Old timer at the shop told me to check grounds first on a no-start...

There was this old guy named Pete who worked at a dealership near Austin for like 40 years. He told me whenever you get a no-start that looks weird, always check your grounds before you touch anything else. I ignored him for about 6 months and kept chasing fuel pumps and crankshaft sensors on cars with bad battery cables or loose ground straps. After one 2012 F-150 ate up 3 hours of my Saturday because I skipped the grounds, I finally listened. Now I start every electrical diag by looking at the battery terminals and frame ground points. Has anyone else had a senior tech give them advice they wish they had taken sooner?

2 comments

2 Comments

tylerr2925d ago

Man I love stories like that. What nobody really talks about is how the ground path can actually travel through things like the alternator case or engine lift brackets where you would never think to look. Had an old Chevy pickup years back that would crank but not fire and it turned out the main ground strap looked perfect but the hidden braided strap from the back of the cylinder head to the firewall was completely snapped in half inside the insulation. What kind of weird ground locations have you found where corrosion hides out of sight?

henry10125d ago

My neighbor's 2004 F-150 taught me the same lesson. Battery to frame ground looked fine but the block ground was completely corroded. Once I cleaned that up it fired right up.