Why do car companies use wiring that taste good to rodents?

I get it all the time here..Lots of trees in Atlanta and lots of rodents, they chew the shit outta every cars wiring and washer hoses, not just Toyota...

 

There are a magnitude of cats that live outside of our house, we don't have rodent problems

 

Damn! If you were a little closer I'd just drive to personally help with the wiring issues. Most of the time that's the only thing wrong. Essentially just a chewed through wire or two.

It sucks that your dealer doesn't want to help you out at all. I don't do it all the time, but if a customer has problems similar to yours I'll try my best to help them get it fixed with as little out of pocket as possible. The dealership I'm at also shares my feelings and supports me when I have to help someone out.

 

Gosh you guys are brilliant - NOT..!

OK so you ask about tasty wires... well geee go and string up your local ECO-Nut.. everything possible now is made from recyclable and if possible non-toxic materials.. after all, some kid may try to eat your wiring as well....duh..

OK, so get some super HOT sauce and put it on the vulnerable wiring.. keep the stuff away from connectors.. hot sauce may cause corrosion at a connector... Pepper may work, but even if you mix it with a water spray it may not last as long.... yes you may have to re-apply it... Oh and one of the Manufacturers mentioned kindly above has put some bad tasting stuff on the most common wiring, like O2 sensor wires. And yes at least two manufacturers would try to help in some way on a vehicle that new... that is when Goodwill assistance can take the bite ( ) out of the repair...

NO dealer would / should "repair" wires... there is too way too much liability involved, they will replace a complete harness... Sometimes it is impossible to isolate all the damage.. and if you "miss" something... well that is often when lawyers get involved.. messy.. Only some small independent shop with shallow pockets MAY attempt a repair...

Next if your stuff is inside a garage and you have pets.. keep the dog food in a sealed trash can... varmints love to steal your pet's food and hide it inside your bike or car...

Traps... kill them varmints.. or get the trap and release type if you are so inclined....

And do you really think the Dealer / Factory can't tell when a fire is externally caused..? If so, I want some of what you are smoking...

 

It's a valid question. When I worked for Bell Atlantic and Verizon, we had underground-duty Buried Service Wire (BSW) that had a nasty gel-like coating that was specifically intended to repel insect and rodent chewing. It worked pretty well, but they didn't start using a similar product in the aerial cables until much later, because squirrels would munch that stuff all over the place. We called squirrels "job security."

 

it's the rodents fault, not Toyota. So if a tree falls on the vehicle, is Toyota responsible? You had an "act of God" incident. They happen. Can you have your insurance involved with a situation like this?

You'll feel better when that car/truck of yours lasts forever.

 

I spent the first six years of my auto tech career repairing wiring jobs at an independent shop. They have been in the business for more than 50 years!

That being said, depending on the damage, repairing wires is okay. As long as the wires in question aren't SRS system wires or high voltage hybrid systems wires a repair vs a replace is pretty common practice.

Mice and other rodents rarely attack more than one three inch section of wiring at a time. Usually the car acts up and lets you know someting isn't right long before they get a chance to eat other spots of wiring.

 

here they only got one wire, the fuel injector wire to one cyl. Toyota's recommended course of action is to repair and shrink wrap the wire...

1 hour labor to diagnose. check engine told them it was #2 cyl misfire
1.5 hours charged to solder 1 wire back together and apply shrink wrap.

either the wire is difficult to reach/get to and the labor charge is fair or it's right there on top of the motor and they are gauging.

Normally I would have at least popped the hood and investigated but we were in a 3 day stint of torrential downpour and I had a 103 fever.

 

i work for a plastic company and one of our products is designed to prevent ants from eating wires, apparently red ants are the offenders, so far as i know the only customers for the product are airports, the runway landing lights and such,

 

if your dog got sick while riding in your Toyota....would you expect Toyota to detail your car for free since they have not made a car sick proof car yet?

 

Last summer i read that Honda was going to start useing a soy product to make their wire insulation, more of their green agenda. My first thought was great, the mice will really love that.

 

ummmm yeah nice try.. not even the same thing

 

It has nothing to do with tasting good or green/eco-friendly products or anything of the sort. Rodents chew on wires because they fit in their mouth. Rodent teeth never ever stop growing, so they have to keep gnawing on things to prevent them from getting too large for their mouths. Rats, mice and even raccoons will chew on anything that'll fit in their mouths and is hard enough to wear the teeth down, but soft enough to not break them during the process.

 

God is a squirrel?

 

The nerve of some people.
Manufacturers of anything have warranties so that the buyer is covered when there is a problem in the way the product was produced.
If you are in the warranty period & a rat chews your wiring, you're seriously looking to the manufacturer of the product to cover the damages because you feel they were negligent in making wires that "taste good" to rodents?
You're seriously contending that there are at fault for knowingly producing a vehicle that has tasty (to rodent) wires?


Seriously?
Thanks for the entertainment.

 

It's always somebody else's fault, don't you know that? In fact, I'm going to blame you when this turns into a dungeon thread (and I get banned) because of this road we've just started down.

 

Independent-Dealer. Two totally different animals.
We're not talking about what you feel is ok to do.
We're talking about what dealer practices are.

 

Oh. You're right. I forgot.
Maybe the gov't could subsidize a rodent focus group in Atlanta to see what can be done.
They could serve lunch.

 

Oh. You're right. I forgot.
Maybe the gov't could subsidize a rodent focus group in Atlanta to see what can be done.
They could serve lunch.
Send me a PM ASAP to get my info so that when you're banned you can get to me.

 

I just experienced my first rodent/wire problem last fall with my cyclone rake, the lil bastids gnawed through the shut down wire which grounded it not allowing me to start the motor.