mouse damage

The engine is cooling from a short, slow relo so will document a bit.

mice

The spot was lovely but had mice. I trapped them but they kept coming. By the time I decided to relo it was too late; they had chewed into the wiring harness:

Luckily

1. the van starts, albeit with every warning the ECU can think of , immediately
2. it will move (in “limp” mode)
3. the damage is in a reasonably-accessible location - I can see it directly and get hands on it. I should be able to unclip from the fitting at top to get more wiggle room.

choose your own adventure

From best outcome to worst:

• I can open the harness and wrap intact wires. Clear codes.
• wires are chewed through and have to be jumped/spliced
• I brick the van and need a tow to the next big town (Santa Fe)

The hills are bad enough between here and SFE that I don’t know if I could do it in limp mode.

updates

updates will follow here. Pics are blurry b/c; sun too bright on phone screen to see what pics look like, and I’m hot.

update 01

The chewed section goes to the MAP sensor. The part with white label is MAP, confirmed by google search on visible part numbers.

Fired up Torque to talk to OBDII

• P0107 - MAP / barometric circuit low input
• P0129 - Barometric pressure too low

Not seeing other errors at the moment so hopefully it’s localized to the visible section of damage.

update 02

Muffin suspiciously quiet. She found rotting deer hoof and is chewing. Fine.

update 03

Disconnected MAP, able to peel back wrap and wiggle out of conduit. Separated wires. Quite chewed up but appear superficially intact (none obviously chewed in half).

I pulled the wires apart and used paper spacers to isolate them from each other.

Cleared the codes in Torque. Started the engine.

NO CODES.

Will rest a bit then press on.

update 04

Disconnected MAP again to get more working room.

One wire at a time

1. used needlenose to compress stray copper back into shape.
2. cleaned with alcohol
3. wrapped with heavy electrical tape
4. reconnect MAP
5. test start

I forgot to do #4 on the first wire and got an immediate fault. Cleared codes, connected MAP and no faults.

After all three were wrapped there were still no faults. I wrapped them together and reinserted into the conduit. Reconnected MAP.

NO CODES

I’m pleased and surprised it appears to be holding. The faults before were immediate so I am catiously optimistic.

while you’re down there

I’d been carrying around a canister vapor purge valve and installed it while I was there.

I’ve had an evap code that will just take some parts replacements to nail down. Next candidates:

• gas cap, although I think I already tried this
• leak detection pump, Dorman 310-219 ($20 )
• vapor canister proper
• wand check for hose integrity

outcome, I hope

Hopefully there is enough connectivity through the wires to hold for the short term. That would give me enough time to dentify and acquire a new harness. Failing that, a more robust repair.

The MAP wires were laid in separately so maybe I can just lay new MAP wiring down.

I’m leaving the hood open. I also laid out a glue trap in the spot near the harness. I suppose there may be mice still in the chassis that relo’ed with me but I have the snap and glue traps out for them.

I’ll camp here unless there are more mice. If they show up again I’ll find somewhere else.

comments

mastodon comment thread for this post
lemmy comment thread for this post