Fixing Engine Ground

Electronic systems, stereo and Holden iQ, wiring, it all goes here....
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lastcall190
Posts: 604
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:17 am
Location: North Jersey

Fixing Engine Ground

Post by lastcall190 »

The ground on the back of my driver's side cylinder head broke. I pulled the harness out to repair, but is there any special ring terminal I need to use? Or is anything that will fit the bolt adequate?

Thank you.

-J
2012 Caprice
2008 CVPI

Both gone but not forgotten...
s/c'd cav
Posts: 1382
Joined: Mon May 30, 2016 3:12 am
Location: PHOENIX AZ

Re: Fixing Engine Ground

Post by s/c'd cav »

anything that fit and works
philofab
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 11:10 am

Re: Fixing Engine Ground

Post by philofab »

Yea, anything that grounds it. You could even extend it and put it somewhere a little easier to attach. Car will have tons of misfires and run like a dog until it's connected.
lastcall190
Posts: 604
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:17 am
Location: North Jersey

Re: Fixing Engine Ground

Post by lastcall190 »

Found that one out and it's been parked since then :lol:

Turns out you have to be REAL careful removing oxygen sensor plugs as they are connected reasonably close by...

-J
2012 Caprice
2008 CVPI

Both gone but not forgotten...
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2201
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fixing Engine Ground

Post by smwalker »

A Facebook group member had issues with his front ground terminal at the cylinder head.

Will try to detail his post here:

2014 ppv 113k miles

Brand New main battery
Aux battery tested fine
Codes displayed :
Power Steering Control Module Codes U0121 U0140 U0401
Anti Lock Brake MOdule COdes U0100 C0242 U0073
BCM Codes U0073 U0100 U0101 U0121 U0131
Permanent Codes U0073 U0100 P015B U0101 U0109

Has anybody come across this? I've been forum surfing for weeks and searching through this group but haven't quite found any solid answers. Any leads or points to check are greatly appreciated. If it helps, it seems it's also putting the trans into a limp mode and keeping me out of my higher gears.
Also, it doesn't do it when the car is cooled off. If I reset the codes and drive it, it performs fine until I drive for roughly 20 minutes and everything goes haywire.

-------Update-----------
So for those that saw my first post, here's an update and fix for my symptoms. I'd skip this part of it was a one off issue, but I'm going to guess more and more will be showing up with the design of this ground.

Also, I can't vouch for other years as I'm not familiar with their wiring but for 2014 6.0 this is what I found.

The ground at the front passengers side on the head is ground G107 and is a grounding point for the TCM, ECM, ABS, A/C and 3 other components. This sucker was super crusty, wires were so brittle inside the heat wrap that two actually broke undoing the wrap. I can't believe these crap open ended grounds is actually what was chosen but oh well.
I used a crimp connector with some solder to attach my extension harness since I decided to cut them back to almost nothing. Then used a closed ended fitting on the other end with heat shrink on both of those to close it off. Followed by some split loom just because. There's probably better ways to go about this, but it's what I had and at least I avoided the wire nut and electrical tape route 😅

I've now had 150 trouble free miles whereas before I couldn't get 5 miles without it spazzing out. My car has 114k miles but 6100 idle hours and 9100 engine hours so everything has a little more age on it than it should.

--------Update----------
I posted about cleaning up the ground on the front left cylinder head, as it's the ground for almost all main functions and computers. Cleaning that up and putting a closed end ground instead of the factory open one sorted out about 90% of my voltage issues.
The main issue kicking my car into limp mode was a CAN BUS error code from every module. The ground cleared up my traction control, stabilitrak, and the gauges freaking out seemed to go away with the ground. But the CAN BUS error peeked it's ugly head around every so often.
I have ZERO proof or even a shred of evidence to support this next part, but driving the car and just resetting the code as it happened, eventually fixed the problem. Because my car sat at a dealer so long and both batteries were needing replaced, I think it actually damaged the keep alive memory power for one of my modules and paired with the voltage issue, it was restarting itself causing a break in the CAN BUS circuit. Only by driving the car more and more did it finally charge up enough to stop the issue. Now it's sitting for winter with no battery in it, so I'm betting I'm going to have similar issues again in the spring... Bought a Bluetooth obd and every time it popped up, driving or not I reset it and just continued on. After 2000 miles I finally realized it wasn't doing it anymore.
Before
Before
ppv ground1.jpg (67.19 KiB) Viewed 9260 times
After
After
ppv ground2.jpg (84.18 KiB) Viewed 9260 times
Video of Symptomss
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
lastcall190
Posts: 604
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:17 am
Location: North Jersey

Re: Fixing Engine Ground

Post by lastcall190 »

Just to update I crimped and ring terminal'd another wire in there, buttoned it all back up and good to go 8-). Thanks all for the input

-J
2012 Caprice
2008 CVPI

Both gone but not forgotten...
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2201
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fixing Engine Ground

Post by smwalker »

Another member got similar codes C0242 and U0121 in a 2012 model. Dealer diagnosed it as a bad ABS module. User investigated the ground issue but said it looked OK to him. He is replacing the module and will update if the replacement fixed the issues. He reported as follows:

" The stabilitrak and abs lights have been flashing like crazy and my scan tool couldn’t find a solution. And replacing wheel speed sensors didn’t help. Long story short, apparently my Brake Control Module (GM 92268029) is bad.'"
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2201
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Fixing Engine Ground

Post by smwalker »

Went and search the AU board for C0242 and came across this bloke:

" My beloved 2012 VE Calais Series II had a new set of tyres installed about a month ago @ Kmart Tyre and Auto, and since then, she's been going into "Safety Mode" frequently once I hit approx 60kmph, with an error about the Stability Control Malfunctioning :(

I've hooked up the Tech2 to it, and the only DTC error showing is:
EBCM (Electronic Brake Control Module)
C0242 Sympton 00
Engine Control Module Indicated TCS Malfunction

I'm guessing when they did the tyres they may have knocked a sensor or something... anyone else had this issue before, and if so know any more about what is causing it, or if there is any other diagnostic info I can access via the Tech2 to identify exactly what / where the problem is?

It's been gradually getting worse over the past week - originally it'd only go off if I was travelling above 90kmph, however over the last few days the speed has been getting lower at which it's been kicking into safety mode, although this might be just coincidence. "

ANd his resoloution:


"I ended up replacing the ABS unit with a secondhand one I bought on eBay (didn't have a choice as I broke it pulling it apart) - from memory I still ended up getting these error messages after that though, so ended up draining the brake fluid and replacing this, and bleeding the brakes. Also took all the tyres / brakes off, took out all the sensors attached to each wheel, and gave everything a good degreasing / cleaning in case some crap got into one of the sensors. After all of that I haven't had that error come up again, so something there fixed it, but not sure exactly what. Hope this helps. "
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
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