I hate to make my first post a "my car isn't working" post, but having owned the car for a year I have visited the forum often, I just never had much to contribute. A couple days ago I was leaving work and tried starting up my car, the engine turned, hit about 1000RPM, and died. So, I tried again, and it started up, but kicked back an error code (the engine ran great). Later I tried it again and the problem repeated itself. So I took the car to the deal, they examined it, and found that a rodent had crawled into the engine bay and chewed through a wiring harness which was causing the trouble. Of course this is not a reliability issue so it is not covered under warranty. However, and this is where it gets fun, they cannot replace just a wiring harness as it comes in a large integrated unit. They need to replace the whole unit, and the whole unit will run around $3,700 to buy the part and install it (the part alone is about $2,700 if I remember correctly).

Needless to say, this is extremely frustrating. I am going to try and have my insurance company cover it, the claim is going through processing, should know more on that later. All I know is I want my car back.

A word of advise to everyone else out there, save yourself some hassle and put out a few rat traps, may be the best investment you ever make.

 

That sucks. Did the vermin get cooked when it chewed through the harness?

Whose insurance do you carry. most that I know of cover stuff like this.

 

I agree...................insurance should cover this.

 

Story from the dealer sounds fishy.

Why not just solder or splice the wires back together yourself.

Do you have any pictures of the "chewed" wiring harness?

 

If he just spliced wires it would void warranty on the entire electrical warranty.

It would be the easiest thing to do though.

 

I'd be breaking out the soldering iron myself. I' m not sure that repairing it yourself would necessarily void the warranty on electrical parts. Just like aftermarket parts, they'd have to prove you screwed it up before they screwed you over. Besides, if they did win that warranty battle, chances are pretty good that you could pay for at least a few electrical repairs yourself and still be ahead of $3700.

 

I am first going to wait and hear what my insurance company comes back and tell me. I can pretty much guarantee if they reject the claim, I will be patching the wiring myself. I do not have any pictures of the damage, not even entirely sure where the damage is in the engine bay, it may be fairly unaccessible.

 

Damn that sucks, Do you park on the streets alot ?

might as well carry and put some poison bait around your car now !

 

Insurance should cover it. A freind of mine had some engine damage caused by a squirrel or something getting in the bay and being in there when she started the car. The repairs were covered by her insurance.

 

Well the good news is, my insurance company is covering it, so that is a load off my mind. I saw the car today when I returned the worthless Hyundai Sonata I was renting (that car made me miss my RX-8 even more). When you pop the hood the damage is immediately visible. The rat climbed to the top of the engine bay and chewed on a good portion of the sound proofing around the strut towers as well. But the wires that were severed were also obvious running near the strut towers from the middle of the engine bay. All in all, not a great week. But at least my baby is getting fixed.

 

Sorry that happened to you.
I can't wait to see the rat trap mods on ebay!