Hood Blanket

[chillfactor]

What is the purpose of the ground strap that is hooked to the hood. I want to remove the blanket, so can I take off the strap and leave it off?????????Help.

 

[2003snake]

It's for AM reception

 

[Sonic03]

Since the backing of the hood liner has a foil metalic coating the strap is to prevent static electricity build up....I took my liner off all together...it looks bette....and you can open the vents when you want...I put strips of velcro on the backs and it hold the plastics flaps open....cool, literally!

 

[chillfactor]

Thanks for the info.....called the SVT and they did not know why it was there.:bash:

 

[Dana]

Did that surprise you?

 

[FlashSVT]

....I took my liner off all together...it looks better....and you can open the vents when you want...I put strips of velcro on the backs and it hold the plastics flaps open....cool, literally!

Ditto! And there is ZERO loss of AM reception with it off.

 

[mosconiac]

If you are considering taking the hood blanket off all together, do it right away.

I waited until I had 6500 miles on my '03 and regret it. That ugly blanket rubbed the paint off the underside of my hood in certain spots. Now I'll have to touch up a bunch of paint to get it looking right again. I'm considering having the underside sprayed again.

 

[byevette]

By removing the blanket and opening the flaps, how does water not get on the engine...for those without a garage?

:beer:

 

[08snake]

Most of the water falls between the front of the engine and the radiator. I've had my flaps open for about a month now and it requires minimal clean-up. Living in Hawaii, I see rain a good bit. Plus washing. I'm not complaining.

 

[Cobra'03]

Originally posted by 00yellowr
Since the backing of the hood liner has a foil metalic coating the strap is to prevent static electricity build up....I took my liner off all together...it looks bette....and you can open the vents when you want...I put strips of velcro on the backs and it hold the plastics flaps open....cool, literally!

It is to reduce electromagnetic interference which would otherwise be transmitted to the car's AM radio and other nearby vehicles.

The hood is not metal - it is a composite. The hood offers no shielding. The aluminized backing does, but it needs a ground connection shunt the RF to ground, hence the connection to the body.

BTW, fiberglas (glas sfiber reinforced plastic) was developed during WWII just for the purpose of protecting radar units from the elemnts and view - the fact that it lets radio waves pass through it easily was the reason for the design.

I found this in one of my auto electronics texts:
GROUNDING THE LOAD (Page 333)

"the circuit diagrams in this textbook show the current return path of the circuit connected directly to the negative side of the battery ~ in an actual automobile the chassis is used as the return path for current from many electrical circuits and the negative side of the battery is connected directly to the chassis - the wire that connects the circuits to the chassis is called the ground wire or lead — certain components, such as an alternator, may be mounted directly to the engine block, transmission case, or frame ~ this direct mounting will ground the component — the increased use of plastics and other nonmetallic materials in body panels and engine parts has made electrical grounding more difficult"

The pad itself serves 3 purposes:
1) noise suppression 2) suppression of transfer of heat to hood, and helps engine maintain temp to reduce cold-start emissions
3) suppression of RFI (radio frequency interference).

On a strong AM station, the primary (transmitter) signal will overwhelm the RFI- but on weaker stations or between powerful carriers, there is liable to be more noise without the insulator in place and properly grounded.