Rats in the harness

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Originally Posted by scarry

They are very aggressive viscous things,don't go near one.

Worse than a cornered wild cat or rat.

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Yep, I have first hand experience of that.

My old ute is down the paddock, under the trees, bonnet open... Only way to stop them eating the wiring...

My friend does the same every time he gets home and he has been beating them at there own game for the last 15 years...

Air rifle, traps and a teenager works the best, they brag about how many they get in one night then try to do better the next... Keeps them off the streets too...

I went 4wd'ing with a mate who brought his 200 series cruiser. He had not used it for a couple of months, being interstate for that time. We got half way up a long spur & he "bailed" out of the car as smoke & a foul smell happened when it got a bit hot.
Turned out the rats had nested around the manifold - & also feasted on the wiring harness - as I understand newer cars are using soy based insulation wrapping.
Anyhow, we figured it couldn't be too bad or the whole car would have burnt, so we kept going.
He took it back to Toyota & they quoted 7k to replace harness or 3.5k to repair, or 10k difference to replace the whole car with the newer model- which he did,
So the moral of the story is to do a pre trip check!!
Whilst rats & mice do eat anything they have a preference for newer cars insulation. Just Google "Soy based wiring"

Here is one of many articles.

Rats in the ranks - GoAutoNews Premium

David