Mice chewed wire harness... Again

I left my truck (2018 Sport) in my garage for 2 weeks this summer. Mice built a nest in the engine and chewed the wire harness and some other stuff.
I put 2 "cab fresh" packs in the engine compartment and set lots of mouse traps in garage. Have only caught a few mice.
Little buggers were back in there 3 months later and chewed wires again. I probably should have changed the cab fresh sooner...
Toyota will not warranty the repair since "damage is not caused by a defective part".
I bought Honda rodent tape and paid extra to have them tape all the wires in there.
We have had 3 other vehicles in that garage for 11 years, and never had wires chewed.

Any suggestions to prevent this from happening again? Possible recourse with Toyota if it does?

 

Toyota has nothing to do with your issue; go through insurance.

 

The water bucket contraption can catch a lot of mice. Simple and effective. Details on google and youtube. Might be worth a try in your garage.

 

Insurance and get a couple of cats.

 

Fortunately, insurance did cover it the first time. I'm starting to think that the soy coating on the wires is like crack for rodents. Maybe Toyota shouldn't have used that.

 

I agree with Kwikvette, place traps all around your garage to help stifle their activities. How are mice getting into your garage to begin with? Solve that and there will be no more issues.

 

If it's in your garage I would say get a good exterminator to come and deal with the mice problem, wire insulation is soy based as such rodents will eat the hell out of it. I've heard the honda tape you tried works well, ford sells something similar, probably the same exact stuff though. Most problems I've seen are vehicles park outside or near a food source like the giant bag of dog food in the garage, mice eat the food then get in the warm engine bay and eat insulation since they are there.

 

Good idea. I used this in Hawaii for rats... effective.

 

I've heard of squirrels chewing into gas lines of other auto brands, apparently for the same reason (soy).

 

I hate cats.
Also, we already have one.

 

Bingo. Mice chewed my harness on my second gen. Didn’t chew my wife’s Ford’s wiring. It’s a thing.

 

Put moth balls in the engine bay, could also spray a water/soapy/ cayenne pepper solution on the wires. And lay out rat poison in that garage.

 

Even mice love Tacomas!

 

I work at ford and they have rodent problems too, rodents seem to have good enough memory to go back to the same place and eat it again, worse I've seen was one guys explorer, mice ate the bank 2 injector harness three times, we wrapped the wires with anti rodent tape after the second time and after the third time again as well as the guy cleaning out his garage. He still brings the car in for routine work so he got rid of the mice.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions right away. The garage is a detached/rustic wooden affair. It would be nearly impossible to seal it up. Easier to raise/rebuild.
We have dogs, chickens and the pet that shall not be named. If any of them ate a half-baked mouse and died, it would be bad.

 

Thanks. I think the Honda rodent tape I bought contains some serious pepper juju. Wires got wrapped in that.

 

If you pay for the plane tickets I'll bring sledge hammers and we can decimate the garage.

 

Had it happen twice to my tundra. Parked in my pole barn in upper peninsula of Michigan. I guess Toyota’s are just plain tasty

 

Dryer sheets under the hood. I stuff them in a half a dozen areas.