Socket7

So, in the process of upgrading my stereo I've been giving some serious consideration to where I want to ground my system. I've seen a lot of setups here, and a lot of install logs, but nobody has posted pictures of where they grounded their gear! Lets fix that in this thread.

I was really looking to ground my stereo to its own location, but after spending some time looking around for a good spot, the only one I found is the factory trunk ground. I'm going to take off that bolt, sand the area down to bare metal and use it. Anyone else ground their stereo here?

Juice

iTrader: (1)

Mine is grounded right below the pass through. Sanded the area and self tapping screws hold it down. I don't have a picture, but if you pull the carpet up a little bit, you can see that the metal comes up a bit around the bottom of the opening. I just did it right there because I have the amp attached to the rear seats, so it was pretty much the shortest distance.

WikkedOne

I ran a gound all the way back to the battery - after following the instruction on the good ground sticky i couldn't find anywhere that would give me less than 1 ohm in the trunk...

Juice

iTrader: (1)

Now you have me wondering WikkedOne. I think I might test mine tomorrow for resistance and see what I get.

Socket7

There is a very interesting note in the grounding sticky about grounding to the body of the car.

The ground lines under the hood are smaller then 4 gauge. Anyone looking to ground a stereo in the trunk is going to need to install some kind of grounding kit under the hood.

firebirdude

iTrader: (3)

....Or just upgrade the ground wire from batt to chassis...

IcarusX8

I usually just put it on my tongue

jstkilntim

Don't forget to disconnect the battery before testing or you could get faulty readings.

I have my system grounded on one of the bottom bolts that hold the rear seat backrest in.

It is recommended, if not going back to the battery, to upgrade the wiring from B- to chasis as firebird said.

forbidden

Post the results of your testing for all to see please.

Juice

iTrader: (1)

OK, I just tested the ground. I tested it exactly how it describes in the ground sticky so I don't want to hear any crap about my methods!

My ground as tested was giving me .01 Ohms of resistance. I had the multimeter set to 200K and it wouldn't even give me a reading, so I had to set it to 20K to even see the 1/100 of an Ohm reading. I used some 16 guage remote wire to extend the leads and it came back with a 0 Ohm reading so I can say that the car was what was giving me the small amount of resistance and not the extension.

Using the ground in Socket7's post, I also got .01 Ohms of resistance.

I would also like to point out that I am only using 8 gauge power/ground wires for my amp. The grounds under the hood are also 8 gauge so this works out fine. If you decide to run bigger wires, it might be a good idea to upgrade the big 3 as well.

Socket7

Yah, I tested that point today with a meter, As well as some of the ground points under the hood. All of them seem to be pretty good. I'm going to go with one 4 gauge wire from the battery to one of the stock grounding points under the hood, just to make sure I don't melt something, anything else might raise warranty questions.