Earlier this winter my daughter left her Hyundai Elantra at our house for nine days while she went on vacation. A day after she picked her car up, she stopped by again and told me that the coolant temperature gauge wasn't working. I hooked up my OBD2 scanner and it told me that her coolant temperature sensor wasn't working. When I looked under the hood to see where the sensor was located, the problem was immediately obvious: a mouse had chewed through the sensor wires. As the other end of the wire disappeared into a harness that vanished into the bowels of the engine compartment, I spliced a new piece of wire to bridge the gap and everything was fine.
Then a week ago my niece came to visit...a 700 mile one way trip in her Toyota Sienna minivan. Within ONE DAY her coolant temperature wasn't showing, and my scanner showed a sensor failure again. Yep, a mouse had neatly nipped the sensor wires.
She wanted to have it fixed by the dealer because she'd heard that her insurance would cover the cost. Then she got the price quote: $4500 to replace the harness, which requires, apparently, removing the engine! Nope...we'll be splicing again!
Two Toyota dealers told us that they get at least one car a week with this problem, and the mechanics claim that it's because the wiring uses soy-based insulation.
We live in a small 18-home development in a fairly rural area, and we're surrounded by fields and woods, so we do have to deal with wildlife. Of course, my DB9 spends most of its time in our garage, but mice do find their way in. So this week I installed under-hood rodent-repellent devices in our cars. They connect to the 12-volt system and include both a bright strobe light and a supposedly-annoying high-pitched sound which my old ears can't hear (but it shuts off anyway when it senses engine vibration, and also if the battery voltage drops below an acceptable level).
I suspect that Aston Martin hasn't used soy-based wiring, but I'm not taking any chances!

 

Interesting bit of info for sure. I guess we know what your daughter is getting for Hyundai next Christmas! Uncle zuman might as well get one of those rat gadgets for his niece too!

 

I winterized this year with good old fashioned moth *****..put several in plastic tubs around the engine compartment…seems to have done the trick..I think all is fine…dang..they smell bad..😅

 

outside type cats are free...

 

We live in a rural farm area with fantastic DB9 country roads. Catching 4-5 field mice a year has been common. 3 years ago a pair of ferrule cats showed up. Haven't caught a mouse since.

 

We live in a suburban area but quite woody and the lots are spacious and our problem is rats. My wife's Cayenne is parked under a carport and has had $5K+ worth of damage from rats building a nest and chewing through all kinds of stuff in her engine bay. Nasty! We've stepped up the rat countermeasures but I just killed 2 in snap traps last night under the carport.

The bigger problem is that I only have a 4 car garage and as of this coming Tuesday we will have 6 cars (technically 7 but one parks off site). So the Vantage is looking like it might need to start living outdoors...

 

Bastards made a nest in the V of the block under the intake plenum using the stuffing from the insulation pad under the bonnet; also chewed through the 2ndary air pump vacuum line. Nice nuts!

 

Start your cars everyday...?

 

You couldn't see the nest at all under the plenum. I drove the car for months like this before the check engine light came on after the critter chewed the vacuum line. Only symptom all this time was a smell of roasted acorns. I was very lucky the car didn't go up in flames.

 

I always set mouse poison under my cars during winter storage. It works well.

 

They won't chew the wires, however rodent urine destroyed the secondary air connectors in mine, same place as pics above.

 

I have a few of those devices...100 bucks a pop. Have had good luck with them so far in the garage and basement but definitely over priced for what they are.