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Regarding rodent problems in winter time, it can be just as much of a problem for cars driven everyday, as for those in winter storage.
Rodent like warm places during the cold winter. So would they prefere a newly driven car with a warm engine or one that has been stationary and is ice cold?
A friend of mine parked his Mercedes ML just for one night in a garage at another friends place. Next morning he found that the rodents had come inside the cabin of the car and gnawed holes in the leather in both driver and rear passenger seats.
When delivered to the workshop they found additional damage to several wiring harnesses in the engine bay.
All done during one short night just a few weeks back. And the car was parked next to a (cold) car in winter storage (911 turbo), which so far had not been "attacked" by the rodents.
And by the way - the garage is now rather filled with rodent traps
Well stated . . . and that's why it boggles my mind that any manufacturer would actually utilize wiring products that are tasty.
So, I got a check engine light on my 2017 XE and went visiting the Googles to see why a car with 8,000 miles on it would already have a problem. (Yeah, I drove on a very long vacation when I got it last summer, normally it doesn't do that many miles!)
Anyway, I'd like to join the rodent club now, since the check engine light was due to rodents setting up a home in my engine bay, building a nest, and eating all those yummy soy based wires. Over $3,000 worth. Warranty doesn't cover it, insurance does. Wire devouring rodents are real folks. Be warned.
When i was living in Switzerland we used to have problems with an animal known as a Marder, or Marten, a type of weasel. They love to chew on plastics, rubbers and other stuff on cars parked outside.
So much so that there was a special coverage in your insurance for "Marderschaden" or damage caused by these little *******s.
There were all sorts of sprays and repellents you could buy to try and ward them off, also some ultrasonic emitters which apparently scared them away.
Something similar must exist for rats/mice/rodents?
Concerned about the reference to soy based wiring....I have a '97 S500 and the forum points out the wisdom of having a '96 or newer model as he fine folks at Mercedes determined a biodegradable wiring loom system would be ecologicaly mature thing to do on the earlier ones. The insulation just rots off leaving a multitude of short circuits.
Surely our beloved FTypes are not similarly afflicted?
If it is just an intermittent light from something like a dirty filter or the like, I found that going through a cycle on the “Engineering Test Mode” (explained elsewhere in this forum” cleared the light. 2007 S-Type
A lot of manufacturers use soy based wiring. I live in a cold climate city with snow and chuck holes the size of kitchen sink. I don't drive my FType in the winter. It's parked in a heated garage with a ctek maintainer. There have been numerous posts on the problems caused by rodents chewing on FType wiring. I tied dryer sheets to wiring under the hood, put some under the seats and in the trunk. I also used some pepper spray on some wiring. My exterminator placed some poisonous bait traps in my garage. I hope this will provide some protection against these pests.
A lot of manufacturers use soy based wiring. I live in a cold climate city with snow and chuck holes the size of kitchen sink. I don't drive my FType in the winter. It's parked in a heated garage with a ctek maintainer. There have been numerous posts on the problems caused by rodents chewing on FType wiring. I tied dryer sheets to wiring under the hood, put some under the seats and in the trunk. I also used some pepper spray on some wiring. My exterminator placed some poisonous bait traps in my garage. I hope this will provide some protection against these pests.
Rodents are attracted to voltage.
You can spray peppermint oil, and remove the battery
You can spray cyanide but you will also kill the mechanic.
Me, I would put one of those heated pet homes ($60) in the garage and train a cat to spend the evenings there. Because if rodents get into the garage, the Ftype is not your only concern.
I live in the woods. Rodents have eaten the wires for the Volvo V70 back up lights, entire rear lighting for the Dakota pickup and lit up my dash with warning lights on the S-Type costing me two wasted trips to repair shops before the local Jaguar dealer located the problem. That is not to mention raising the top on the elegant Crossfire SRT6 and dumping a rats nest on my date's head.
Even after stuffing enough packs of repellent for a full garage in each engine bay and keeping my cars in the newly built three car garage I find chewed acorns and underhood damage each time I check.
I may be calling Honda. Thank you for the information.
01-12-2016, 06:42 AM
