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RAV4 HYBRID ENGINE HARNESS, MOUSE DAMAGE

7K views 27 replies 15 participants last post by  RainDance313 
#1 ·
My four week old RAV4 Hybrid has died ! No life at all in the motor ! The garage (main dealer where I bought it) sent photos of an engine with a harness that has been eaten by mice !! I am waiting for a price to get it back on the road, and I'm expecting a huge estimate ! I've read that there have been similar problems with Toyotas,and that the harness these days compose mostly of soy, otherwise an invitation to any mice in the area to enter the engine to have a picnic!! I do not consider this situation to be my fault. Our Renault Traffic and VW Transporter have been parked in the same place for years and they have NOT been attacked by mice ! My insurance agent, who told me that every motor insurance policy in France has exclusions on animal/rodent damage, asked if the mice might have entered the engine at the garage ?! I can't prove that they did and I don't expect the garage can prove that they didn't ! Has anyone had a similar problem with a brand new Toyota ?
 
#3 ·
My niece's Honda has a mouse problem this year. She parks on a city street and drives everyday. The mice ate the cabin air filter and made a few nests. We don't know yet what other damage may have been caused. We glued two mouse traps down inside the engine compartment and set a couple more inside the the cabin. It is very important to get the mice out. Once they start urinating inside the car you may never be able to get the odor out. Do whatever it takes and good luck.
 
#4 ·
Quite a number of Toyota owners in North America have reported having rodent damage to vehicle wiring. Soy based insulation attracts rodents. There are suggestions about trying to prevent this on this forum - suggest using the Search Community function at the top of this page.
 
#17 ·
case by case situation all depends on where owner park the car. should manufacturer be responsible for each owner's vehicles maintenance/up keeping? this where insurance comes in...in case shit happens depending on coverage. most people are too cheap to pay for additional coverage and complain when shit does happen.
 
#21 ·
Rodents eating your wire harness? Try living in the Sonoran desert of Arizona for 15 years. I and my dogs would dispatch 100 to 150 Pack Rats (Wood Rats weighing up to and over 5 lbs/2 kg) every year just in the area around the ranch house. They get into everything (including the walls of our house once). They got into every vehicle we had and ate everything from my paper maintenance logbook in the glove box, to rubber shifter boots, to spark plug wires, to O2 sensors on catalytic converter, the rubber portion of tire valve stems........so on and so on. They terrorized an 1988 Isuzu Trooper, 1996 Jeep Cherokee, 1986 Ford F-350 Pickup and a 1999 Toyota Tacoma (so brand made no difference). If it was rubber, vinyl or plastic, it was fair game. This does not include the rat B*stard that filled the catalytic converter on my wife's Tacoma with dry dog food causing so much back pressure it would not keep running (had to remove entire exhaust system and found several dead rats inside). Or the one that built the Rat Taj Mahal in the engine compartment of my Jeep engine in one night, covering every square centimeter of engine with grass, weeds, sticks, juniper tree branches, discarded 7-11 burrito wrappers, dog food, dog POOP.......

Now, here is the kinder/gentler Cowboy fix. Buy your self a box of unscented dryer sheets (we used Bounce or Snuggle), a bag of small zip ties or roll of bailing wire. You can use scented ones, but for some reason, unscented worked better on the rats in the the Desert Southwest. Now, take 3 or 4 (requires a bit of experimentation first month) and wrap one each around a length of wiring harness inside the engine compartment (I did one on each side of engine and one along firewall) securing with zip ties, or a spiral wrap of bailing wire. Find locations no closer than 10 inches/2500mm to hot engine parts, and don't install on radiator hoses, air conditioning lines (rubber or metal), exhaust pipes and similar if you want to avoid engine fire. Wiring harness going along top of fire wall and over top of fenders to headlights are safest, but you may not get full effect and will have to move next group closer to engine. You will need to replace about every 30-60 days depending on driving habits and ambient temperatures. What happens is the heat from the engine warms the dryer sheets and releases the anti-static chemicals, which ror some reason, bothers the rats and keeps the little critters away. We only did this trick in the engine compartment, but the rats never attacked any other part of our vehicles equipped in this fashion for the next 10 years we stayed in Arizona.
 
#24 ·
Rodents eating your wire harness? Try living in the Sonoran desert of Arizona for 15 years. I and my dogs would dispatch 100 to 150 Pack Rats (Wood Rats weighing up to and over 5 lbs/2 kg) every year just in the area around the ranch house. They get into everything (including the walls of our house once). They got into every vehicle we had and ate everything from my paper maintenance logbook in the glove box, to rubber shifter boots, to spark plug wires, to O2 sensors on catalytic converter, the rubber portion of tire valve stems........so on and so on.
Certainly am pleased that I haven't had the same problem as you. Lived on farms and despite ever present rodents we never had any rodent damage to our vehicles (Fords, Chevys, Dodges, or even our farm machinery). Sonoran desert pests must be hungrier . . . .
 
#25 ·
Had it happen to my Nissan Juke Nismo RS. I hardly drove the car due to me having other modes of transportation. Rat bastard ate through the wiper cowl and made his way into my a/c fan. Didn't know he was in there until I turned th he fan on high. There was a small vibration for a few minutes and then it got loud to where my whole dash shook. Took it straight to Nissan. They blew it apart and called me the next day and told me to call my insurance and ask if they cover "big ass rat damage!" He sent me pics of a big ass decapitated rat that had been living in there for a while. Insurance covered the nearly 4k in damage and said that it was beyond my control.
 
#26 ·
My RAV4 has now had a repair, the insulation on cables eaten by mice was just 2" long. See Pic. At first the garage said the whole harness would need to be replaced at a price of 1600 euros ! We then agreed on a repair for 260 euros! We have it back, are now running a sonic deterrent, placed behind the front wheel, have also used a deterrent spray in the engine compartment which is available in agricultural shops, called RACAN which is a rodent deterrent and have used moth balls in a safe part of the engine, also as a final fix, hopefully, sprayed peppermint oil underneath the wheel arches ! We're hitting it with everything at our disposal !! We're nervous about another attack, so are trying everything !
 

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#27 ·
Thank you for your update. Good news that the repair was not very expensive and that you and the shop agreed that the entire harness would not need to be replaced. Hope that you have no more rodent problems!
 
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