Rodents chew thru wiring?

2016 Tacoma with ~14k miles on it and I'm the original owner. Started the truck after work last night and the brake, abs, and traction warning lights popped up on the dash. I took it in the the dealer and they said that rodents had chewed thru the under hood and dash wiring harness? Warranty won't cover it and they said my insurance company may after an adjuster looks at it ($500 deductible). If the insurance won't cover it, they said it'd cost at least $2900. Has anyone heard of this happening? Any other options I have? I asked them to send me a picture and this is what I got from the dealer.

 

Yep. https://www.google.com/search?q=tacomworld+effing+mice&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab

Long story short. Get a container of cayenne pepper and shake it all over your engine bay. Also under your air filter inside the housing. Keeps the assholes out.

 

Just fix it yourself. Match the bite marks up on each end of each wire with each other.

 

very common. has been discussed on this forum.

 

Yes, it happens all the time. Yes, it happens to every vehicle no matter the manufacturer. Yes, there are many questionable ways to keep it from happening again, but the best way is to get a cat.

A long time ago, many manufacturers changed from petroleum based wire coverings to soy based wire coverings and some here will have you believe that is the culprit. Why did they change? Money? Ease? Who knows, but one thing I do know, it used to happen a lot BEFORE they changed the wire covering formula. I saw many Chevys and Fords back in the 80's that rodents had ruined the wiring harness. It's easy to chew off and makes great nesting material, which is why they do it.

Only the smart mice do it though, those who are building a nest out of vinyl that will last 500 years and be waterproof. Much better than the dumb rats nest of grass and twigs.

 

This is the correct answer. This has been happening since wiring harnesses were invented and long before the soy based stuff became popular, although thats possibly made it a little worse.

I work at a dealership that has a little creak running behind it, seems to be a breeding ground for rodents. Dealership has been here for 45 years and as long as anyone can remember we had been replacing about 1-2 wiring harnesses EVERY month. Sometimes it was a new car, sometimes a used car, really sucked when it was a service customers car.... Anyways we put traps, poison, lined the edge of the property with rodent repellants etc... nothing seemed to really work. Then.... CATS!

About 5 years ago our master tech sort of adopted a feral cat, he began leaving catfood outside his work bay and within a month there was about 4-5 cats that started hanging around our back service lot. Everyone knows them now and they're all fed and given water every night before he leaves. Since then we haven't had a single rat chewying issue, its been YEARS since we've had to replace a wriing harness.

Those cats saved our dealership about $50-$60k per year. Fucking love those guys.

Now the worst issue we get is the occasional paw print on a customer's hood.

Edit: anyways this should be an easy insurance claim, sucks you'll be out the $500 deductible but could be worse. Consider the cayenne pepper or adopting a street cat. We even built them a couple little cat houses and someone even left them a little bamboo plant decoration lol.

Fur balls take care of us, we take care of them

 

Yep. I hate cats, but I started leaving cat food outside my back door when I developed a mole problem in my back yard. Moles are gone and my dog is happily chasing a cat every now and then.

 

wires are color coded just need to expose the good wire on both sides of the chew and repair. i would bet a car stereo shop would do it for a couple hundred bucks. an hour or two at most.

 

This is a great idea. Given the location of the dammage shouldn't be too hard to just splice everything back together.

Only problem would be if it already shorted out it may have caused dammage on other non-visible/accessible parts of the harness. And you wouldn't really find out where until you pulled out the whole harness anyways :/

 

I've also heard to take a dryer sheet and rub it around the wires, there's something about dryer sheets that the rodents don't like. But yes, the jacketing is made out of a soy based element which attracts rodents. Very common problem and not just with Toyota. many other manufacturers experience the same issues.

 

Thanks for all the replies! I'm leaning towards going thru insurance so I know it's done correctly and down the road if something else happens they can't deny a warranty claim.

 

Should be covered under "comprehensive".

 

You are going to hear a lot of solutions and help on this one, but besides putting traps and cats together and parking in a sealed garage, if you like to camp or park outdoors in different places you are going to have to use an effective repellent to protect your wires. A desert park ranger recommended to me to use fresh cayenne pepper to ward off wood rats and jacks - and I know it works, I’ve also used it to ward off coyotes, deer and other wildlife from fruit trees, and have not had chewed wires or footprints in my engine bay when camping or at home since I started using it:

1. Wet down entire engine bay

2. Sprinkle fresh cayenne pepper over all wires and harnesses as possible (avoid exhaust manifold, and don’t put a lot!)

3. Let dry ( The Cheyenne powder will stick to where you put it).

4. Wash and replace every few weeks as needed.

5. Warn mechanics before servicing it!

Here’s two good TW links to the same subject:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/effing-mice.461226/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rats-living-in-my-engine.527661/

 

Wow, that's amazing. Great info.

 

Let me explain something...
You think a shop changing out a complete wiring harness is going to have less problems than a guy spending a few hours in one place splicing 20 wires or so?

I would go with the guy spicing wires for a few hours. Do you have any idea how complex the harness is and what has to be taken apart to do it?

Your call for sure, but, even if you still have any problem after the guy splices wires, you can then go back and get the whole harness and only be out a few hundred. I just know what can happen when complete dash panels and firewall grommets are removed and reinstalled versus heat shrinking a few wires in one small area under the hood.

Good luck whatever you decide to do!

 

I’d go with the splices too...

 

If there are any future problems caused by them not replacing the harness correctly, wouldn't that be covered under warranty?

 

If you decide to splice get some marine rated crimp connectors that you can shrink seal so no moisture gets in.