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Just realized a corroded ground strap under the floor panel of a Citation XLS was the real culprit for a phantom autopilot fault that took me three entire days to trace.
Has anyone else had a sneaky ground issue cause a cascade of weird faults that made you chase your tail for that long?
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caleba457mo ago
Ugh, ground gremlins are the worst. I read a maintenance article once that basically said half of all "weird" electrical faults end up being a bad ground, and I totally believe it. @brown.simon's story about the firewall bolt is a perfect example of how one tiny spot of rust can make a whole plane act possessed. It's always the last place you look, buried behind everything else.
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brown.simon7mo ago
Oh man, don't even get me started. Had a Cessna 182 with a flickering fuel gauge and a landing light that only worked sometimes. Spent a WEEK checking sensors and switches. Turns out it was one single rusty ground bolt on the firewall behind a bundle of wires. The weirdest stuff just falls apart when the ground path isn't perfect.
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