Chris H
master of boobies
The standard Renault battery terminals are screw downs of varying types. They all have one thing in common. They are all rubbish.
these are early style screw downs
They suffer poor contact and they also have a nice habit of jamming solid, when you try and undo them often the plastic just breaks.
The best thing you can do is bin the screw downs and fit decent terminals. Proper terminals are available from Halfords, motor factors etc.
decent terminals
When you unscrew the screw downs you will see the connectors on the leads are pretty normal. You can either remove these or I prefer to retain them and mount them on the terminals.
The benefits over screw downs are better contact, this means longer battery life, better running, improved cranking and stronger lights etc. Theres no losses really. The battery is after all the heart of the car really, if its not there it won't start and run, nothing else will work on the car without it. Basically it need to be well connected, a well connected battery makes a happy car.
Earthing is also a major part of a cars electrical system. 99% of the cars still on the road are negative earth, those old cars that started out positvely earthed are either sitting in owners garages or have been converted to negative earths. The cars shell/chassis act as an earthing point.
This picture shows Project Y's battery terminals.
In this case the previous owner chopped off the actual terminals on the wires and mounted the wires in the new terminals, this is ok as long as they have GOOD contact with the wire. You shouldn't be able to tug the wires out. In this case I could easily tug the black negative wire out (hard to see in the pic). I sorted that out though.
You may find the terminals are a tight fit and don't go all the way to the base of the post, I tap them down with a hammer.
In the picture you can also see an additional earth lead. I am a great fan of these. The standard single black earth wire is the sole grounding wire for the whole car. Its not the best in the world and certainly after 15 or so years its not in its best condition.
This picture shows the blue chamades battery and terminals. You can see where the original earth lead bolts onto the cars shell and you can see my additional earth braid which bolts directly to the engine
this is the standard earthing wire from the battery, as you can see the connectors part of the wire for the screwdown, but its easily removed
So these these thin earth braids are a good addition. These again are available in differing lengths from halfords and motor factors.
The main cable can be kept and its wise to do so. It does however benefit from a good clean.
As you can see the exposed part of the cable is oxidised
You can clean it up with a wire brush but I decided to bring out the Cillit Bang, as you can see it done the job very nicely indeed
This is the end that goes to the battery, this doesn't suffer as much corrosion etc as the other end but its still not perfect
after the Cillit Bang done its stuff it looked like this
Much nicer.
The other earths on the car of note are from the inner wing to the gearbox casing, the bulkhead to the top of the engine block, theres earths on the rear boot panel for the rear lights, fuel pump, fuel gauge and theres other earth points behind/under the dash.
this is the drivers side dash earth behind the lower side trim
and this is the passenger side dash earth
These all are important, but the internal earths don't really tend to give trouble unless messed with or damaged, say fitting a stereo. The important/vulnerable ones are the main battery to chassis earth and the inner wing to gearbox braided strap.
These are subjected to the elements so suffer from corrosion etc.
Get the main battery to earth lead sorted like I have in the picture. I normally run this lead from the battery terminal to the earthing point on the bulkhead that goes to the starter. If you have a shorter lead the you can run it to the point where the existing black cable goes to. Another option is from the battery terminal direct to the engines top earth mounting point.
If you don't run directly to the engine then a short lead to replace the existing lead from the bulkhead to the engine is a wise investment. The 16V's suffer worst due to the sharp bend in the cable. Heres a pic showing the sharp bend and the way the cable deterioates and my additional earth lead which bolts along with the existing lead
The main earth on the inner wing to the gearbox is a beefy boy, so either replace it with another new beefy one or clean it up and use a smaller one along side it.
That should improve things.
If you want to go 1 step further then you can add a direct earth lead to the starter motor. Mk3 astras and other vauxhalls have this arrangment. Basically its a normal battery terminal with a short lead to earth the battery as per usual then a nice long lead which goes round the back of the engine to a mounting bolt on the starter motor bracket. On the renaults just run this wire clipped to the positive wire already existing and there you go.
Poor earthing drains batteries. On the old blue 16V hatch the battery would be discharged if left for a few days, it was also very difficult when starting. A new earth terminal improved it an additional lead from the neg terminal to the engine block completely cured it. It was then eager to start and the battery was fine for weeks.
these are early style screw downs
They suffer poor contact and they also have a nice habit of jamming solid, when you try and undo them often the plastic just breaks.
The best thing you can do is bin the screw downs and fit decent terminals. Proper terminals are available from Halfords, motor factors etc.
decent terminals
When you unscrew the screw downs you will see the connectors on the leads are pretty normal. You can either remove these or I prefer to retain them and mount them on the terminals.
The benefits over screw downs are better contact, this means longer battery life, better running, improved cranking and stronger lights etc. Theres no losses really. The battery is after all the heart of the car really, if its not there it won't start and run, nothing else will work on the car without it. Basically it need to be well connected, a well connected battery makes a happy car.
Earthing is also a major part of a cars electrical system. 99% of the cars still on the road are negative earth, those old cars that started out positvely earthed are either sitting in owners garages or have been converted to negative earths. The cars shell/chassis act as an earthing point.
This picture shows Project Y's battery terminals.
In this case the previous owner chopped off the actual terminals on the wires and mounted the wires in the new terminals, this is ok as long as they have GOOD contact with the wire. You shouldn't be able to tug the wires out. In this case I could easily tug the black negative wire out (hard to see in the pic). I sorted that out though.
You may find the terminals are a tight fit and don't go all the way to the base of the post, I tap them down with a hammer.
In the picture you can also see an additional earth lead. I am a great fan of these. The standard single black earth wire is the sole grounding wire for the whole car. Its not the best in the world and certainly after 15 or so years its not in its best condition.
This picture shows the blue chamades battery and terminals. You can see where the original earth lead bolts onto the cars shell and you can see my additional earth braid which bolts directly to the engine
this is the standard earthing wire from the battery, as you can see the connectors part of the wire for the screwdown, but its easily removed
So these these thin earth braids are a good addition. These again are available in differing lengths from halfords and motor factors.
The main cable can be kept and its wise to do so. It does however benefit from a good clean.
As you can see the exposed part of the cable is oxidised
You can clean it up with a wire brush but I decided to bring out the Cillit Bang, as you can see it done the job very nicely indeed
This is the end that goes to the battery, this doesn't suffer as much corrosion etc as the other end but its still not perfect
after the Cillit Bang done its stuff it looked like this
Much nicer.
The other earths on the car of note are from the inner wing to the gearbox casing, the bulkhead to the top of the engine block, theres earths on the rear boot panel for the rear lights, fuel pump, fuel gauge and theres other earth points behind/under the dash.
this is the drivers side dash earth behind the lower side trim
and this is the passenger side dash earth
These all are important, but the internal earths don't really tend to give trouble unless messed with or damaged, say fitting a stereo. The important/vulnerable ones are the main battery to chassis earth and the inner wing to gearbox braided strap.
These are subjected to the elements so suffer from corrosion etc.
Get the main battery to earth lead sorted like I have in the picture. I normally run this lead from the battery terminal to the earthing point on the bulkhead that goes to the starter. If you have a shorter lead the you can run it to the point where the existing black cable goes to. Another option is from the battery terminal direct to the engines top earth mounting point.
If you don't run directly to the engine then a short lead to replace the existing lead from the bulkhead to the engine is a wise investment. The 16V's suffer worst due to the sharp bend in the cable. Heres a pic showing the sharp bend and the way the cable deterioates and my additional earth lead which bolts along with the existing lead
The main earth on the inner wing to the gearbox is a beefy boy, so either replace it with another new beefy one or clean it up and use a smaller one along side it.
That should improve things.
If you want to go 1 step further then you can add a direct earth lead to the starter motor. Mk3 astras and other vauxhalls have this arrangment. Basically its a normal battery terminal with a short lead to earth the battery as per usual then a nice long lead which goes round the back of the engine to a mounting bolt on the starter motor bracket. On the renaults just run this wire clipped to the positive wire already existing and there you go.
Poor earthing drains batteries. On the old blue 16V hatch the battery would be discharged if left for a few days, it was also very difficult when starting. A new earth terminal improved it an additional lead from the neg terminal to the engine block completely cured it. It was then eager to start and the battery was fine for weeks.
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