HermanH's PASSAT Site

Tools Required

Electrical Grounding (Earthing) Upgrade

The theory behind this upgrade is simply to ensure that there is sufficient "ground" from the battery, to the various engine functions that require it such as the alternator and spark plugs. If you look at the current ground strap, it's going to only two places: a bolt nearby that acts as the "chassis" ground, and a second one located in proximity of the engine's starter. The engine itself would be isolated from the chassis without this second ground.

I cannot say for myself, if this upgrade is or is not worth the $20 I invested into it. But it appeared to be quite simple and takes maybe an hour to do. The first writeup of this grounding (some call it "Earthing" ) on a Passat, was in Japan(?); the site is here: http://www.ossans.com/passatfan/earth.html

The pics there are ok but I wanted to do this in English for us here in the US.

Before you begin, read the entire instructions, taking note of the location of the wires, and then begin to write down the approximate lengths of wire that you need. In this instance, for the 1.8L, I only required 15' ft. and I still have about 2 ft. left. Allow yourself an hour to complete this job.

Materials Needed:

15' ft. of #8 AWG wire. You will need to determine what color you want.
(4) pair of #8 AWG crimp style "power ring terminals" from Monster Cable

Instructions:

1. Remove negative ground from the battery.

2. Locate and remove the rubber gromet with the 4 protruding stubs:

3. Snip off the tips of each stub so it will fit snuggly over the 8 ga. wire:

4. Begin measuring off the distance to each of the mounting areas; scroll down further on this site to see where we will be attaching the grounds so you'll have an idea where to measure to-and-from. However, I have done some measurments of my own for my setup and here are the following:

Run #1 (closest valve head nut): 18"
Run #2 (farthest valve head nut): 30"
Run #3 (Alternator): 50"
Run #4 (ABS): 53"

5. Once you've acertained the measurements, begin assembly by stripping one end of the wire and crimping on the terminal ring:

6. Cut the wire to length, and then feed it through one of the stubs in the grommet, before stripping the insulation off on the other end and crimping on the terminal ring. Once you're done, use the supplied shrink wrap to finish off the "engine side" terminal ring. More on that in a second.

7. The picture above was for the nearest ground point, the 10mm nut on the valve head. The next one will be for the other 10mm nut on the far end of the valve head. Once this is completed, I shrink wrap the "battery side" terminal rings together.

8. This picture is the finsihed harness:

9. Route the battery side terminal rings through the firewall and attach them to the negative ground bolt. Note: the 4 terminal rings combined, are about 1/4" thick, however, it will bolt on fine.

10. For the ABS, use a 13mm socket to remove the nut and install the terminal ring.

11. For the alternator, you must first remove the hose from the throttle body (for cabled versions) using a phillps screwdriver. For DBW, you may not need to do this. Then, use an 8mm socket to remove the bolt and install the terminal ring.

12. The last two runs are on the valve head, which uses a 10mm socket:

13. Finish up the work with Zipties to keep it clean.

14. Do the 2 minute drill on the ECM since you did remove the battery terminal from step 1.

1 - Phillips screwdriver
1 - Electrical Crimping Tool/Stripper
1 - HD wire cutter or tin snips shears
1 - heat gun or hair dryer
1 - zip ties
1 - 1/4" drive ratchet
1 - 1/4" drive 8mm socket
1 - 1/4" drive 10mm socket
1 - 3/8" drive ratchet
1 - 3/8" drive 13mm socket