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Mouse chewed through wires - what's my best option?
Title says it all. Two years ago I had a mouse get into the car and could not find where they were hiding, and eventually caught with a trap. I have been prepping the car to drive this year and proceeded to take out all interior carpet, trim, dash, and finally made my way to the door panels. Found the nesting of chewed up jute behind the door along with these wires.
There are at least 6 wires that are missing a good portion of sheathing. Normally I would re-splice, solder, and heat shrink, but I wanted to ask if that's the right move, or if I should shop for a wire harness. Anyone have an idea of where this harness would tie in, and how long it is? Do I need to get to the firewall?
This is everything confined internally to a single door on maybe a '92? Door internals are an extension of the instrument panel harness. If the bundle from the IP through the conduit were good you could fabricate most everything in the doors using that as a starting point for the splices required. An FSM would be sufficient I'd think for a correct year. If you found someone parting the 'same year' then maybe purchasing that door internals would do.
This is everything confined internally to a single door on maybe a '92? Door internals are an extension of the instrument panel harness. If the bundle from the IP through the conduit were good you could fabricate most everything in the doors using that as a starting point for the splices required. An FSM would be sufficient I'd think for a correct year. If you found someone parting the 'same year' then maybe purchasing that door internals would do.
Yes, sorry should have specified, it's a 92.
It looks like it's just on the outside of the door gasket/foam, so I'll take a look back through the pass through to make sure. Thanks for the reply.
Personally, if the wires themselves are fine, I’d probably try de-pinning connectors, clean up the exposed wires really well and heat shrink them…. New harness would be nice though too…I guess whatever you think would have the most chance of success (without a crazy amount of effort).
Personally, if the wires themselves are fine, I’d probably try de-pinning connectors, clean up the exposed wires really well and heat shrink them…. New harness would be nice though too…I guess whatever you think would have the most chance of success (without a crazy amount of effort).
Does everything in the door work?!
To answer your question and the comments of others... I didn't even bother to check anything before I started pulling the car apart. I had a mouse get into the car about 8 years ago and they chewed just the VATs wire clean through and at the time, knew that the mouse was just in the kick panel cover.
This time, since I didn't know where they were, and because my dad had an electrical fire with his truck when I was a kid, didn't want to take any chances with wires behind the dash or somewhere else. So, that's the reason I've been taking it all apart. There were also some droppings on the inner door sill, and for peace of mind, I pulled the door panel and lo and behold, there it was. I am extremely paranoid about electrical fires so I was more than relieved to find it, just wish they didn't feast on the wires haha.
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This might be an appropriate place to post another reminder about carrying a fire extinguisher. I have placed an Element E-50 in each of our vehicles, and have one mounted on the wall of the shop as well. They are light and small, much easier to store than the metal canisters we all are familiar with. These things work on the same principle as a railroad flare (another item all our vehicles carry). I bought mine from Summit but they are available all over. Ballpark $80 each which is cheap insurance. And unlike the older type, these never need to be recharged or replaced (unless you actually use it of course).
Just how expensive would it have been for GM to add something to the insulation that mice hate? Dan
Pretty sure folks would complain about the cat urine smell !
In all seriousness there is a Honda OEM tape that has capsaicin in it to prevent rodents from chewing exposed looms. May be worth wrapping the wires in the door in…. It might be discontinued . There are other options to coat the wiring with (sprays etc) but not sure how long that would last.
This might be an appropriate place to post another reminder about carrying a fire extinguisher. I have placed an Element E-50 in each of our vehicles, and have one mounted on the wall of the shop as well. They are light and small, much easier to store than the metal canisters we all are familiar with. These things work on the same principle as a railroad flare (another item all our vehicles carry). I bought mine from Summit but they are available all over. Ballpark $80 each which is cheap insurance. And unlike the older type, these never need to be recharged or replaced (unless you actually use it of course).
Thanks for the tip, I just ordered one after doing some googling on it.
I would replace the wires with same size gauge and color as a minimum. My questions is regarding the rodent: Is there access to get in and out of the interior to the exterior? Does anyone know places in the C4 that can eventually be problematic?
I had ingress evidence from the PO (bird seed) from a missing rubber grommet where the antenna wire comes through, that's a fairly large hole if not plugged up...PO literally snipped all the wires to the old powered antenna and put in an ugly generic one which I then changed out for a stubby.
I would check all grommets in the firewall etc... as well... They can fit through very small openings...
Retired electrician here. Been there, done that. Some advice:
You know what you can see.
You don't know what you can't see.
You don't know if there are chewed wires where you can't see them.
The absolute best way to treat this is to simply replace all of it.
Having said that, I would consider tracing and splicing each wire, then verifying the repair with voltage to each component. It's going to be a long process. You would do well to record on a schematic diagram with highlights on what's been chewed and different colors on what's been repaired. This way if something else goes wrong, you know what's been repaired, what's been inspected and what you don't know. For instance, highlight short lines in red where it needs to be repaired, then fill in between those short red lines with blue to show that it's been repaired and tested.
Good luck with this. I don't envy you.
05-14-2022, 01:19 PM
Mouse chewed through wires - what's my best option?
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. There are other options to coat the wiring with (sprays etc) but not sure how long that would last.
