Rodents Chewing Knock Sensor Wires

this schidt kills mice......

you just don't know where they will go to die.........

 

...^^^... That stuff usually causes them to internally bleed to death ... aka Warfarin ... same stuff humans take to prevent blood clots.

 

Thanks everybody for the advice. Trying out Irish spring and mothballs first. If that fails I’m going to burn the truck to the ground. That should get em!

 

I have had way too much experience with this.

The got my knock sensor, VVTI solenoid and coolant temp sensor wires.... Twice.
They also moved into my the area on top of my cabin air filter and turned it into a combo of fruit storage and a bathroom. Yuk.
I wound up pulling the cowl and built a hardware cloth cover for the cabin air intake (why toyota didn't put one there from the factory is beyond me).
The wiring I was able to fix. I could just barely reach the area where they chewed it, was able to solder and shrink the impacted wires.

They have also eaten the knock sensor harness on my girlfriend's car twice. Both times the repair cost north of $2,000. Pulling a Lexus V8 intake is one of the most miserable jobs in the automotive world so I had a shop do it.

What doesn't help:
Dryer sheets
Mothballs
Ultrasonic pest repeller thingies
Leaving the hood up
Leaving the hood up with lights shining on the engine bay
Leaving a fan blowing into the intake valley

What seems to help:
Deep cleaning your engine bay. Rats use their near constant stream of piss to mark/retrace their footsteps. Cleaning their scent off discourages them from returning
Vehicle rodent repellent spray (available on Amazon)
Parking in different locations (I have a pretty large driveway so shuffling the cars around is easy).
The Honda rodent tape that someone else mentioned
Backyard pellet gun rat safaris

What will put an end to this once and for all:
Building permit for my new garage... Got that a few weeks ago.

As for all the speculation about soy based wiring, my experience is that they pretty much leave my "pre soy" 60s and 80s cars alone. I have found evidence of them under the hoods of my older stuff but have never had any wiring chewed up by them in those vehicles.

 

Great advice, thank you!

 

I had this issue while back and i had my insurance cover it.

 

Can someone tell me how you were able to get your insurance to cover it. I have Erie insurance and "engine maintenance" was not covered. Did you have to file as an infestation claim?

 

It would be under your comprehensive insurance. Some people have it. Some don't. Comprehensive insurance is REALLY cheap and covers lots of things. Fire, theft, vandalism, glass breakage, and "acts of God"(lightening strikes, deer running out in front of you, falling trees, and rodents chewing on your truck)

 

Just because all manufacturers use it, doesn't make it right. Another example of shoddy design and engineering by Toyota. As for putting the knock sensors where they are inaccessible is just plain idiotic.
I wish i had bought a Ford F150.

 

Ford puts their knock sensors under the intake on most of the F150 engines. Not as hard to get to as the Toyota 4.0, but still a 5-6 hour job.

 

Like Ford doesn't have any design issues or don't use wire with soy based insulation. I particularly love the great spark plugs Ford came up with, you know the ones that break in half during removal or just blow out of the head and take the threads with it...

The knock sensors are not inaccessible, they just take a little patience.

I wish you had bought a Ford also.

If you do buy a Ford make sure you get the heated tailgate option so your hands don't get cold pushing it in the winter.

 

Yep, just saw a Ford Expedition yesterday with a blown out spark plug.

 

Not sure why Toyota even bothered with knock sensors on the 4.0L. Most of them sound like diesels anyway. All that knocking and ticking, especially at cold start. Apparently it is considered "normal".

 

I just had my knock sensor wires chewed by Templeton. I found him hiding out in my cabin air filter housing. Drug his ass out by the tail and did what needed to be done. I bought a knock sensor harness online for $14.00 and various gaskets and O-rings totaling about $30. Everything is either 10 or 12 mm. I removed the plenum, fuel injectors and the intake manifold. All of which were pretty easy. There are two cooling pipes running between the heads and they are welded together with two metal bands. The easiest thing to do is cut the bands with a cutoff wheel. Make sure you've taped off the intake before you do this. Then remove 1 10mm bolt that holds the larger pipe to the block. Remove the thermostat hose and then the thermostat housing from the front of the engine. The large pipe has an O-ring on both ends and snaps out with a little effort. ( I would replace these O-rings)
Then the knock sensor wires are accessible. If replacing the entire harness (which I did) there are two barb retainers holding it in towards the back. Very difficult to get to so I took a serrated kitchen knife and sawed through them. You pretty much have to lay completely across your engine to reach the main harness plug in the back to disconnect it. Once everything is disconnected it's easy to route the new wire back. Use zip ties to retain the plug back to the main harness. Going back together was easy. No need to repair the cut metal straps between the two pipes. They tie down to the block and are sandwiched between two housing on the front and rear of the engine. I used RTV on my intake manifold gasket to ensure a good seal. I also cleaned my injectors while I had them out and replaced the seals. I couldn't find a torque pattern for the intake manifold so I used the inside out cross pattern method and made sure everything was pretty snug but not too tight because of the aluminum block. After everything is put back together, remove the battery cable if you haven't already and open the doors to drain all residual power. This should reset the ECU and clear the error codes. Hook it back up after about 10 minutes and you're good to go. It's also not a bad idea to clean your MAF sensor since you had some rodent issues and everything exposed. Only use MAF cleaner on it though because it is very sensitive to harsh chemicals. All together I spent about 5 hours and less than $75 to make the repair.

 

Any chance you could post links to the various gaskets and o rings you bought for this project?? I am hoping to work on this next week with brother in law who is more knowledgeable than me. Want to make sure I get order the right parts ahead of time. Thanks!