Vent: 6 hours to track down a loose ground wire on a 2005 Chevy Silverado

I spent a whole Saturday trying to figure out why my truck's dash lights were flickering. Started with the alternator, then the battery terminals, even swapped out a fuse box relay. After 4 hours I was ready to bring it to a shop. Then I remembered an old forum post about ground straps on the frame. Crawled under there and found a rusted bolt near the passenger side fender. Tightened it up and everything worked fine. Total fix took 20 seconds after 6 hours of hunting. Has anyone else dealt with a phantom electrical problem that turned out to be something dumb like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewh281mo ago

Yeah it's always the simplest thing. Ground straps are such a pain to track down too.

the_elizabeth1mo ago

Did I ever tell you about the time I spent three hours chasing a bad ground on my alternator only to find out it was just a loose bolt on the battery terminal? Embarrassing doesn't even begin to cover it!