Well, was lookin at the engine bay after checking my alternator yesterday, and noticed that the stock ground wire that is on the passenger's side in the engine bay close to the firewall is unshielded. Now my car has a bone stock engine (except for vacuum line replacement, downpipe and catback). Is it bad to have this wire exposed?


Oh, and by the way, it's been snowing here for less than an hour and my car already has about a half inch of snow............ This is gonna be bad.............

 

Exposed wires that are delivering a current ie. a positive charge wire on a negative earthed battery is bad because it can short. Example of the third gen chassis: If the Chassis is negative ground and a negative wire is exposed the there's nothing wrong with it.

 

besides grounding out, dunno what kind of wire it is but should put some tape on it to keep it from oxidizing

 

its a ground strap, it was made exposed. dont worry about it.

 

i believe that is the factory ground at the UIM. should be fine.

 

gotcha, thanks guys. just trying to get some leads on an electrical problem I'm having with my car. in the last 2 weeks the car has had this hunting idle issue when warmed up (hunts from like 650 to 750), and I've noticed that when I push in the clutch or the brake the vacuum on the car drops from like 18 to like 16 or 15. Idle's a little rough when the car's hunting, which makes sense I guess. And I'm having hard start issues every time I start the car (engine starts turning, then sounds like it's about to die, then turns on), and the start gets worse when the car is warmed up. I don't think it's the alternator, pulled off the battery positive lead and the car still ran. I don't think it's a blown motor cause the car runs great when at 1000rpm (engine cold) and to be honest until last night I haven't really pushed the car (trying to get rid of a few points on my license). Noticed last night though I'm boost spiking (10-8-12-10), but the strange part is I've only got a catback and downpipe. Kind of at a loss really.

 

check for vacuum leaks. check your bov/recirculating valves. check your map sensor

 

not really sure if this could be true, but a downpipe leak wouldn't do this, would it?

 

A 650 rpm idle is low.

Vacuum leaks cause a high idle.

Check idle adjustment setting, TPS mis-adjustment causes a hunting idle.

The ground strap is stock leave it alone!

 

why is 650 idle bad mine idles at like 500

 

yours is at 500? my check engine light blips any time my rpm drops that low........

well, when the car is stone cold and I try to start it up, it's usually like this:

try to start the car, the engine turns like 3-4 times, then chirps like it's a record skipping for like 2-3 chirps, then turns 2 times and starts up (sometimes it'll turn like 3-4 times, sound like a car about to stall out for like a second or 2, then start).

then the car will sit at an idle of about 1200 rpm until the engine warms up (vacumn will be at like 20). if I put the cluth in or press the brake, the car stays at the same idle when cold, but if the interior lights are on, you can see a very slight dimming of the interior lights.

when the car fully warms up to like 180F, the idle drops to like 750 and will idle hunt between 650 and 750 (vacumn will fall to like 18 sometimes, sometimes will fall to like 16, not sure why). Now at this point if I press the clutch in the vacumn will drop even 2 points more (if previously at 18 will drop to 16, if at 16 will drop to 14), same thing will happen if I press the brake in, the vacumn will drop to like 16 or 14 depending on where the vacumn was before. it'll pretty much stay like this until the engine cools off, even if I drive it.

 

The stock idle spec is 850-900rpm IIRC.