Automotive Wiring Insulation

[David Dunlop]

Talking with another MV enthusiast this evening here in town and he was telling me about an erratic gas tank reading he has been experiencing for the last few weeks in a 2-year old Jeep Cherokee. The dealership thought it was a faulty sending unit but when they went to replace it they discovered a section of the rear wiring harness was completely lacking its insulation. A mouse had eaten it.

Turns out that since about 2000, the Automotive Industry has been moving away from wiring utilizing petroleum product based insulation to Soy-Based insulation and mice and squirrels can smell it, and apparently love eating it.

I wonder if this insulation is going to start showing up in electronics and household wiring next? As if restoration work wasn’t challenging enough!

David

[Tony Smith]

It's already happening here. A Mouse Plague in recent months has caused irreparable damage to crops and pastures, but it has also had an impact on cars, trucks, caravans homes and even a jail. To make matters worse, Insurance usually does not cover "vermin Infestation", unless you are lucky enough that the infestation results in a fire or flood.

https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-a...d-921491ce60a2

https://www.9news.com.au/national/mo...4-1b89844f344e

https://www.9news.com.au/national/mo...5-f5e811f2fe47

[Lynn Eades]

David, Tony, I understand that household wiring insulation in Australia was "liked" by termites until Australia came up with a termite proof insulation.
Steel conduit in carriers would have stopped mice (until the wire exits the conduit)
Jeeps aint what they used to be.

[Grant Bowker]

I wonder whether adding metal braid tube covering similar to that used in wireless CMPs (replicated by Jordan Baker at http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...wiring&page=21 starting at post #601) would discourage the critters?

[Phil Waterman]

Hi

Don't know about other parts of the world but here in the states the environmentally friendly rat and mouse poison is so friendly that they leave it alone.

My kids have had real problems with their Honda cars and mice eating the wiring. So far it has been all warranty work.

Cheers Phil

[rob love]

My daughter's Honda civic had the air conditioning fail while just off warranty. The first thing they did was charge the system, which I doubt it needed. Then they found the culprit....the power wire to the compressor clutch was broken. The dealership wrote it up as a mouse chew, and made it up to a $1200 claim against her insurance. She asked if they couldn't just solder the wire together. Nope...needed a whole compressor. They claimed it was too tight a spot to do the work in. I brought it in to my shop and put it on the hoist. Took me longer to figure out how to remove the plastic underpan than it did to solder and heatshrink the wire. Personally, I am not certain it was a mouse in the first place. Why they would just chew that one wire, and leave everything else alone is beyond me.

The little buggers did eat the winter insulation on both batteries of my new Dodge Ram. My previous mantra was live and let live....no longer.

They also like to eat the wooly insulation out of WS19 headsets. They will do acrobatics in order to accomplish that goal.

[Lynn Eades]

One of my neighbours had their BMW picked up on a slide deck. A Toyota Landcruiser down country that I knew of had the same. Both late model vehicles and both had serious damage to wiring caused by rats.
I went to the doctors in town a couple of years ago. When I came out to the car, there was a wide line of ants on the drivers front wheel. I had left an open bag of lollies in the car. There were about a million ants in my car!

[David Dunlop]

I hope they weren't Fire Ants, Lynn.

David

[Lynn Eades]

As far as I know we only have small non biting ants in N.Z.
I did manage to drop a nest of red ants into the middle of my back in Singapore many years ago. That I remember!