Where are my Battery Grounds?

[Briano1234]

I had to replace the Battery Grounds, and took the old one off and replaced them with standard
cables from "Pepboys"

I used a 20" battery connection with an aux connector
and a 24" Jumper from the Frame to the Tranny.


The battery gounds are located:

back corner of the valve cover:




Behind the air box on the frame horn. From the frame horn to the Transmission mounting to engine Bolt.... The only studded bolt on the
tranny mounts





From the Battery negative to that same frame mount.




They are more than adequate and there are additional grounds that
are from the a/c compressor to the Alternator Case nut, and on the ECU bracket to the rain tray.





Clean the Frame stud and the back side of the nut, use a little Never-seize on it and with new standard battery cables they will be able to more than do the job for you.

[kamzcab86]

On manual cars the battery negative cable goes from the battery, beneath the airbox, to the chassis, and from the chassis to the left side of the top of the transmission. It's a relative PITA to change on CIS cars; if you want the new cable to be factory original, you'll need to remove the fuel distributor/airbox. I got an OEM replacement cable and wasn't about to remove all that crap just to lay a cable; went to NAPA and had the cable cut into two pieces, had them crimp new ring terminals onto it and ran the cable behind the airbox.

Original factory cable is not covered like most new ones are and, by now, ought to be covered in grime. Because of the way VW insisted on running the original cable, it also gets squished (bent) by the airbox.

[Calimus]

Yup, first thing I do on the A1's is replace the ground cables. I go to a 02 guage (maybe it's 04, I'll have to check) from the battery to the body (same mounting place as original) and then I do another 02 guage from the body to the front of the tranny. The reason I go to the front rather then the back is that when these cars do leak, it seems they always leak oil from the back side and it covers the original mounting area with sludge.

Oh yea, the new cables are covered with a clear insulation as well. This way I can see any future breakage should any occure. This has netted me extra juice on the voltmeter as well as no flickering of the interior lights when turning the headlights on or going to highbeam while at idle. You must free the electrons!

[gull]

The sludge is corrosion prevention. These cars undercoat themselves, automatically.

BTW, it's not that they leak more from the back, it's that any oil that leaks gets blown rearwards. If the leak's bad enough you'll even find oil flecks on the trunk lid.

[Calimus]

Very true