $3 a foot, do you really want to spend another $50 some more dollars for a ground when you can just get 3 feet and have the same thing?

While a second run of wire to the (-) terminal isn't always necessary, it certainly provides the path of least resistance. In my experience, unibody cars are more prone to needing that second run of wire because the body & subframes arent very good conductors.

So if I moved the carpet and found a bolt or made a hole for one down there would that be better? I don't really feel like running another wire to the front of my car and spending the money.

If you're getting feedback I would start by grounding your rca cables. If you're still getting feedback then try moving the ground. On unibody cars I typically remove one of the seat bolts, sand away the paint from the body, then sandwich the terminal between the body and the seat mounting bracket.

 

[MkKin420 10+ year member]

Straighten up them wires and keep your power and ground wires away from your rca and speaker wires. Do you have your power and remote wire on one side of the vehicle going to the amps and your rca's on the other side going to the amps.

 

[Torgus 10+ year member]

Straighten up them wires and keep your power and ground wires away from your rca and speaker wires. Do you have your power and remote wire on one side of the vehicle going to the amps and your rca's on the other side going to the amps.

it's fine to run power and rcas on the same side. true story.

 

[xNaStYx 10+ year member]

This weekend I am going to clean up those wires while re grounding my amps. I have the RCA's on the left side and both power wires on the right so even if it does or doesn't matter, they ARE separated.

 

[xNaStYx 10+ year member]

If you're getting feedback I would start by grounding your rca cables.

Like in the sticky?