Main Engine Wiring Harness - $5,400 replacement

There was a small hole, maybe 1/2" or so through the side of the boot. I put my finger through it and felt the soundproofing/carpet inside. Confirmed inside by pulling back the carpet I could see a hole. That being said I don't know if that was there before I took it to the dealership. I know they poked around the area. That may be part of why they said rodents likely, but I didn't see the actual damaged wires, before it was towed to another shop that works with my insurance. I have a borescope camera that I thought would be useful but I can't get it to work with my phone since I updated to Android 10. At this point it's sitting at a shop waiting for another opinion but I am under the impression it won't be looked at for another ~3 days.

 

For a dealer to fold on it without more than a "I saw your traps" is surprising; they try to do everything they can to put in back on the customer. Plus, if it was rodent damaged on their property under their care it would be on the dealer's insurance. If they warranty replaced they made Toyota pay, which is messed up as it drives up costs to buyers.

 

A quick update on this issue before I consider it closed. My truck had been at a local shop for ~2 weeks. Finally got the call on Monday of this week that it was done and ready for pickup. Had my wife drop me off before they closed and drove it home.

Here is where the fun starts. I'm about 3 minutes from the shop and my bluetooth connection dropped, but automatically reconnected. I was annoyed but thought, the battery has been disconnected, maybe I need to delete and re-configure my bluetooth connection. Likely no big issue, I'll do that when I get home.

I'm about 1/2 mile from my house when the ABS warning comes on the screen. Not good. 10 seconds later "Check brake system" comes on. A few seconds later, VSC light turns on, it's as if one system after another is failing. Finally the dash goes dark, I turn onto my street hoping to make it up the hill and into my driveway. Unfortunately, that's when the truck died and I was fortunate enough to pull over to a curb at the bottom of our road.

Tried starting it up again, but the starter wouldn't turn over. So I decide to walk up to my house and grab my jump box. Went back to the truck, jumped the battery, and was able to get it to my driveway about 100 yards up the hill.

I called the shop and they scheduled the person who replaced the wiring harness to come out to my house. He came out this morning and inspected everything, he found a loose connection between the alternator and the fuse block. He tightened that up and checked everything else, took it for a test drive and it sits consistently at 13.6v. He drove for about 20 minutes and the voltage didn't drop, no systems went offline, truck didn't die.

I'm really hoping that this is all behind me now. It's been a nightmare of the last 5-6 weeks. I'm planning to drive 1,200 miles to Oregon in September so fingers crossed that no more electrical issues pop up.

I talked to the guy at a bit of length regarding what he found when he did the harness replacement. He said it was definitely rodent damage and they had chewed through the rubber boot into the cab as well. He said he would normally pull wires out and repair them, but because the airbag wire was damaged, Toyota insists on an entire harness replacement.

For now I'll just plan to drive around town as much as I can in the next few weeks, not venturing too far. I have a roof rack and winch bumper on order, I just want to move on to the fun work and get this electrical crap in the rearview mirror.

 

This. WTF kind of rodent wiggles inside the boot. That sounds like bullshit. I'd pull that apart and fix it before I paid that for sure.

 

I would ask for the old harness back and inspect it myself to be honest.

 

Glad you got it fixed.. Hopefully!

 

I did get it and hope to look at it this weekend. Unsure if it would be of use to anyone, even parts of it, but I am happy to have a bunch of extra fuses and relays now.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I sincerely hope I can move on to the fun work and not be stranded at home without a vehicle.

 

The plug ends with about 12 inches of wire are what are worth money.

 

Trade it while you're having no issues!

 

Don't tempt me! But really I've seen some locally going for 14k over what I paid 7 months ago. Same year, same trim, same options, similar miles. It's nuts. Kinda makes a fella wonder.

 

Oh nice. That's worth a little bit. People will pay for a connection and a bit of it's wiring for repairs.

Normally you don't get insurance parts back, technically the insurance company owns them.

 

Try Carvana or the like. I've heard of some really great offers coming from them.
Don't sell private party tho, don't want it coming back at you!

 

Most likely going to keep it since things seem good, not sure how I could trade up without it costing me something but I wouldn't hate the new multi camera view. Otherwise the truck has everything I want.

 

Who ended up paying for the repair?

 

Insurance covered it. It was looked at by Toyota, Geico, the Geico-partner, and Geico-partner-electrical-sub-contractor and they all agreed, likely rodents.

 

2018 lighting up both tach side and speedo side with flashing lights (ABS, pre-collision, CEL) and several displays on the screen between (2WD-4WD Mode Change Failure, ABS Check Anti-Lock Brake System, Pre-Collision System Malfunction - Visit Your Dealer, A/T Oil Temp High Transmission Fluid Temp) - and this was with it sitting in the driveway. Tried to drive, significant gear engagements (automatic) when selecting R and D. Accelerating and hit 15 mph (was in 2nd gear by then) and truck shifted back to first and that was as fast as the Taco would go.

None of them really indicating one thing. I thought rodents but couldn't find anything. Had it towed to Dealer (had open LP fuel pump recall anyway). They called about 3 hrs later and found something had chewed through several wires in the harness that looks to run above/near the transmission.

When I was rolling around underneath I saw a piece of yellow wire on the driveway, maybe an inch long. I was hoping it was something I picked up off a trail but when I looked closely at the photo I could see where that wire came from.

$6K ($1.6K for harness, 20.5 hrs labor). Comprehensive covered. Less deductible.

 

Glad you are going now. Wiring harness replacement is sometimes the only solution. Wiring harness on a ten month old Case IH tractor was chewed up by rodents in my ranch barn. It was expensive for the insurance provider, but what made it worse was the 13 month wait for an OEM replacement harness (OEM harnesses were made in Ukraine and I had to wait until the wiring supplier ramped up wiring harness production in another EU country).