Shoutout to the old guy at NAPA who told me to check grounds first

My 2004 F-150 kept dying randomly, no check engine light. Spent two weekends swapping parts until a retired mechanic at the NAPA on 3rd Street said to clean the battery ground cable where it bolts to the frame. Sure enough, there was enough corrosion under that bolt to fill a coffee can. Fixed it with a wire brush and ten minutes of my time. Anyone else have a simple fix that saved you from throwing money at the wrong thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

sarahpark16d ago

Broken record here but that ground strap story is basically identical to what happened to me. @phoenix_martin40, that "unsung heroes" line is spot on. I had a buddy with a 2002 Silverado that would crank forever before starting. He replaced the starter, the battery terminals, even the ignition switch. A guy at the parts store told him to check the ground wire from the battery to the engine block. It was loose, barely hanging on. Tightened it up with a 10mm wrench and it fired right up every time after that. It's always the cheap stuff nobody checks first.

phoenix_martin4016d ago

You ever notice how the simplest stuff is always what gets you? Had a buddy with a 99 F-150 that would just die on him after driving for like 20 minutes. He swapped the alternator, the battery, even the fuel pump and then some. Took it to three different shops and nobody could figure it out. Finally an old timer at a car show said to check the ground strap from the engine block to the firewall. That strap was totally rotted through, looked like swiss cheese. He fixed it with a piece of leftover battery cable and some zip ties, cost him maybe two dollars. That truck ran like a top for another four years after that. Grounds are the unsung heroes of the electrical world, I swear.

alice92816d ago

@sarahpark that Silverado story is pretty much the same deal, yeah. But I gotta gently push back on something - you said "ground wire from the battery to the engine block." Most trucks that era have the main ground from battery to the frame, not directly to the block. The engine gets its ground through the block-to-firewall strap or a separate block-to-frame cable. Easy mix-up though, happens to everybody. Your buddy got lucky it was the battery-to-frame one that was loose, that's usually the easier one to spot.