Techniques regarding root cause analyses based on time series data are provided. For example, one or more embodiments described herein can comprise a system, which can comprise a memory that can store computer executable components. The system can also comprise a processor, operably coupled to the memory, and that can execute the computer executable components stored in the memory. The computer executable components can comprise maintenance component that can detect a cause of failure for a mechanical system by employing a greedy hill climbing process to perform a polynomial number of conditional independence tests to determine a Granger causality between variables from time series data of the mechanical system given a conditioning set.