Animals Chewing Wiring Harness?

This comes up way too often. Evidently, there is an easy way for mice / rats to get into the system up front - they usually make their nest in the AC vents...

I wish someone would post clear directions on how to mouse proof a Prius. I think a metal screen would be sufficient (though I also have mouse bait all over my garage).

 

Not a Prius, but had it hasppen to my vintage Jag, which is garage kept. Don't drive the jag too often in the Winter...and kritters made a nice home in the engine compartment sometime, and in the process, ate their way through a bunch of my wiring.

It happens.

 

We had a Subaru that made a great mouse condominium.

Tom

 

Had mice chew thru the wires on my Insight that fed the fuel pump.

 

We had a rat get into our Prius.

The rat didn't chew up any wiring harnesses but it did chew up the windshield washer tubing (looking for moisture). It also got into the air conditioning ducts and chewed through filter into the glove box. Once there, it chewed up the vinyl case/bag/thingie that keeps the stack 'o manuals together. Then it got into the cabin where it found an almost empty water bottle in the door pocket. It did a real number on the rim of the door pocket until it could get the bottle out and then it chewed up the water bottle. Bits of plastic everywhere. :hurt:

Said rat had a "tragic accident" shortly thereafter... :rip:

 

We had squirrels nesting in our Explorer. The mechanic opened up the hood and found a bunch of little eyes looking back at him. They ate some wiring and through the brake line (fortunately the shop was less than a mile from the house, it just made it before they failed).

 

For you guys that have had animals chewing through your car, is your car normally garaged, or parked outside? I have never had this happen nor heard of it happening for anyone that has their car under a proper garage (aside from older garages that have leaks and holes that critters can get in through).

 

Well now you have...my tale of woe (above) occurred in a "proper" garage.

New or old, no matter how well constructed, all garages (and houses, for that matter) are potentially vulnerable to mice and rats. It's actually pretty amazing how small of a hole a determined rat can crawl through.

In our case, we determined that said rat chewed it's way in through the weatherstripping at the bottom of the garage door.

 

It seems (from other posts) that the AC is the preferred entry point - does anyone know where and how to block it (metal screen)???

 

Bump - still looking for detailed ideas on how to mouse-proof the AC vents (pics?)...

 

Yes, just happened to my 2009 Prius wire harness. I live across the street from the forest, and a rat got in and ate two wires of the one wire harness unit. This is a $3000 part, with 23 hours of labor to take apart and replace. The dealer service dept said it could not be spliced....so they took apart the whole wiring (engine out, dash out, replaced & put back together) for a total bill of $6,580. How to stop it? Let me know if you get a less expensive fix.

 

Wow, $6,500? That sucks. I cleaned out my garage yesterday to make room for my new Prius and found a few dead mice in the container of anti-freeze I had left in there from my last coolant change (before Winter). Just placed 12 sticky traps, 4 D-con bait trays and about to put out 12 snap traps as well. They better watch out!

 

I live in a forested area with lots of mice all over. I park in our garage and have found that leaving the hood open seems to prevent their destructive ways. I think they don't like the fact they're in full view.

We also have a Honda mini-van and they did get a wire that set off the CEL. But that was over 5 yrs ago and we never had another prob since keeping the hood open. This really works well if the vehicle is not going to be driven for an extended period..

 

All of these threads have me a bit freaked out about a mouse attack on my new 'baby.' It seems most people reporting damage are East Coasters. Is this a "major" problem--especially out West? I will be roadtripping across the country this summer, including the UP of Michigan. I'd absolutely HATE to have this rodent damage occur, especially while on vacation. Anyone have some input before I decide on whether or not to embark on the adventure of rodent-proofing my Prius?

Side note: I see this OP owns and did the work on a G2: http://priuschat.com/forums/knowledge-base-articles-discussion/51005-mouseproofing-prius.html Can the same strategy work for the G3 or has the redesign made this thread obsolete for the G3? Has the G3 alleviated some of these incidents of rodent attacks?

 

I wouldn't cancel your trip. I'd guess 99.9 % of damage occurs to residents not vacationers. We feed birds which attracts field mice. In our case the Honda was being parked outside for an extended period so the mousers got used to it being parked and decided to move in. Plus Honda used soy based coating on the wires which contributed to the damage. And that wire was a known rodent damage item due to it's location.

As far as the thread you referred to I didn't read it but if you have no probs at home I would enjoy the trip and not worry. You have a better chance of smacking a deer up in da U.P. than a mouse doing any damage!

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence..I haven't noticed any mieces in my garage where I keep Amoreena..so I'm gonna not worry about it for now..and just keep an eye out for deer.. And no way I'm canceling this trip!