Hi All,

While doing the dreaded spark plug change I noticed what appears to be a grounding wire on the firewall of the passenger side. Mine is fraying pretty bad and I was wondering what this wire is called, where it runs to, and what it controls (I guess also wondering how hard it is to replace).

Thanks!

 

generally it is a bond from the body(frame) to the engine. Most all automotive accessories (lights etc) ground(bond) to the body for the return path . It should be clean on both ends and there may be more than one on the vehicle.

bernie

 

Thanks Bernie. So are there multiple grounds like this one, sort of as backups and redundancies? Should I not worry about this one corroding away to nothing?

 

I would be concerned. Clean the end. Please note I said "there may be more than one" I would not depend on there being more than one. Clean it....

good luck,

bernie

 

If you can't clean it, or it's falling apart then I would definitely replace it. You want to make sure your ground wires are in good shape, or you can have electrical surging, or shorts issues. I've replaced all of mine with higher quality grounding wires used in commercial telecommunications equipment. A good electrical supply place will have them.

I re-sanded my paint off of the frame where the ground attached to (removing rust/corrosion) and repainted after reattaching my ground wires. Make sure you use a lock nut to prevent the screw from backing out and coming off from vehicle/engine vibration.

 

Thanks Bernie.

It's not a matter of cleaning the end of it, the wire itself is fraying apart in the middle, I'll have to replace it. The photo is a stock image I found online, I didn't take a picture when I was under the hood, my wire looks much worse.

 

Thanks, so this should be reachable at its other end? Replaceable without having to spend a fortune at the shop to get'er done?

Sorry, I didn't look all that long at it. It was getting cold and wanted to get the plug job finished before freezing my ***** off, lol.

 

Its a real thing ,reduces radio noise and currents that can cause electronics to act up .
It involves many fine wires in order to reduce skin effect . You have cell phone signals and many other outside influences to confuse your pcm etc . Military signals are just one of them . Shielding of some cables are sometimes the only way to keep it knocked down . That's why many electronics still have metal cases . I am sure you have received some electronics parts in static bags .
Just to explain the why of the many fine wired grounds , your hood if left un -grounded makes a noisy antenna .
You wouldn't like your fly by wire throttle signal to go crazy would you . You have heard of stuck throttle systems crashing cars . You may not have noticed there is not a throttle cable on your fuel system . It is controlled by tiny bits to the throttle body motor circuit .

 

What did you find out? Was it an easy replacement to do yourself?

I'm having a plethora of issues after having the body lifted to replace all body mounts and the fuel tank removed to replace the pump.

I'm thinking that one or more of the frame to chassis grounds have been screwed up.

- There's a slight whining coming from my stereo when accelerating

- dome lights on at very low voltage constantly as of last week and they work fine otherwise - fuel guage still not working properly some of the time, (most of the time) forscan says there's an open ground on fuel pressure sensor A but readings are accurate when testing voltage
-air bag flashed a few times after getting off the highway the other day, then went full on until i got home and did a power cycle in the comfort of my driveway, hasn't returned since and hadn't happened ever before

- vehicle started with O/D off after being parked for 10 hrs the day before the airbag light did its thing. First time it's done that. Couldn't get button to work, not even by shorting it out. Finally got it to turn off only to get on the highway and have it disengage O/D again while going 55. Took some fumbling around with button and it turned off finally.

I couldn't get the OD button to work manually for a few days It hasn't happened since then and works on demand atm. Took it to the shop and they said that the rear abs sensor could be bad. I replaced that today.

Cleared the codes a few days ago and saw plenty of chasis codes that weren't ever there before in addition to PATS and ignition and instrument cluster codes p0434.

Forscan can't complete a test of the instrument cluster. After the guage sweep is completed, at 30%, the test terminates and tells me that conditions weren't met. All other tests pass.

Anybody able to tell me what the needed conditions are for the Instrument cluster test?

I have a brand new oem IC as of this last January. I'm on my second new fuel pump of the year and fuel guage is still messed up. with forscans help i was able to determine that the IC wasnt programed with my vehicles As built code. I reprogrammed the IC and went into the PATS to delete and reprogram the original and spare key.

****s still not working right. I have an appointment with my local Ford on Dec 27th to drop the truck off for an electrical inspection and diagnosis. I'll be checking all these grounds on my first day off in the mean time.

Btw, That link no longer works what so ever. Bummer.

Thanks for all the good info Redfish

 

Maybe I missed it, but what year are we talking about?
I have a 2007 F-150 STX 4x4 with a 4.6L 2v and it has nineteen grounds with two of these associated with truck bed removal.
Ground G400 located under the tailgate area on the driver's side
Ground G401 located above rear axle on frame rail
I would check these first