Replacing Wire Harness, will it be soy?

It will likely be soy.
Honda makes a rodent repellent tape for car harnesses.

 

While they’re fishing the harness, have them place rodent repellent alongside?

 

There are threads on how to mouse proof the inside of the car. Apparently they can enter through the cowl vent area. I doubt insurance would pay for this and it obviously leaves all the other body wiring open. My understanding is that mice are attracted to the electricity inside the wire and will also go after normal thermoplastic wire insulation. I have seen satellite dish coax cables that were shorted by mice. They have a thick insulation, an overall braid, inner insulation and an inner conductor but they still gnawed through it. The receiver sends power up to the dish's preamp.

I think you have to eliminate the rodents themselves with mouse and rat poisons. Ideally you garage the car and treat the inside of the garage with the green cubes as well as the exterior perimeter of the building. Add mouse traps and perhaps a few feral/outside cats. In some cities, the health department will also treat the area with poisons.



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Evokes the 1960s line... "We had to nuke the harness to save the Prius..."

 

Not virtue signalling but I would lean away from rodenticides (rat poison.)

Oh...never mind.
The OP is from the SoCal, so you already know about that.

For the rest:
Mieces eat the poison, but it's not fast acting.
That means that they're easier for predators to do what predators do - which is eat mieces....poison and all.
For those that do not care about apex predators - there's another reason not to do the D-Con thing, which is the fact that mieces like to hang out behind walls, dashboards, ceilings etc.
THEN the rat poison works.
Having to replace a chewed up wiring harness is expensive.
Having to replace a chewed up wiring harness while tearing your car apart to find out where a dead smelly quarter pound mouse died is worse!!

OK...
Back to Caly...
If you don't want to be confused with the crazy cat lady down the street, I'd invite some owls to come and hang out in your yard.
Owl house plans are available on line for the DIY crowd or you can buy a starter home @ Amazon.
Owls are REALLY REALLY good at catching and eating mieces and unlike the coyotes that you guys are also battling, owls won't come in through the pet door and make off with your Yorkie.

Of course you can GET a couple of felines, and in the past I've often advised that this is a good thing for homeowners to do...
HOWEVER (comma!) as they say on the Sunday Morning talk shows I'm going to walk that back a little bit.
A cat or two inside the garage/house is the bestest way to keep rodents away from your Prius, but many people in California do not live in houses, and many of those that do are using their garages as granny-pads - so Priuses are sleeping outside more and more these days.

Having a bunch a cats running around in the neighborhood is not a groovy thing for the local songbird population, and it leads to posts in PriusChat about how to keep the crazy cat lady down the street's "pets" from spraying mouse repellent all over your car, sidewalk, garage door, bushes, etc.

So...

Do the owl thing.
Let the dealership use the OEM wiring harness.
Read 10 (constructive!) posts on how to keep meices out of the car.
When you get the car back, check the cabin air filter.


Good Luck!!!

 

can the mice chew the harness underneath the car?

i would ask them where it was chewed

 

I know poisons are “bad” and I believe in peace and harmony, but the reality is “war is hell” and its you or them. I have also watched The Biggest Little Farm where they attracted owls to get the gophers who were eating their fruit, but lets face it, you don’t just go to the pet store and buy owls. In the meantime your mice are getting hungry since their buffet has been in the shop getting refilled with yummy Toyota wiring.

 

yup, they make gopher poison too

 

I think the repellent tape uses a pepper mixture to deter them, not poison them.

 

My husband's friend has used petroleum based rustproofing for years with great success.

Rodents don't like the scent or the taste.

 

I have a very long story about an incident with mice rats. I won't bore you with the details, but to make a long story very short, like rjparker said, it will eventually come down to "us or them". They pass on diseases that are horrible. They populate and multiply overnight. Once they have set up "home" it will take you months to be rid of them. They will nest in every available crack. And yes, if you poison them, they will die in every available crack. Then they bring fungus, bacteria, viruses and just one big fun time in your life! Why do I say all this? Because after dealing with them for a 2 year period............it was war!! Neighbors said to leave them along. Neighbors said they will eventually leave. Neighbors said I was an animal hater. But the neighbors didn't have the "Dance of the sugar plumb Fairies" going on in their attics every night!!

They chewed my wiring in my house. They ate my cable lines, then my phone lines. They destroyed my insulation by leaving mountains of excrement. They would dance in my attic, every night, all night, squealing and probably laughing at me! I started with the poison, but they died and I could find them!! I can still smell it! So, I built my on "home within the attic" that was laced with those sticky traps. Every morning I would go in to the attic, and empty the trap. I netted with over 6 dozen of them over 3 weeks! Believe me I took no joy in trapping them. Then I had to have the attic fumigated and sealed, then re-insulated. After 2 years and 20k in money, the war was over. This happened 15 years ago in another house I live in and I still remember those noisey nights of the creatures, running and jumping all over the place. I have vowed that at the very first sign of any droppings, I would not waist time. So, I would really look at stopping your invasion. It could cost you your health the longer it takes. Just my story.

 

I know this is an old thread, but here's a way to protect wiring from gnawing critters. Spray the things critters might chew on with ammonia, Windex is fine. Don't need much.
A friend's garden hose was chewed up by raccoons. They must like chewy vinyl with the fresh water filling. I spliced the good parts back together and sprayed it with Windex. Doesn't take much. Suggested she do it again in a month or so. She didn't, but they never touched that hose again (about five years now). Ammonia and soap are Bases, the opposite of Acids. Both burn. Bases are like well, soap, slippery and bitter (tastes like soap) and they burn in a wet mouth. If you're handling that hose with wet hands it'll just feel a bit slippery. But when Bases dry out - no water - they're inert.
There are parts of Canada where the porcupines and raccoons will chew tires, wiring, vinyl -- just to chew. Rodents need to gnaw because their teeth never stop growing. Chewing wears them down. In these places I'd use it on tires, engine hoses, and more frequently.
Ammonia is also great as a temporary lubricant. I learned to use it on bicycle handle bar grips. If you use grease, they'll slide on and then slide right off. Ammonia slides on, dries out and fits tight enough water can't get in, but it can get out. So once it dries no lubrication. Hope this helps.

 

I use a peppermint oil based rodent deterrent plus the honda spicy tape on my Tacoma's V6 engine valley wiring. There's a hard to replace harness in there that will put the truck into limp mode if its damaged. So the common mod is to wrap it in the honda rodent tape and spray around the engine compartment with a peppermint oil based rodent deterrent

you may want to look into the peppermint oil spray.