Replace car's grounding system improves gas mileage and horse power??

the follow is an excerpt from a "motley fool" article. (i didn't know which forum to post this to. the "diy" forum seemed most logical because it talks about altering the car somewhat.)

the author wrote about tips to improve gas mileage. the 1st 1/2 of the article talked about replacing your stock air filter w/ a aftermarket high flow one. i can see his point. however, his 2nd suggestion about replacing the car's ground wired system caught me off guard. i'm not sure if i agree with that. anyone heard of this? you agree? ...maybe this suggestion is really meant for very old cars?

anway, here is 2nd 1/2 of the article.

"A second relatively easy -- but slightly more labor-intensive -- thing you can do to improve gas mileage is to purchase a set of grounding wires. Basically, grounding wires replace your car's grounding system and net horsepower and gas mileage gains by reducing electrical resistance. You'll have to get under the hood and figure out the connections, but it is cheap and effective -- moreso on older cars than brand new ones -- and it can't hurt the car.
If you're willing to pay up, you can purchase a set of Sun Automotive's Hyper Ground Cables or HKS's Circle Earth System for about $125, or you can pick up a set of Lineage Grounding Wires for under $100. Alternatively, you can pick up a set of generic cables on eBay Motors for about $20 to $30 without giving up much, or even make your own kit with parts you can pick up at your local Radio Shack or Home Depot (NYSE: HD) for about $20."

Originally Posted by jaisonline

the follow is an excerpt from a "motley fool" article. (i didn't know which forum to post this to. the "diy" forum seemed most logical because it talks about altering the car somewhat.)

the author wrote about tips to improve gas mileage. the 1st 1/2 of the article talked about replacing your stock air filter w/ a aftermarket high flow one. i can see his point. however, his 2nd suggestion about replacing the car's ground wired system caught me off guard. i'm not sure if i agree with that. anyone heard of this? you agree? ...maybe this suggestion is really meant for very old cars?

anway, here is 2nd 1/2 of the article.

I don't get it...

How does electrical resistance have anthing to do with the mileage and HP unless it makes the engine performe more effeciently? I see the effeciency of the engine being a mechanical process for the most part, not an electrical one.

This came out of the r1cer community. I'd like to see ANY scientific evidence (not Tornado-style 'bench evidence') that this does absolutely anything except lightening your wallet.

Bad grounds can have a severe impact on the performance of the car's stereo and it could do things like make the GM go wacko in a BMW (we've seen that) but how does it affect gas mileage?

It might help. My first exotic car was a mid-60s Italian car. It made a loud sound under the hood when the headlights and rear window defroster were turned on. I traced it to a slipping fan belt from the additional load put on the generator. I replaced the wires going to the rear window defroster, got a new fan belt, and adjusted the tension. There were too many changes to know the separate effects, but the noise went away and mileage improved. The bottom line is that generator load can have an effect, especially on smaller engined cars.

hi emailed the author yesterday and here are both emails.

==================
>Subject: "Help Gas Mileage for Under $100." from Dec 1, 2004
>Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 16:26:13 -0500
>
>Hello Mr. Hwang,
>
>I just said your article, "Help Gas Mileage for Under $100." I am very
>curious how replacing a car's grounding system will improve net
>horsepower and gas mileage by reducing electrical resistance.
>
>Do you have any documented proof?
>
>
>Thanks so much for reading my e-mail,

====================


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 1:48 AM
Subject: RE: "Help Gas Mileage for Under $100." from Dec 1, 2004


Hi,

Reducing electrical resistance doesn't actually make power, it saves it. You
probably wouldn't see much of a gain on a new car, but older cars with poor
grounding are robbing you of power. This is also true when you make
extensive modifications, such as adding a stereo system. I've read a bit
about it, but I'll have to run a search to find you a more definitive study.

Jeff

Sounds like a load of to me.

if you could improve power and mileage by running some grounding wires don't you think all the manufacturers would install it on the vehicle rather than spend millions of dollars on other attempts for the same improvement

If we push our electromechanical knowledge (and our imagination) a little bit we can see the possibility of a defective ground point in our car forcing the alternator to overcome the current resistance caused by this by increasing its output and thus making the engine a little bit more strained trying to keep up with the alternator demand... there is your increase of gas mileage.

Maybe (I am not sure, I will be checking this out...) that was the old way of the alternator functioning, before better gounding (less resistance) wiring materials and "smart" alternators controls of nowadays...

How bout if the ground wire is THAT insufficient that its not allowing the spark plugs enough amperage to make a complete spark? Only way I can see this as happening.. I've seen some pretty crummy grounds in some older cars in the past... but if you figure out the current draw of plugs I'd imagine that even a 10 gauge wire would handle that amperage and I've never seen a car with that small of a ground... Sounds to me like those great resistor "chips" they sell on ebay...

Originally Posted by minig0d

How bout if the ground wire is THAT insufficient that its not allowing the spark plugs enough amperage to make a complete spark? Only way I can see this as happening.. I've seen some pretty crummy grounds in some older cars in the past... but if you figure out the current draw of plugs I'd imagine that even a 10 gauge wire would handle that amperage and I've never seen a car with that small of a ground... Sounds to me like those great resistor "chips" they sell on ebay...

keep in mind though, that resistor chip is aimed at lesser makes of vehicles that are easily tricked into runningricher by putting the resistor chip into the water temp sensor circuit.

unless of course I just stepped all over my face looking for my mouth and you mean a different resistor chip.

Just upgrading the ground wire alone is useless. There is more to the charging system of every vehicle then just the ground. If you are going to upgrade your ground wire you also then need to upgrade the other two pieces of the cycle. Alternator to positive on the battery and the chassis to the engine. Replacing all of these with a larger grade cable will let your alternator work to its full potential easier and more efficiently.

With that being said that could possibly be justified as saving gas and very little at that. But in regards to the "saving of power" I can not make any correlations as to how that would be benieficial.

Oh, I see we should be driving with our headlights off to keep the alternator from draining HP and mileage ? Did he get paid to write that article? Sounds like the magnet on the fuel line sales pitch.