Chased a bad ground for 3 hours yesterday, turned out to be a 10 cent fuse issue

Customer brought in a 2012 Civic with intermittent dash lights and no start. I did all the big tests, wasted half the morning. Turned out a blown interior fuse caused a feedback loop through the ground circuit. Anyone else ever get burned by a tiny fuse hiding something major?

3 comments

3 Comments

sammartinez16d ago

Totally feel this, been there with a Subaru Outback that had me ready to throw my toolbox lmao. @angela_morgan nailed it, now I grab a multimeter and hit every little blade fuse first before touching anything major. Saves so much time, learned that the hard way too lol.

angela_morgan16d ago

The 2012 Civic interior fuse panel, I used to think those little blade fuses were basically foolproof. Spent years chasing bigger components and totally ignoring them. Then a 5-amp fuse on a Mazda 3 had me stumped for two hours, completely changed my approach to never skip the cheap stuff first.

baker.christopher16d ago

Yeah 5 amp ones are the worst, they look fine half the time even when they're blown. Started keeping a multi pack of cheap fuses in every car I work on now, saves so much headache when the stupid interior lights or radio act up.