Hey guys just wanted to share something that definatley helped me out with my charging systems. On the inside of each fender there is a ground on either side. Each has four white wires with a black stripe. I bought a steel bristled wheel for my dremel and went at it. Once unbolted I polished up the ground real good and then I took the paint off to the metal right around the bolt hole. Dialetic grease should be added to prevent re corroding the contact. My stereo is a whole lot cleaner and my dash lights are a bit brighter. The four wires on the driver side appear to the be the ground for the enitre fuse panel under the hood. Your results may vary.

 

this is in the engine bay by the headlights right, I'm think i now what you talking about? I give that a try, can't hurt.

 

Yes under hood by the headlights.

 

Sounds like a good diy...thanks

 

Pics always help for us slow ones!

 

Not to hijack your thread but I just did a 130amp alternator upgrade from an 03' highlander. This wasnt a bolt on. I fabricated a bracket and milled down the top ear of the alternator 1/8 inch. New 79" 6rim serp. belt.
Best mod Ive done to the car yet. Headlights are brighter. Stereo sounds cleaner and louder. And the car is faster. It used to stumble on acceleration and hesitate during shifts. Granted my battery was 6yrs old and the alternator was covered in oil. Ill try and post pix in here or get another thread started in the next few days. I didnt take pix during the install so im going to have to lift the car and take off the undertray to show the bracket.

 

Kaiser, this is excellent what you pointed out and I rarely see anyone talk about it. When I installed my grounding wires a while back, I had to remove the paint around the the area where one of my airbox bolts used to go and it does make a difference. I remember installing some custom wires I did before this and nothing, until I remembered to take off the paint.

 

I had a 165 amp alt but I sold it to buy other parts figuring I could improve the stocker. The only problem with the high amp alt was that it didn't charge below 800rpms and the stock idle is 600. I had to crank up the tb stop screw to get it over 800 in drive with the brake on. Currently my idle is turned up to about 750. Wish I had the big one back.

 

Hey Kaiser, Thx for the the tip...

 

Why would it not charge below 800? that doesnt make sense. The cold amperage rating is higher. Did you have an underdrive pulley ?
And yea, bad plan man

 

Nope no underdrive pulley. It was more of a shock to me when my car died in traffic. I called 4alterstart where I bought it and the alt needs to spin at a certain rpm to charge. In my case it was roughly 800 rpms. In order to be at 800 rpms with the car in drive and the brake on, it will idle at like 12-1300rpms in park. The logic was to get the stocker to work better at a lower rpm. Bad logic I know, however the money went to other parts for the car.

 

Makes me glad I did the 130amp factory toyota denso part. It charges nice at idle. I can bump the stereo at idle and the lights dont dim.

 

Grounding is important no doubt.. other good points is using the shock tower bolts. you're battery is grounded to your chassis, the engine block as well the shock towers are touching the fender and bolted to the chassis so all are connected. Works well in my setup.. my battery box is in the trunk, and dual fuel pumps and I'm using the rear shock towers for grounding by piggy backing another nut ontop of another.

 

Has anyone tried Ox-Gard, by Gardner Bender, or Noalox, by Ideal? Unlike dielectric grease, they improve conductivity.

 

i think i have the same problem too kaiser, cause sometime i'm slowing down for a red light or whatever, my car died once in a while, if it doesn't died the reading for my battery voltage on my neo is really low 12-11.7 and the car sounds like it's going to died and then when i rev up the car the battery voltages jumps back up to 14.3-14.6 and the car idles normal when i do that, but also it could be my bov that kills my car when i stop in a rush, but i do have the neo, so i don't know?