Posted: 1/13/2009 3:42:19 PM EDT
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A woman I work with bought a new Toyota truck about five months ago. She usually keeps it in her garage and drives her beater car to work. She just drives the truck on weekends or for errands.
She told us Friday that she wanted to drive it that day but it wouldn’t start. We kidded her about it since she seldom drives it and suggested she check the battery. It turned out that it wasn’t the battery… Rats chewed the wires under the hood to the tune of a $5,000 repair. (  ) She said the Toyo dealer told her they have had a bunch of vehicles in recently for similar repairs. This is in the Round Rock area: nice house/subdivision. All covered by her auto insurance, BTW.
I don’t live very close to her, but I think I’ll keep an eye on my vehicles and maybe set some traps just to see what happens. |
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As a mechanic I've seen it twice.
First time was on a customers caddy. A rat ate the wires for the ABS to the passenger front. THAT was fun replacing. Second time was on my dads camaro. SOMETHING ate a 4" section of wire going to the computer. Only one wire and it was to the CPS so the car wouldn't run. Happened in his front yard and he lives way back in the woods. Took me an hour to get to the problem area. |
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Not all that uncommon, and they can do extensive damage to the car.
They chew harnesses beyond reasonable repair, the wiring can short out and cause other problems, they die and stink up the car really bad. I had a rodent fill up an HVAC box with dog food. Customer complained the fan was making lots of noise and there was no air from the vents. I dropped the blower motor and about 10 lbs of dog food came rolling out of there. |
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My girlfriend had a mouse in her Saturn L300 once. She took it to the dealer for something else and mentioned the mouse and they knew exactly how it had gotten in the car through the climate system. A common problem with those cars, good thing the little thing didn't eat anything.
I can't imagine rats! |
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Here in AZ packrats will climb in and make their home in the engine bay. Before we cleared them off our land, they ate through some wiring, committed suicide by fan belt, and got backed over. We also had some rabbits in the engine bay as well.
Some folks here keep their hoods open when cars are sitting, makes it a little less inviting by not having a roof for the critters. |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. To get it back to factory specs ya. If someone did the work themselves they would work smarter not harder and re-route it. |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. To get it back to factory specs ya. If someone did the work themselves they would work smarter not harder and re-route it. In some cars it'd be WORTH the 5g to NOT have to do it yourself. |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. To get it back to factory specs ya. If someone did the work themselves they would work smarter not harder and re-route it. In some cars it'd be WORTH the 5g to NOT have to do it yourself. sometimes there IS no better way to run the harness. It's designed and speced to run one way and one way only. If you try to reroute you end up with too short wires and other problems. |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. To get it back to factory specs ya. If someone did the work themselves they would work smarter not harder and re-route it. Please tell me you don't work on automobiles for a living! |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. To get it back to factory specs ya. If someone did the work themselves they would work smarter not harder and re-route it. Please tell me you don't work on automobiles for a living! I've got an entire folder of pics on my PC that I've taken of peoples DIY car wiring projects. It makes baby Jeebus cry. |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. To get it back to factory specs ya. If someone did the work themselves they would work smarter not harder and re-route it. Please tell me you don't work on automobiles for a living! I've got an entire folder of pics on my PC that I've taken of peoples DIY car wiring projects. It makes baby Jeebus cry. No joke. Ran across an electrician who figured out his car A/C wasn't working because the A/C clutch was not engaging. So he took an extension cord and hardwired the A/C clutch to the battery. Needless to say, there was more wrong with it then just the clutch not grabbing... |
| I can just see someone standing there with snips and black tape in hand looking at a car with an eaten up wiring harness that goes from the headlights to the tail lights through the firewall to the instrument panel while branching off to connect 16 different sensors, 4 computers 8 or 10 relays 2 fuel pumps and about 18 bulbs and saying "Oh Ya!" |
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Five big for a wiring harness installed...?[>:/] When cars are built on an assembly line,sometimes wiring harnesses are laid in very early in the process and the car is pretty much built around them. Sometimes SERIOUS disassembly is required and at dealership rates, it wouldn't take long at all to get into $5000 territory. To get it back to factory specs ya. If someone did the work themselves they would work smarter not harder and re-route it. Please tell me you don't work on automobiles for a living! Of course not, or I would do it the right way and make money of people. Hopefully you guys understood my point. |
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A guy I work with has a new Chevy Colorado and he took it to the dealership because it wouldn't shift right- go into Park. They replaced the shifter cable and he was fixed. Several days later, same problem. He cursed the plastic shifter cable part and took it back....they replaced it again under warranty. Several days later he saw his dog up under the truck chewing the shifter cable.
Guess the dog didn't want the master going anywhere's. Odd he only chewed that one piece and only on that vehicle. I never did ask him what he did to that dog since he doesn't have that problem anymore. |
with peanut butter in the middle