Rodent damage to engine wiring 2019 Corolla 1.8 TS

[Jiff]

Hi

Started the car this morning after it being idle for 3 days and the engine was juddering. It was fine last time it was used. 

I opened the bonnet and found something had bitten through part of the cable from the loom running across the front of the engine, and goes to some sort of sensor? for each cylinder. See Photo

I've done a temporary repair by soldering new cables, and the engine runs fine. I've also contacted Toyota to find out the cost of repair.

What I'd like to know is the following (I use the word sensor but it could be something else) :-

A) What is the "sensor" that is connected by the cable, and how do you get it off to replace it (if you can without a special tool)

B) Can the wires to the "sensor" be replaced. The existing cables had been chewed leving about 5mm sticking out so soldering was difficult.

C) Would toyota just splice a new section of cable, or would they insist on replacing the whole loom. The cables dissapear in lots of directions so I have no idea how big a job it would be to replace it all.

D) It could easily happen again, It may tonight for instance. So is there a rodent proof covering available for all the bits of the loom or has anyone ever solved this problem. If so how?

E) If I drive the car with the "sensor" disconnected what damage might it cause. The car told me to Check Engine, and go to dealer. I just wonder what effect there might be in driving the 15 miles to my dealer.

Sorry for all the questions. Hopefully someone will know some answers, though I hope nobody has had this happen to them.

Jeff

[flash22]

It depends on the dealer they should be able to splice in a new pig tail connector, if they want to rip you off they may insist on a new loom, from the pictures it looks like an injector plug

Hoover out the food/debris asap, the issue is modern wiring is made from soy and rodents love it - putting down some bait boxes where you park is a good idea

a bit of split loom aka convoluted tube is what is used over the wires

[TonyHSD]

Lol. That is horrible. Bets way to protect your car is to buy a rodent repellent spray and spray the entry engine bay and under the car as much as you can, or if not available spray like that you can make it yourself using mint oil and some water and dishwasher liquid. The rodents hate mint and will not touch it again. They eat the car cables because these are made of some sort of organic materials. They also love to east the high voltage orange cables on our cars and and on full ev cars., causing big bill repair. Once I experienced rats were eating something under my car while I was inside and having some rest, I kick twice on the foot well and the crunchy noise from eating has gone away. I knew that as the place I was is infested with big rats. The cables that are eaten looks the petrol injector to me, not 100% sure, if you can take some more pictures but slightly zoomed out. In us rats ate Tesla’s high voltage cables and blowing a main fuse in the Battery causing a big trouble. 

[flash22]

The injector plug looks like a common part £4-16 each it looks like you are capable of doing the job yourself

The housing looks to be  90980-11875,  pigtails should be 82998-12790 (2.3 II terminals with a 5mm pitch)

[Rosgoe]

As flash22 said it looks like the injector wiring which is probably why the engine was judgering would have been running on 2 or three cylinders. I knew someone who had rats in the car who had chewed through the main wiring loom (not a Toyota) they managed to claim on the insurance and I suspect Toyota dealers would want to put a new loom in.

if the the vehicle is now running ok ask the dealer if what you have done would invalidate the warranty have you still got the message contact dealer? 
 

the car has probably stored a code in the ecu relating to the injectors hence the take to dealer message if you have or can get hold of a code reader you might be able to clear the message, I don’t think you will do any damage driving it to the dealers as it’s now running on all 4 cylinders.

[Jiff]

Thanks for all the replies, the forum certainly seems more knowledgeable than Toyota.

Bob (Flash22) it does look like part 90980-11875 though I couldn't see how to remove it. I'm guessing if I get a new one it'll be more obvious. I don't think there is anything wrong with it apart from the cable length, though for the price buying a new one seems the easier option than attaching a new cable to the original, provided the cable is long enough. I think the Pigtail you mentioned is the connector for repairing the two ends of cables, is that correct? I found a Toyota cable repair manual online which had part number 82998-12700* so I guess the last 2 digits are for the correct size? I have hoovered out most of the "food" but the rain came and the nozzle couldn't reach it all, I'll have another go today with a bit of copper pipe and some duct tape attached to the end of the vacuum.

If Toyota are going to charge a lot I'll probably buy one and fit it myself. They want £75 to look at it! (They originally said £150 but I said that was unreasonable). The plugs are two different colours Black & White, alternating. Is there any difference or did the design office just get creative? The attached picture shows a black one on the left, a white one under the pipe, then the repair is black and the right one is white. The one on the right had the outer sheath nibbled and a tiny nick in the cables but not eaten through hence the tape. 

Tony I've ordered some spray but it won't be here till the weekend, so here's hoping. I've also ordered some capsicum impregnated insulation tape at £20 for 20m. I don't know if it'll work, but worth it if it does, though there is a lot of wiring. I attach a zoomed out photo with the most of the engine bay.

Christopher (Rosgoe) I have (somewhere) an OBD2 plug which can talk to my phone, is that the code reader you mean? if so I have no idea where to plug it in, I'd probably leave that to the dealers in any case until the car is older. Its a shame the original message can't be retrieved on the screen, there are no messages now. On my previous Volvo all the messages remained until you dismissed them, so you could scroll back and get the exact wording.

Thanks everyone for your help

Jeff

[Rosgoe]

Hi Jiff yes that OBD 2 plug would more than likely work the OBD 2 socket is under the offside (drivers side) dash at the front on the far right hand side 

regards

[flash22]

A Pigtail is the terminal pre crimped to a wire, you dont really need the housing just the pigtails iirc there about £12 each

the one i listed above is the correct pigtail for that connector (2 pin, sealed connector)

https://www.toyota-tech.eu/wire_harness_rm/RM06H0E.pdf

look through the pdf it shows how to de-pin the housing

I may have a few pigtails i will have to see if they are the correct ones

 

[Jiff]

51 minutes ago, flash22 said:

A Pigtail is the terminal pre crimped to a wire, you dont really need the housing just the pigtails iirc there about £12 each

the one i listed above is the correct pigtail for that connector (2 pin, sealed connector)

https://www.toyota-tech.eu/wire_harness_rm/RM06H0E.pdf

look through the pdf it shows how to de-pin the housing

I may have a few pigtails i will have to see if they are the correct ones

 

Thanks Bob, I understand now.

The 82998-12790 are the cables and end parts which fit in the socket, I saw in the manual 500mm so I assume that's the length of the cable though it doesn't actually show one? I assume if I removed the socket, I can remove the old cable and connector and thread in the new cable / connector. There appears to be a "seal" at the top of the socket I presume that can be reused though it looks like the 2 rings in the picture in the manual. 

Another question is what connector is used to splice the new cable to the old ones in the loom, I assume something like 82998–12430 + 82998–12440 on  the top of page 347 could be used for this. These are shown as waterproof though no shrink wrap or similar sleeve is shown. I'd be needing 4 of these or similar to repair the two cables & two of the 82998-12790 as only one connector has lost the cable the other just has a nick in it which I could cut and splice (or I guess I could use some silicon repair tape I have somewhere).

I'll also need the black cover though I guess that's fairly generic.

I'm going to email the dealer now to see if they'll give me a price for doing the above, though I think they'll say they'll need to see it

 

Regards

 

Jeff

[flash22]

You can crimp it and heat shrink or solder and heat shrink it, the crimps are not Toyota specific

the seals just pop out, the terminals simply unclip from the housing

I do have some 2.3 II terminals, so i can make up 2 pigtails if required

[TonyHSD]

Watching first picture and seen the droppings from the rats seems like belong to a good size animal, the problem with those is that very often are in as family and not alone and if they like a place they found they can called a home and happily return. Best is to double check the car under body, all cables and especially the high voltage orange ones. Also behind the glove box where the cabin filter and the blower motor, just in case to make sure there are no other damage or signs of the visitors. You can spray some mint spray and use some bait boxes with bait poison set around the car so they will get in eat instead of getting into the car again. 

[flash22]

1 hour ago, TonyHSD said:

Watching first picture and seen the droppings

Looks like food (dog, horse or bird feed) to me or even pods from a tree 🙃

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, flash22 said:

Looks like food (dog, horse or bird feed) to me or even pods from a tree 🙃

Rat droppings 100%, been in a war with these since first lockdown, caught 5 of them in the attic, thankfully not in the car, you definitely don’t want to see pictures 😂,. I wasn’t joking my first reply when I mentioned they were eating my car while I was inside, seems like bodies are hungry these days 👍 No joke but it’s a serious problem, once I had to sell one of my cars because of this problem, they did a lots of damage to it unfortunately. 

[Jiff]

Thanks Bob, off to Toyota today hopefully it won't be too expensive. They still wouldn't tell me how much it'd cost to do what i asked, not necessarily whst needs doing! Good to know the seals just pop out. I've got the crimp connectors & tool as recommended on the connector book plus the silicone tape it says to use, so i could do that if needed. 

Tony Toyota said they'll check all the cables, so at least I'll know the full amount of the problem. I've put a few drops of pepermint oil in the engine bay last night hopefully that will keep them at bay until the spray turns up. It just keeps raining so haven't had the option of using my vacuum to remove the last of the droppings yet, hopefully Toyota will. 

Thanks again for the hell

Jeff

[Jiff]

Toyota got back to me this evening, new loom required, they won't do a repair. Cost £1500. Tried a Toyota repairer (not dealer) they said the same. Phoned my insurer & I'm told they may cover it, just waiting for a call back 🤞. All this for parts that are probably worth (not cost) about £1. I've already spent about £80 on deterrent /extermination items & £75 for the look. 😬

[FROSTYBALLS]

Think any other manufacturer would also require the wiring loom to be replaced in order to retain the warranty. 

[TonyHSD]

Will the insurance cover the cost of the new loom or replace the car? I wish you good luck. 👍Following.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Unless the repair cost is around 50% of the car's value, car replacement won't be considered.

[TonyHSD]

17 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Unless the repair cost is around 50% of the car's value, car replacement won't be considered.

Thanks 👍

[Jiff]

Insurer will cover it, though it took 2 days to sort that. The Toyota manual shows how to repair it, strange they have a method but won't do it!

I'm not sure what replacing the loom means? To do it all, I'd imagine they'd have to remove a lot of trim internally to do that, not that I know where the cables are routed. 

Next have to try and recover my excess from the opera singer 😬

[TonyHSD]

Hi Jiff, 

have you sorted your car with the dealer? I have made today some peppermint oil spray and sprayed all around the car including wheel arches engine bay, suspension, just in case against these little fellas. 👍

[AKLZ]

4 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

Hi Jiff, 

have you sorted your car with the dealer? I have made today some peppermint oil spray and sprayed all around the car including wheel arches engine bay, suspension, just in case against these little fellas. 👍

What’s your recipe and how often would you suggest applying it? I might do the same. I am horrified by this thread; it’s something I’ve never heard of before and never even considered and the expensive result for the OP (or his insurers!) is worrying especially as it’s highly likely to happen again, possibly the night he brings the car back home. Good luck OP!

I can’t believe it’s something manufacturers aren’t very aware of; surely they are and they would have some special tape that considers this risk?

[FROSTYBALLS]

I've seen similar reports (not on these forums) going back a number of years and it isn't a new issue. AIthough quite rare it isn't just to do with modern wiring using soy based plastics as insulation.

Similar to rodents (squirrels, rats, etc) getting into loft spaces and chewing through house wiring - which, depending on the age of the house, uses less environmentally friendly plastics.

At the end of the day, manufacturers cannot protect against every eventuality.

[TonyHSD]

True, I live in a new house and got a rat invasion recently so I know how bad it is. Pest control had to deal at the end after a caught 5 fellas in a week time, I called a win and then after realised they are a lot more coming., 😂

For the mixture I used peppermint oil 2 tea spoons mixed with 300ml of water and a drop of washing up to make for good mixing, stirred nicely and put into a spray bottle. Spray all over the engine, engine bay, very important under front and rear bumper and wheel arches, full  turn wheels to left then to right to gain access to the suspension parts and drive shafts this is the place where the rats are getting into the engine., wheels too. This is only helpful if you don’t drive the car as the water from rain will wash everything away. Other option is to soak a cotton balls with 4-5 drops of peppermint oil and place at various places around engine bay, but away from heat like near shocks mounting under front windscreen. These both methods also works around the house, windows and door frames as the oil keeps away not only rodent but spiders, flights and other bugs. 👍