In order to make it possible to detect a fault location, safely, reliably and with a high response sensitivity, in a braided wire which has a plurality of individual wires, an electric current is passed through the braided wire and the magnetic field which is formed as a result of the braided wire through which current flows is detected by a sensor and is evaluated. A fault location is deduced if the measured magnetic field has an oscillation whose length is a multiple of a lay length of the braided wire, and in particular corresponds to the lay length. The method is also used in particular for non-destructive testing of the quality of a contact connection of a contact element to the braided wire.