Spent an entire afternoon chasing a ground issue on a 2018 F-150

I had this F-150 come in last Tuesday where the passenger tail light was acting weird. It would work fine for 10 minutes then just go dark. Pulled the wiring diagram, checked fuses, swapped the bulb, nothing. Ended up chasing the ground wire all the way back to the frame rail and found a factory ground strap that was corroded nearly in half. Took me 4.5 hours to find something that should have been a 20 minute fix. Has anyone else run into those hidden ground points that just eat up your whole day?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_moore23d ago

Feel your pain man, those hidden ground points are the worst.

aaronrobinson23d ago

...and that's the thing, right? I spent a solid five hours on an old Silverado once, chasing a dash light flicker. Turned out it was a ground point hidden behind the inner fender liner, completely buried in all this road grime and corrosion. You'd think after doing this long enough I'd just check the grounds first, but no, I gotta pretend I'm Sherlock Holmes with a multimeter every single time. I swear they design these things just to humble us. Still, beats pushing a hose around, I guess.