Spent 3 hours chasing a phantom electrical short in my truck

My F-150 kept blowing the same fuse for the interior lights and I swore it was a bad ground somewhere in the dash harness. After pulling half the trim and testing every wire, it turned out to be a loose bulb that was shorting inside the dome light housing. Anyone else waste way too long on a fix that ended up being something stupidly simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

jennifer83321d ago

Oh man I feel this in my soul. Spent a whole Saturday chasing a no-start condition on my old Subaru. Had the multimeter out, testing the crank sensor, the cam sensor, even pulled the ECU to check for corrosion. Turned out to be a 10 cent fuse that looked fine but had a hairline crack. Would work sometimes but not others. Drove me absolutely crazy. That kind of fix really sticks with you. Makes you want to kick yourself but also laugh at how stupid it was.

iris92721d ago

Three wires on my truck's starter did the same thing. Actually broke my ratchet handle from all the yanking, woke up neighbors at midnight cussing. @jennifer833, sometimes the stupid ones are the worst because you know you should've checked fuses first but never do.

vera_johnson921d ago

I mean, it's a fuse though. You really spent a whole Saturday chasing ghosts for a 10 cent part?" I get that it's frustrating, but sometimes we make things way bigger than they are. Like, yeah a no-start is annoying, but pulling the ECU? That's a bit extra for a Subaru, no offense. Most of the time it's something dumb like a relay or ground strap. You probably could've just tested fuses first and been done in 10 minutes. Not saying it wasn't annoying, but maybe chill out a little next time. We all learn the hard way, but this sounds like overkill.