Wiring harness chewed-warranty voided

Thank YOU!

I can tell one person who came across as not knowing what they are talking about.

Problem/solution lies in the absolute wording of the policy. I'm guessing repair is acceptable.

 

The mice chewing is a bad-luck external event, similar to deer strike or hail damage. It's rare for a harness to go bad on its own within the next two years or so (remainder of your factory warranty). Between that and the dealer's shop warranty on the repair, it isn't worth fighting over. If another defect develops in the harness, you can do another inexpensive splice repair, or file another insurance claim if it gets expensive.

 

It is not warrant repair, it is insurance repair. Rodents chewing the wire is not a manufacturer related failure.

 

Sometimes when someone else is writing the check, you no longer have a say in what they pay for.

Wiring was damaged, now it isn’t. Your vehicle is repaired. Done.

 

We have field mice in our area. They love my wife's expedition. I find traces of them all the time in the engine bay. I just cleaned out a bunch of oak acorns and poop from the passenger side valve covers. Luckily we haven't had any electrical problems knock on wood. Just ordered some peppermint oil that I'm going to soak a rag in and store it in the engine bay of our vehicles. I normally catch 1 or 2 a year in a trap I set in the garage. Have had neighbors with new vehicles get their harnesses chewed on their own dime. Damm rodents

 

What insurance company? Let us know so we can avoid them. Sounds like you might need to get a lawyer and take them to court.

 

I agree, and to be fair I should have stated *some mechanics at dealerships. This whole situation seems like a cluster. Hopefully OP can get it sorted out between all the parties involved.

 

As long as the repair is working, he'll have a hard time quantifying the "harm". It's a loss of warranty against a future hypothetical manufacturing defect in the harness over the next two years.

 

Lol let me know what kind of wiring rodents do not eat. The answer is there are none. The only solution is to put wiring in conduit and that is not practical in a vehicle.

 

I have the same prob here with mice/pack rats ... I've had to make repairs on a couple other rigs ... Thankfully not to damaging.
Needles to say .. When I got my brand new Taco in Aug. ... After being parked in the shop for a few days I popped the hood and was horrified to find a 'starter nest' beginning under the master cylinder.
I ordered a couple bottles of 'Rodent Defense' (Basically what you're talking about .. Mostly peppermint oil with some other added stinky stuff) and hosed the engine bay down. The bottle says 'long lasting' but no real recommendations as to 'how often' ... So I've just been reapplying once a month. Almost the new year and so far, so good. No signs of anything.
I can pretty much safely say it's working as, I have little piles of rat-poison-pellets on several spots on the floor around the shop and ... Those are disappearing, so I know there's vermin in there, but under the hood of the two rigs I park in there ... Clean.
The other thing I found useful that I did with my older rigs that I have had problems with ... After making repairs, I covered (Especially long runs) of wiring harness with that hard plastic split-loom stuff you can get at any hardware store. Of course you can't cover every little bit, but you can cover a lot. I know it's helped as I seen scratches on the split-loom where something has tried to chew on it, but couldn't get through.

 

They didn’t void your powertrain warranty, just the wiring harness? What’s the big deal again? It’s working, right?

 

That's my plan to switch out/ spray every month. I plan to mix some in a bottle as well.

 

I have an outside feral black cat. He brings birds and snakes, but never the mice(huge like rats). I thought when he came around that he would help. Nope just wants food lol.

 

To stand corrected. I have never seen any wiring chewed up in the 45 years I have been driving or working on cars up until recently when the auto manufacturers switched to soy based wiring harness's. The mechanics say this has become a problem since the switch was made. The rodents eat it because it is ediable now for them.

 

Stand corrected again: soy based automotive wiring has been around for 20 years.

Mice ate petroleum based wiring for decades before that. They ate fabric covered wiring harnesses before that.

Is wiring the problem or is it mice? Maybe you haven’t personally seen it, but it has certainly been a problem much longer than you’re believing it to be based on your own findings.

 

LOL!! Beautiful GS!! I have one too ... Although cats would not last long around mine ..

 

Hey, if you come up with a good home-brew formula, please share. I've googled it before and everyone's formula is as varied as much as 'How to grill the perfect burger' thing, y'know? LOL!
The 'Rodent Defense' stuff I buy ... Not exactly cheap ... But considering what it could cost to fix a chewed-up wiring harness .. You get the idea...