Brown Wire Surgery - Quick question

[adrians]

Anybody whose done it !

Is the new wire install on the existing brown wire physically between the ignition switch assembly and the 6 way white connector ( 5 connections in use ) ?

Thanks in advance !

[pope]

Because you are fuel injected, a brown wire was added from the battery already. This is to power the ECU and all the fuel injected items. Dont use that wire for a splice into the ignition. What are you having a problem with that you want to brown wire it?
Yes, that is the location for the brown wire connect, but make sure that you put a disconnect on the wire you are supplying to the brown wire incase you ever have to take the ignition out.

I would personally just make sure the brown wire from the starter that touches the battery cable is clean and corrosion free. That is the brown wire that goes to the ignition.

[rlux4]

OK Pope, then I have a question too. I've thought of doing the brown wire fix to help brighten up my headlights. Would this do it, or would I have to add a relay setup?
Thanks, you the man. Well, not the man, but definately one of the men.
Ron

[adrians]

Pope,

Ah, so F.I. cars it's different ?

The reason for doing the change was to increase the brightness of my dashboard lights, they're very dim ( after replacing all the bulbs), also my headlight are dim as well, however I figured I needed to the headlight relay change to fix that !

Regards

[pope]

Well Ron,
There are a lot of thoughts on this one.
-The relays will help significantly and allow you to even upgrade to higher amperage lights.

-The brown wire surgery will allow an additional stream of power to supplement the loss of power caused by corrosion in the original brown wire. The reason for the corrosion is because the brown wire attaches to the starter where the battery cable attaches. This is not a good environment for electricity. That terminal on the starter is near the bottom of the car and receives all the dust, oil, fluids, salt, sand, water and every thing the car can run over. That causes the copper to oxidize. Supplementing that wire with an additional wire helps greatly as it doesn't allow for a drop in voltage.


-But what if we removed the original brown wire from its corrosive environment. What if we installed a remote battery junction box, high on the firewall or fenderwall. One that can be sealed from the environment and we can then run the brown wire from that box to the ignition. Also easy to get to and clean more often if needed. Run the battery cable to the junction box, and get another cable of appropriate length to run from that box to the starter.

[pope]

Adrians
Fiat added a brown wire in 1980 for the fuel injection system. The brown wire surgery you read about is 79 and earlier adding a brown wire from the battery. Since 80's and above already use one, you would have to add a second wire along the cable from the battery for the lighting fix.

A great first step is to clean the ground wires on the light systems, use a wiring diagram to find the grounds and that includes the tail light grounds and add a little dielectric jelly to help with corrosion. Disconnect the battery and clean the fuses and use a little wire brush to clean the fuse holders. Also clean the brown wire that is attached to the starter.

Make sure that the ground wires that attach to the bottle caps in the engine compartment are clean and that the bottle caps are taken off and the backs are cleaned with sandpaper and if the nuts are not in good shape, buy a few new stainless steel ones and replace.

After that, read above post

[adrians]

Thanks Pope

I have already done the cleaning of the possible connections and ground points, cleaned the fuse holders and replaced all fuses with new ones, my starter motor was rebuilt a week ago and the fiat mechanics (Fiatorque) clean up all the electrical connections to the motor.

When say "you would have to add a second wire along the cable from the battery for the lighting fix." you you refer to terminating a new battery supply cable to the back of the fuse box, where the primary feed comes in ?

Thanks in advance.

[mbouse]

the chance that BROWN WIRE SURGERY will be your answer for headlights is not good. I recommend both BROWN WIRE and HEADLIGHT RELAYS.

BROWN WIRE will take care of dash lights, window wipers, radio, blower motor issues
http://flumichigan.italiancarclub.com/T ... urgery.pdf

HEADLIGHT RELAYS will help save your hi/low beam switch from melting... and brighten your front beams TREMENDOUSLY.
http://flumichigan.italiancarclub.com/T ... cedure.pdf

[ROOK1]

HEADLIGHT RELAYS will help save your hi/low beam switch from melting... and brighten your front beams TREMENDOUSLY.
http://flumichigan.italiancarclub.com/T ... cedure.pdf

This is a popular upgrade with the Jeep Cherokee crowd too. The only difference is using new/upgraded wires from the relays to the lights bypassing any of the factory stuff. This is due the desire to run higher watt bulbs. Here is a write-up on the procedure which can easily be used on our Fiats. http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoHeadlightLoom.htm