Exposed ground cable in engine compartment. Why?

[rationull]

Under the hood of my '07 civic there's a grounding cable going from a motor mount to the body that has 2 or 3 inches of exposed wire bundle, while the rest of the cable is covered by a plastic sleeve.

Why would they do this? The only reason I can make up is that it gives you an easy place to attach an allegator clip, if you wanted to ground something during a diagnostic or something like that, but you could just as easily do that where the cable attaches to the motor mount or lots of other places.

I guess an alternative reason would be that they ran out of plastic sleeve, but I kind of doubt that

Little things like this make me curious. They had to have a reason, but I can't really come up with a convincing one besides the "splice zone" possibility.

Any ideas?

 

[brianl703]

Is there exposed wire? Does it look like it's copper or does it look like it's tin? (Copper will corrode; it should be tin, actually tin-plated copper).

Is it a braided strap (usually tin-plated copper)?

Are you talking about an insulated wire with an outer covering of convolute tubing or something similar where the tubing has been cut short?

Maybe this is where they intend for you to connect the negative clamp when jump-starting the vehicle. What's the owner's manual say?

 

[rationull]

Quote:

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Are you talking about an insulated wire with an outer covering of convolute tubing or something similar where the tubing has been cut short?

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This sort of describes what I'm talking about. The 2-3 inch section of exposed wire is copper (I assume .. it's certainly copper colored) and is not braided. There are at least a few dozen wires in the cable.

The manual does use this grounding strap as the negative terminal connection point for jump starting, but specifies connection where the strap mounts to the engine, not the exposed section of wire.

I don't think it's a problem or anything (although I suppose I'm not sure whether it's like this on all current gen civics, I'll have to check that out), but I'm wondering what an exposed section of ground wire would be used for.

 

[Quest]

Honda does that with thicker (multi-strand) but non-braided copper grounding cables between the engine block and the chassis for years and it's just their practice for letting these cables to have a bit of flexibility and yet being able to deliver the current.

You do not have to do anything to this "exposed" section so long as it's not corroded.

Q.

 

[brianl703]

I'd cover it with silicone grease to keep it from getting corroded.

 

[Master ACiD]

the simplest explination is often the best. hondas insulation stripper probably removes a bit too much of the insulation before crimping on an end connector. thats all.

 

[mechtech2]

The whole engine compartment is full of uncovered grounds.
It means nothing.

 

[brianl703]

Most all of the OE terminals I've ever seen on cars crimp over the insulation as well as the wire, even the ring terminals used for grounds.

 

[GMGuy]

Its probably something as simple as a way to make manufacturing the bundle easy, nothing more, probably even less. =-)

Alex.