Cleaned the Grounding Points

[sciphi]

Went through the engine bay of my 99 Buick LeSabre tonight, and was disgusted by the amount of corrosion on the body grounding points I could see. So I grabbed my trusty can of PB Blaster and gave the grounds a squirt while rounding up wrenches, dielectric grease and sandpaper.

Once they were all cleaned off of the corrosion and rust in one instance, I noticed the interior lights were brighter, and the power windows weren't bogging down while going up. Took about an hour to do start to finish. Some of those grounds were in poor shape!

 

[UNC197]

Good to know that cleaning the grounds can make that much of a difference.

 

[sciphi]

Well, it can if they're on a northern US or Canadian car. Salt is amazingly powerful, and gets places you never dreamed it would.

Southern cars that don't see a lot of salt won't have as bad of problems.

 

[mechtech2]

Even when new, paint or poor connections can cause a loss.
Also consider adding an additional ground to the firewall or engine or transmission..

Problems can be fixed with cable end cleaning. Especially check the computer ground.

 

[Eddie]

+1. I too have seen poor Gd connections on cars only a year old. Seems moisture gets into the connection. Galvanic corrosion possibly.

 

[artificialist]

My ION had several electric power steering problems until a technician found 1 corroded connector underneath the car. This car had never been outside the state of Florida.

 

[KLowD9x]

Coat the connections in a light spray wax coating (usually used for rust proofing).

If my car didn't come with it from the factory, I would have taken the time to coat all of the grounds.

 

[ET16]

Good to know! Thanks for posting this.