Shoutout to the guy who told me to check the grounding strap before chasing electrical gremlins

Got a 2018 F-150 in the shop last Tuesday that had this intermittent issue with the taillights flickering. Spent like 2 hours swapping relays, checking fuses, tracing wires. Finally called a buddy who works at a dealer and he just says "did you check the ground strap at the frame?". Sure enough, it was corroded half to hell. Cleaned it up, problem gone. Felt like an idiot but learned something. Has anyone else had a simple ground fix save them a ton of time?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige87029d ago

Did you ever consider that maybe the issue isnt always the ground strap being rusty but the fact that the factory grounding spots are just plain bad? Ive seen tons of trucks where the engineers picked the worst possible spot for a ground that traps water and dirt right on top of it. Even if the strap looks clean the threads on the bolt or the metal around it can get all eaten up from electrolysis between two different metals. Its wild how much time we waste on fancy diagnostic tools when a simple wire brush and a new bolt fixes like half the electrical problems on modern trucks.

derek93929d ago

Yeah @paige870, you hit it with "traps water and dirt right on top of it" which is the REAL problem I see ALL the time. Engineers put grounds in these pockets where mud and moisture just sit and eat away at everything. So even if you replace the strap, you're still fighting the same spot that was bad from day one. Have you ever tried just drilling a new hole in a clean spot and running a self-tapper with some dielectric grease instead? That's been my fix on a few trucks where the factory spot was just a lost cause.