Curious if anyone else has run into this issue or not. I was driving today, and my Check Engine Light came on. Took it to the dealership, and just got off the phone with them. Here to find out that they are stating that a rodent has chewed the O2 Sensor Wire. So, even though the vehicle is only 2 Years Old and under 36,000 miles, I will need to pay for the replacement since it is considered an outside force. Has anyone run into issues like this before where outside forces caused the warranty to not cover the issue? Edit: I called the Toyota Corporate number, and they will be covering the entire cost to replace the O2 Sensor. At first I could have swore the Service Manager had said it would be $310 to replace, but when Toyota Corporate called, they said it would be $511 to replace. I am still trying to figure out how they identify that the problem was caused by an animal.
Not uncommon to have wires chewed by rodents and O2 sensor wires have to be exposed to the elements because they send signals from the area of the catalytic converters (before and after) to the ECU to show how effective the cats are working. The cats have to be exposed because they get super hot. Mice, squirrels, etc. The mechanic should show you the wires and it will be obvious. Toyota isn't the only one to have this problem reported, I've seen it on other brand's forums.
that was actually very generous of toyota, warranty covers defects, not any type of mechanical damage. not even mickey mouse.
Your insurance would cover it, but it's probably less than your deductable so not worth losing your no claims bonus for. Can't they repair the wires ?
$511 is expensive, but not that expensive for a wide band O2 sensor on a new car. If you want cheap you can buy a Denso / NTK O2 sensor from elsewhere like Amazon or Rockauto and install it yourself. That'll probably be around $100-200. If you absolutely must, you can splice the wire back but it may not be easy to do (i.e. if the rodent chew the wire near the sensor end or the connector end and leave no place to crimp).
An O2 sensor is something any muffler shop can replace for 15 minutes of labor if you negotiate right. I've replaced the auto maker's labeled part by tracing the part back to the maker and using what turned out to be the exact part at 1/2 the parts cost. O2 sensors tend to wear out at around 75k miles on a true ICE system so it is a common replaceable part. $511 seems high compared to what I paid for a replacement for my Porsche but it probably includes labor that the muffler shop could do cheaper. Prowling the forums, I see posts saying others paid more. We are assuming the maybe foot long pigtail off the sensor itself is what was chewed and not the harness to which it was attached. Search for PRIUS V 2012 TOYOTA Prius oxygen sensor - Discountautoparts.com | www.discountautoparts.com/ for ~$100 part. Maybe $50 labor. It will take a while as the shop has to let the muffler system cool before they can remove the old sensor lest they burn themselves as the catalyst is very very hot.
I have wires that were burnt due to high heat on older cars, NOT my Prius "v," in the case of being in close proximity to high heat components. In that case, I used silver plated copper conductors encase in Teflon insulation that I had secured in my aircraft and aerospace days. I soldered them together with high temperature silver solder. It is much easier today to get the Teflon wire, because I've seen a lot of it on eBay. For those who razzed me from time to time, I've found that aerosol petroleum based rustproofing has basically repelled animals and rodents from my cars. They do NOT seem to like he waxy petroleum smell or like tasting it.
