Wiring harness chewed-warranty voided

Mice (or some rodent) chewed my wiring harness. I did an insurance claim and the dealership repaired the wiring. Found out later from another dealer that repair of harness (not replacement) will void the warranty on the harness. I have a hard time figuring why Toyota would void a warranty on something their dealer repaired. Has anyone else had something similar ?

 

Could be they don't trust the techs and don't want to have to fix a wiring harness multiple times in case the repair splices don't hold up meaning they would have to fix it multiple times? Sounds ridiculous, but many times mechanics at dealerships mess up far simpler things, I can see why Toyota wouldn't cover it.

 

You need to take this up with your insurance company.

More than likely it was your insurance company's decision to repair the harness instead of replacing it because it's cheaper. But if your car is still under the manufacturer's warranty they should have replaced because you now have a non-warrantable part on your car. This does not make you whole, and that's what you need to tell them. "This does not make me whole."

 

Good chance they can't guarantee that there wasn't other damage.

 

Lady across the way bought a brand new F150 couple years back. Parked it in the garage & went South for 3 months. Wiring got crewed by mice so bad it wouldn’t even start. Found out they totalled it for that very reason.

 

That is the dumbest statement anyone can make “this does not make me whole”. It means absolutely nothing to anyone except yourself. (Person saying it).
You are correct in what you sad about insurance and dealer, it was probably the insurance cheaping out and not dealers fault. But please to the OP, when you talk to your insurance just say you expected warranty, telling them “you want to be hole”, how the fuck are they supposed to know that means you expect replaced OEM and warranted part and not some cheap fix.

 

The dealer typically has a standard shop warranty on its work (say 1 year or 10,000 miles). What does it say on your invoice?

 

Dealers are independent businesses not owned by Toyota. They contract with Toyota but can do whatever they want.
Whoever writes the checks has the power. Talk to insurance company.

 

If it was a repair and not a replacement of the wire harness, the dealer can not warranty the work.

 

They can’t void your warranty based on their own repair alone, they would have to prove any of those repairs were related to a future issue to void covering it under warranty. In that same breath, any issues related to wiring are also later related to that insurance claim and repairs would be a supplement. The dealer obviously didn’t push needing the full harness replaced OR were confident in their own repairs to not push for a harness replacement with the insurance company either. Mech Techs/body shop techs get paid more to fix/repair things, not replace and if done correctly there shouldn’t be any problems, if there are your insurance will be paying for a harness later.

 

Toyota can void the warranty if they think the repair conducted is against the warranty agreement (which OP found out it is)

The bigger question here is, are authorized Toyota dealers allowed to perform non-authorized repairs on vehicles still covered by the warranty, without informing the owner? Especially by doing repairs based on the directions from a 3rd party, without informing the owner.

OP, did the dealer gave you information about the warranty situation before the repair.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys, the insurance company refuses to pay for replacement as that its $7000 opposed to $500 for the wiring fix. I've taken it to upper management and they claim that they are withing their rights to refuse and are telling me I have to take it up with Toyota. I contacted corporate who said its on the dealer, and the dealer said they have always just fixed them this way. Needless to say I'm frustrated

 

It’s the insurance that authorized the wiring repair. We have had a lot of rodent wiring issues and we always recommended replacing harness. But it’s always up to the insurance company. But the dealer I worked for always said we won’t do a wiring repair. Cause if it comes back it becomes our issue. It’s just a way of covering ourselves. And the reason Toyota voided the warranty is. Some of the wiring is for the can system and if those wiring are repaired it will cause all kinds of electrical issues. Hope all works out good for you.

 

That's a difficult situation to be in OP. If you're familiar with the area that was damaged/repaired, I'd recommend you inspect it often and make sure the repairs are holding up. Any finicky things start happening, you know where to start looking at least.

At a minimum I would take my insurance business elsewhere. It seems they made the decision to void your new truck's harness warranty.

 

Which insurance was involved? Homeowners or Vehicle?

 

Just yesterday I discovered a squirrel trying to nest under my passenger side hood. Started the truck and all kinds of warnings popped up. The damn thing had started to chew on the main wiring harness and looks like 2 wires were chewed clean through. Trying to get it looked at today and not too excited based on other outcomes I’ve read about regarding repair/replacement of the main wiring harness.

 

"Make me whole" actually very common term/phrase in the legal and/or insurance community.

"Make me whole"- (a) Legal term/phrase meaning to pay or reward damages sufficient to put the party who claimed damage back into the position he/she would have been without the fault of another.
(b) To provide someone , especially under the terms of a legal judgement or an agreement, with financial compensation for lost money or other lost assets.

 

Absolutely nothing wrong with splicing as long as it was done right. A good splice with outlast the truck. So I wouldn't worry about it. They can only void the warranty on the part of the splice. You can also fight the insurance company for diminished value. If you can prove that your vehicle is worth less after the repair that they authorized they have to pay you. They will fight and hope you cave. Never back down from the insurance company. And send some pics of the splice and maybe I can let you know if it looks professional or Micky Moused.

 

MMMM, Rodents sure like that silicone based wiring. At the Ford dealership where I used to work mice were partial to the Ford Fusions and Explorers. I saw a couple F150s they took a liking to as well. Obviously there is more than one genius out there that didn't think about this when they started using this kind of wiring. To me its the manufacturers fault because they know these vehicles will be outside in the elements and they are the ones who decided to feed the mice with our Tacoma's. We cant control the environment or what's in it but they could have used a product that wasn't edible. I think Ford did replace the harness's on the ones I saw come in.

 

I saw a lot of rodent damage in Kia and Hyundai also. One lady I felt so bad she had engine harness replaced cause of them few months later interior floor harness.