I had the sudden failure of my gas gauge and both rear ABS sensors as well as a Service Engine Soon light. It has been a long time and I didn't follow up on the individual ABS sensors because I knew something must have done all at the same time.

Washing the truck I heard a squirrel chattering under the hood and opened it up:



It was the squirrel that ate through the wires on the passenger side frame rail at the bottom!

The pic is after I pulled the wires apart to check what the damage was. I couldn't get to it for 2 weeks and the squirrel came back and ATE THE WIRES SHOWING and I had to solder extensions to the nubs left. If I fixed it right away it would have been easier.

Now all the lights are off, ABS Amigo cleared the Amigos, all back to normal.

Anyone have any ideas about keeping that squirrel off those wires? Seems he didn't nest or do anything else to the truck.

 

That sucks big time....

 

Vaseline mixed with chili powder smeared on it - unless he happens to like Tex-Mex. There are also sprays that have several kinds of pepper in them, but if they get wet they wash off. Of course you would make proper splices and re-cover with a short piece of corrugated plastic wire tube. You can buy a slightly larger and stiffer tube at home improvement store electrical aisle - ask for "smurf pipe" - and yes, it is blue.

 

Agreed, but it doesn't suck as much as changing the fuel pump and float, had those priced out, and have it not work! And changing the ABS sensors. AND it was noticeable and in a spot where I could get at it easily (Worked with the passenger tire off reaching in the side.)

 

It is called a Red Rider BB Gun. You can borrow one from Ralphy.

 

Yea, could do that but where we live there are milions of them it seems. I thought about a rat trap under the hood to get the one that knows about the wires.

It also ate two of my cruise control hoses in half, fixed that.

What I ended up doing is repair the wiring, cover with electrical tape, cover that with Vaseline mixed with cayenne pepper, cover that with the standard black wire covering, cover that with more Vaseline cayenne pepper mixture, spray the whole area with police pepper spray.

And I'll drive it daily for work for a couple weeks.

 

Wow! That's an impressive effort.

I'm for shooting the offender too. Not sure why I think this next bit, but I'm guessing it's just one stinker doing the damage. Can't imagine they all have a taste for the wiring, or millions of cars out there should have the same problem.

 

In my Google search for what to do I did run across lots of cases of it happening. Looks like most people have the dealer change the entire harness to the tune of thousands. And several people said the squirrel comes back and does it over and over.

 

You could always wrap it in wire cloth.

 

That's why you put the pepper spray or vaseline/chili powder on it, they won't like the taste and they go somewhere else. They eat my wooden porch railings, have to do the same thing. State won't let me shoot them or trap them. They better stay out of the path of the Disco or the riding mower... or there will be some road kill chili!

BTW - we had a post a while back from someone who was working on their car and did not drive it for several weeks. Critters crawled down the air vent from under the hood, and made a nest in the AC interior fan.