Hi everyone,

Love my f-type, hoping someone can help shed light on this. I took my car to the dealer a few weeks ago for my first service and everything checked out fine. I took my car back to the same dealer on Saturday after the CEL came on. Dealer said the CEL was due to rodents chewing through one of the wires in the engine (see attached pics). My car was parked outside on their lot for 3 days before they were able to finally look at it, and they are right next to an airport, which are apparently, per google, well known for “providing a good year round habitat for rodent populations”, and this airport has nearly 500 acres of grass fields, so I think it’s likely the rodent damaged happened while my car sat outside for three days, as I have another 15 year old car in my garage with the same soy-based engine wiring and have never had an issue with rats, and my f-type checked out fine just a few weeks before this.

So I picked up my car and told my service advisor that I wanted to get a second opinion about the rodent damage before they fixed it. He said the car was safe to drive and he would send me the details on the affected sensor whose wires were cut via email in the morning.

The next evening after not hearing back I called the dealer just before they closed and my service advisor suddenly said that the wire which was cut was connected to the throttle, and that’s it’s possible I could blow my engine if I drive the car, that it might suddenly switch to a lower gear on me. I asked him if I needed to have my car towed back then, and he said no, it’s perfectly fine to drive it back to the dealer, just don’t drive it on the freeway or to work. And I’m like wait, either it’s dangerous to drive it, or it’s not, Basically he was saying it’s safe to drive the car back to the dealer, but apparently nowhere else.

To make matters worse, when I picked the car up to have someone else look at it, because I was getting conflicting stories from two different people in the service dept, which was raising red flags with me, I noticed they disconnected my dash camera (which is connected via the cigarette lighter) after they parked my car in their service lot, so I have no footage while my car was there.

Two days later I finally just got an e-mail description of the problem:

We found camshaft actuator code present, P0010-00 due to rodent damage to engine wiring harness BANK1. Engine sensor damaged, may cause more damage with driving.

Thinking about towing it to an independent authorized Jaguar shop to get it looked at as I don’t trust these guys with my car now. Google searching the above code it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the throttle but this is outside of my knowledge area. Anyone have experience with this kind of issue?

Thanks!



Rodent footprints

 

That code is definitely related to the camshaft sensor which monitors and helps to control camshaft timing, which can be changed by up to 25 degrees. I certainly would not drive anywhere close to full throttle conditions, but a gentle drive (mild throttle, low rpm) to the dealer will not cause any damage.

 

Thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear. I went down to take my own pic of the chewed wire and noticed they put about a 10-inch and 7-inch crack in the engine cover right above the trouble spot.

 

 

Rodent damage is not unusual - exactly the same thing happened to my son's F-Pace, and I have seen it in other Jaguars (V12 cars) - but it is definitely not an issue related to Jaguars. The dealer put in a new harness in place of the damaged one - problem solved. This is an insurance issue, not a warranty issue.

 

It's a brave rat that takes on a Jaguar!

 

Yeah that is what I was wondering. They also broke off a 2 inch piece of the plastic trim around the window while trying to realign it because the plastic trim was warped. I'm getting the impression they don't really know what they are doing over there with Jaguars yet (they previously were just a LandRover dealer than started supporting Jags a few months ago).

Damaged trim

 

Thanks, I'll check with my insurance to see if i'm covered for this. I was googling and it seems this rat issue occurs much more frequently ever since manufactures switched to using soy-based wiring in the early 2000s which attracts rodents. Looked up my 2003 330i and it apparently has the same soy-based wiring, which is why I suspect this happened while the dealer left my car parked outside next to the airport for 3 days. Discovered Honda lost a class action law suit due to this issue and has to fix this type of damage under warranty. They make a special tape to protect the wires which I'm going to have them apply:

 

Indeed, hopefully the Honda rodent repellent tape will keep them at bay next time

 

LOL

 

You need some of this: