Possible short?

[RA_Jay]

Recently when I fixed a problem with the speed sensor in my car, I noticed that one of the ecu earths was burnt out and the previous owner had joined another earth wire onto the existing ecu earth wire (see pictures), which i am assuming he did to stop the top of the loom burning out.

I have had a reoccurring problem of where my car wont start. I thought it was because my battery was just stuffed but I am starting to think that a) the short is draining my battery over night or b) the short is causing there to not be a big enough voltage drop across the starter.

I have tested the resistance between the power wire to the fuse box and the chassis and I am getting about 1ohm of resistance. So I am definitely assuming a short on this line of the car around the ecu. I also took the previous owners horey attempt at a ground off and tested the voltage between it and the chassis and I got a 10V's.

What I am wonder is were that ground wire leads to as stock and if anyone has had a similar problem?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Pics:

[Joker]

joined earths on ECU never good : they all have their own for a reason

[RA_Jay]

The ecu earths aren't joined. Its just a bit of wire that has been wrapped around on of the earths and had a terminal added to it so it can be bolted to the chassis. At the moment it it looking like it is stopping the rest of the earth wire being burnt out, as it has been added basically right next to the loom clip. As shown in pictures.

[boon]

A ground won't have 10v between it and the chassis unless something is REALLY REALLY wrong.

[mr.fix.it]

I know. This is a serious problem it definitely has 10V when cranking.

[DRFVDR]

I would start by checking that all the earths between engine and chassis are there and OK ( especially the big one from the starter mounting bolt to the battery) as it looks to me like the engine is trying to earth back thru the ECU there should also be one from both heads to strut towers...

Worse comes to worse run new earth cables as earlier Subarus were notorious for bad earths,one of the reasons why aftermarket earthing kits were popular