ls1 grounding locations

**TransAMrit** · 10-01-2009, 09:56 PM

Hi, suspect I have a grounding problem on my 02 WS6. I've heard there are a few grounding locations under the hood on this car - can anyone point out where they are?

A little backstory: ran a bunch of stereo wattage through a ~6 gauge power wire, within 10 mins I got smoke in the cabin, looking like it came from the passenger side firewall area. Haven't yet figured out what went up in smoke, but now suspecting it's one of the ground wires that I don't know about. (Since that time I've had highly unstable voltage at low RPM.)

**Hi-Po** · 10-01-2009, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by TransAMrit

Hi, suspect I have a grounding problem on my 02 WS6. I've heard there are a few grounding locations under the hood on this car - can anyone point out where they are?

A little backstory: ran a bunch of stereo wattage through a ~6 gauge power wire, within 10 mins I got smoke in the cabin, looking like it came from the passenger side firewall area. Haven't yet figured out what went up in smoke, but now suspecting it's one of the ground wires that I don't know about. (Since that time I've had highly unstable voltage at low RPM.)

O boy. Im going to guess this added wire was not fused? There are a few grounds on the back of thee heads, I think just the passenger head. I cant remember. There is also some grounding by the fuse blocks which are completly visible. If you had smoke INSIDE the cab, what makes you think you burned up a wire on the ground side of things inside the cab? Was this a fused power line that you added?

**TransAMrit** · 10-02-2009, 08:15 AM

With the passenger side head so far under the cowl, how do you get a look at the ground wire? Can you see it from underneath the car, or do you know where the other side attaches?

The power wire was fused... when I ordered it years ago, it was advertised as 4 ga. Comparing it to a real 4 ga wire (very recently), it looks like this wire was really more like 6 ga. It was fine for the wattage I was originally running, but eventually I switched to a lower impedance sub (== more wattage). Almost immediately, something went up in smoke.

While replacing the wire with a 0 gauge, I inspected the old power wire - and couldn't find any physical damage, at least around the area of the car that the smoke appeared to have come from (firewall area).

That combined with the resulting electrical issues is what has me interested in checking all the grounds. I don't know what else could explain this. I'm confident that my alternator/regulator are fine (I have 2, another long story).