Anyone have a bad ground???
 

Just wondering if anyone has had a problem with the ground on the P5?? I have herd they are not very good if you wnat to put in a sterio? And that you should up date the grounding system??

Thanks for the insite!!

Bad ground
 

Mazda has issued a technical service bulletin for 2000-2002 Proteges.

The CD player may sometimes refuse to reject the CD (happened to me occasionally). The method to get your disk out is to pull the fuse, and re-insert it.

When presented with a complaint, the dealership removes the stock ground straps on the stereo and the chassis and replaces them with an updated design. Problem goes away.

The stock grounds are... well.... stock. I noticed a major improvement in dimming (80% removed) after I upgraded the ground. In the future I'll upgrade the alternator->ground and alternator->battery.

Those are considered the big 3.

yes i seem to have the bad ground problem as well, it becomes mnore apparent when you crank the system up and it makes the headlights flash like as if your a moving christmas tree!

i will be upgrading the ground on my '99 323F as soon as i get some time.

Murda.. which dimming are you talking about?

All the lights in the car used to dim when my bass hit. The lights also dimmed horribly when I tried to wind down 2 windows at a time. Now they dim way less when the bass hits and not as much when more than one window is being wound down (powered of course).

So you replaced the stock ground with like a JDM or HKS ground and it pretty much fixed it all?

Is installing a ground hard? How do you do it? Where can I get them?
I noticed the same problem with my car, the lights dim when I put two windows up at the same time.

Installing ground wasn't difficult. Just needed a socket set and I fabricated my own kit. There's a how-to in the forums with the exact wire length needed. Had to buy some 4 gauge terminals and about 13' for 4 gauge wiring. I set it up daisy chain style like the how-to. Only trouble was crimping the wires, I had to get a shop to do them because I didn't have the tool to crimp such large wires.

You can buy a kit made for the car or even a generic kit, but making it yourself is cheaper and more rewarding!


JDM grounds???? Are talking about the same thing? Last time I checked the metal from Japan conducted electricity just as well as the metal we can find here... ;)

yeah but im' too lazy to fabricate my own stuff. I'd rather buy prepackaged and install it myself. I get just as much satisfaction. Besides, when I make stuff myself, it had a tendency to explode or catch fire...

Where can I get them?

You can get a groundkit on ebay if you don't want to do the daisy chain way. I have a groundkit (4 gauge) and ran the same gauge from the alternator to the fusebox, and from the fusebox to the battery (which is how the alternator wire is run in our cars), and no difference at all. The ECU controls the amount of current that the alternator puts out, so there is still some dimming. Some people I know don't have it as bad as others, but I still do. I am getting a batcap soon because even after the groundkit and a deep cell battery, I get dimming from the bass.

I found this battery at this web site http://www.protegegarage.com/ and I doing some reviews on it. I'm hoping that this can help me a little. O... go under optima battery.
Is the ground kit hard to install?