I hate saying this, but I might be selling my Taco

This truck was my first Toyota. Don't get me wrong, I learned how to drive in a T100, but that wasn't my vehicle, even though I still have access to it and can drive it pretty much whenever I want.

So, last week, on Monday and Tuesday, I was sick. Which means I didn't go to work. Or anywhere, in fact. Wednesday was the first, and I had the day off, and again, didn't go anywhere. Thursday morning, I did go to work, and as I was getting into town, I turned my heat on. There was a heart shattering sound of crap going through the blower motor. Immediately, I thought 'there's a fucking mouse in my HVAC plenum, and the fucker ate my cabin air filter'.

When I got home, I pulled the cabin air filter, and it had, in fact, been destroyed by a mouse.

Fast forward to Yesterday. I put some mouse deterrents in the cab of my truck, it's a product called 'Cab Fresh'. Today, I removed the Cab Fresh and pulled my blower motor, it was jammed full of filter, and was able to clean it. Vacuumed the cabin air filter bits up, and reinstalled the blower motor, installed a brand new cabin air filter, and made sure everything worked.

Then, as I got in my truck to go for a short drive, my check engine light was on.

The fuckers have gotten into my wiring.

So, I'm taking the truck to a local Subaru dealer to have them check the wiring under the hood. There's mouse shit all over the engine cover, fenders, and a mouse took a shit and pissed all over the fuse panel cover.

If the truck needs a wiring harness, I'm done. I'll have the dealer put one in, but I'm going to either sell it to the dealer and buy something else, or just trade it in for something else.

The T100 also has mouse prints all over the fan shroud, and I haven't checked my late mother's Forester yet, but I'm sure the mice have managed to get up in there as well.

Before anyone says anything, no, there is NOTHING edible in my truck. I do not keep food in my truck. However, I did pick up a pizza the last day I worked, before I got sick, and the smell from the pizza may have been in the truck that night after I unloaded and ate said pizza.

Also, I KNOW it's going to get asked, so here you go: P0333 Bank 2 Knock Sensor voltage high was the only code in the ECU.

 

Are getting rid of just cause the mouse issue?

 

Selling the taco won’t clear up the mouse problem.
The wires in lots of cars smell like food.

Good luck, hope you keep the truck and kill all the little batards!

 

Yeah.

Rat crawled into my wife’s JGC shit himself and died and there was zero food in there.

 

Check with your insurance company they may cover rodent damage.
Why a Subaru dealer and not a local shop ?

 

There is soybean used in wire housings that they are attracted to chew. Whatever you decide put some mothballs under the hood and get more feral cats to patrol outside.

 

Those knock sensor wires can be hard to get to.
Hopefully they chewed the harness up near the top.

Other wise, the intake is coming off. And then decision are going to have to be made.....

The "Not the best way, but works way" = Easier, but still no fun.
Or the "Right way" = You'll want to push the truck off a cliff once you're done.

Unless you do the job yourself, it's going to be expensive.
If you do the job yourself, we'll be here for help and moral support.

 

It depends. If it's just a damaged knock sensor wire, then no. If I have to replace harnesses, then yes. I just don't want the nightmare of constantly fighting wiring problems.

So, that's the thing, my parents lived in this house since 1979, and they've NEVER had a mouse problem, ever, with vehicles. It's just super weird, my Dad thinks it's due to the recent heavy rain, but there's been many heavy weather problems before.

The "local shop" would end up being the local Toyota dealer, and it's a Lithia owned dealer. I very, very much dislike Lithia. The local Subaru Dealer has a former Toyota Master Tech working for them, and he's done really well working on my truck in the past. I also bought the truck from the Subaru dealer. They used to have a service manager that was literally the worst piece of crap I have ever met, but he got fired a while back, and the replacement manager is an actually sane person with a good ethic.

I just got a bottle of Peppermint Oil. Apparently, the little jerks got under the hood of the Forester, and they were really going to town on the insulation under the hood. It's been thoroughly hosed down with peppermint oil, we'll see if it helps.

I'd love to do the job myself, but I don't have anywhere to work on it here. I'd have to rent a lift, and the only place local that does that is owned by a guy so bad that I would rather eat glass shards than talk to, much less give any money to.

So, the dealer's gonna do it. I'm going to ask them to also clean the plenum vacuum actuator. Maybe this will fix the problems I've had with this truck for the last year, where it's constantly knocking and has no power. 3:

I'm working a job that pays $30 an hour, and I have been getting as many as 58 hours a week, so money literally isn't the problem. What IS a huge problem is that there's nothing worth buying in my area right now. I did find a 1991 Toyota MR2, and a 2001 F250 7.3, both with 5 speed manuals. The MR2 is a little too expensive, but it's super low miles and I would absolutely love driving that here in the mountains. The F250 would be a fantastic offroad truck, it's 4X4, but damn, I don't really want to buy a new vehicle right now. Which is ironic, my Tacoma was purchased when my last vehicle, a Baja Turbo, blew it's transmission up. I went to the Subaru dealer to look at a first year Outback Wilderness, I think in 2020, and saw the Taco sitting on the lot, decided it had an automatic and I wouldn't be interested, but I looked in the window, and it had a stick shift. Took it home later that day, and the Parts department manager bought the Baja Turbo. He put a new 5 speed in it, and about a year later, the motor blew. Whoever owned that Baja before me should be shot, they destroyed the engine in that truck.

 

So my dad has 33 vehicles (all in garages/barn) and has never not had a mouse issue. I live next door and also have the same issue. We live in the boonies.
They got into my tractor, my work chevy, and mine and my husband’s Tundras just from leaving them out in the driveway for a day or two instead of the garage. They’re prolific breeding assholes who like to chew on everything. Peppermint oil and dryer sheets dont do dick, we’ve tried multiple times. Dad and I have tried literally everything over the years (even a barn cat, she did her part but couldnt keep up). The only no-go we have is we wont use poisons. Too much other wildlife around here, specifically eagles and hawks from the lake, and we dont need to be killing everything else in the area that preys on the discarded carcasses.

The only preventitive measure ive found that works is 5 gal buckets with the flip trap covers on top against the wheels with peanut butter. Self-resetting and limitless. The first time dad used them he drowned over 20 of them in one night. I just caught one last night by my Tundra. I drive a van for work and my truck sits quite a bit. Selling your Taco wont solve it, but I understand the frustration. If you get another vehicle, make sure to take preventitive measures.

 

Yes, of course. That would be the main idea, get a new vehicle and get preventative measures going. I'm pretty shocked at how bad this was in such a short time, we've got Barn owls and Great Horned Owls here, plus an absolute ton of cats from the neighbors, but apparently that wasn't enough.

Probably going to get a bucket trap going. I hate peanut butter, so at least I have a use for it now.

 

Did it happen during a cold snap? Seems like I notice mouse turds in the engine bay after it’s been freezing. The pizza theory makes sense too

 

So, it's been an unusually warm winter here, it's been above freezing almost every night this winter. It did happen during heavy rain.

The pizza theory doesn't explain why they've been destroying the insulation in the Forester engine bay, it's nowhere near where my Taco was parked, so the scent from the Taco wouldn't have made it that far.

 

I remember seeing some threads on here with that specific code or other knock sensor codes as a direct result of rodents chewing them. No clue why but apparently one of the most common spots is that knock sensor harness under the intake manifold for some reason.

OP I would search through the tacomaworld threads for that specific code/knock sensor wiring chewed to see how other people addressed it and prevented in the future.

 

OP: Do yourself a favor, and remove the plastic cover (held on with two 10 mm acorn nuts) from the top of the engine.

It has some kind of fibrous sound insulation that does nothing but encourage rodents to build nests nearby.

Also get a leaf strainer (used for gutters) stretch it out, and use it to keep the f*&kers out of the intake for the cabin air. There is at least one thread here about how to do this.


Finally, spray peppermint oil everywhere that you see wires under the hood. Re-apply every week or two.

 

I've had it happen twice to a Honda Fit we had. New wiring harness was $200ish the 1st time. 2nd time was able to shrink wrap one exposed wire and it cost me $50.

They got into the wiring of a Honda Rancher ATV too. New wiring harness was going to be $1200. I took it to a guy who ageed to splice everything back together if he could take his time and do it when things were slow around his shop. I left it there about 2 months. He worked on it when he had dead time around his shop. Cost me $300.

Best solution: Get an outside cat. A stray adopted us a while back. She mostly stays outside but comes in the house regularly. Pretty good cat too. So far, I've found about 6 dead mice she killed and left by the door for us to see.

 

For what it's worth, Honda makes a capsaicin-infused tape that is meant to repell rodents from chewing on soy-based coated wires. Buy a roll of that and re-wrap your harnesses for prevention.

For repellents there are lots of old wives tales out there. Moth balls, dryer sheets, sonic/electric frequency doodads...all snake oil. Peppermint oil seems to be one that actually works but may need to be reapplied often.

One trick of the RV community is having lights run around the perimiter of the vehicle, like one of those Xmas rope lights. I have seen another theory that placing some lights in the engine bay can deter them because they won't feel as safe in a lit-up area versus darkness. Another theory of having lights blink, or at very least turn on and off at intervals would also disrupt their patterns.

For eradication, bucket traps are good. Pet cats and snakes are good. Careful with baits and poisons as they can kill other animals in the ecosystem, or if mice die inside your walls it gets stinky. I'd do the bucket trap they work well.

Good luck!

 

So, the dealer apparently was able to get some of that tape infused with capsaicin. They wrapped the wiring with it.

Bucket trap arrived earlier today, is assembled, and deployed. I'll post updates if anything exciting happens, there.

I should have my truck back tomorrow.

 

Alright, update time!

I got the truck back from the dealer. I spent an extra $150 and the tech wrapped most of the engine harness wiring in capsaicin tape. The only damage was to the knock sensor harness, which the tech repaired.

So, I noticed on the drive home that the truck was running better than it has ever run in the last 1.2-2 years. I suspect there was already damage to this harness from the past, because I was having a problem with excessive knocking and a lack of power, especially while at half throttle and running second or third gear out, and that is now no longer the case.

The bucket top trap has been setup, it's out right now waiting for victims. All 3 cars have had Peppermint Oil applied under the hood, but I need to find somewhere to pressure wash, or even better, steam clean the engine bays, get the dirt and crap out, and apply more.

For now, I'm keeping the truck. I'll track my fuel mileage, I've been getting 12-14mpg in mostly city driving, 16-17mpg when driving on longer trips. Here's hoping the economy improves, then I'll really want to keep this truck for forever again.

 

Probably the last update on this: There's been no sign of any mouse activity in any of the vehicles, and the bucket trap hasn't been touched at all. The bait is still undisturbed, nothing has even gone near it, as far as I can tell.

My truck is running very well still, and now I'm getting to the point where I can replace my headlight housings and front seats.