Did you know they can cause you thousands of bucks of damage to your car? My niece went to visit her brother who lived in the country with a lot of woods around. After three days she tries to start her car and the sterring wheel would spin around and lights flashing all over, but wouldn't start. Her brother lifted the hood to check it out and a racoon jumped out and he seen the wiring insulation was eaten off the wires. It seems the insulation on the wires is know made with a soybean base and those three love the stuff. It cost her $4600 to get it repaired.

Rats love to eat the insulation off the wires. Seen it many times at my friend's shop.

I've never heard of a coon or possum doing it and I live in the country.

Ah yes, my 2005 chevy K1500 had a problem with squirrels eating its wiring. Now they have started going after the wiring on my 2015 chevy K1500. Just placed an order with amazon and it should be here today for a Squirrelinator trap.

Rats are notorious for eating the insulation off wires here in the south. Many homes have caught fire due to the little bastards. I nearly set one on fire last year doing some mold remediation in a crawl space due to exposed wires thanks to rats.

We had problems with rats chewing wires under my bride’s pickup truck. I read somewhere that a bar of Irish Spring soap left under the hood would keep rats away. Supposedly it has to be the original formula.
When we got her a new truck the first thing I did was put a bar of that stinking soap under the hood. So far, no evidence of rat incursions. And it’s been nearly two years.

Know of someone who had squirrels chewing wiring on his Jeep. Mothballs in nylon hosiery seemed to help.
EDIT: ... well that, and harvesting some squirrels

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hobbs,

Back in the early 90 my fire department received a call for a car fire on a highway that runs through town.
When we arrived there was smoke but no flames coming out from under the hood. When we opened the hood out comes a possum from a nest it had made under the hood. It was not very happy and ran off.
The nest was up against the exhaust manifold and starter to smolder.
The owner had just picked up the car from being repaired. If my memory is correct he had dropped it off for repair before he went away on vacation a week earlier. The shop fixed it early in the week than sat for several days.
I guess the possum thought it was a good place to build its new home.

In north central Pa, the trail guides for hiking trails around the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon would advise to scatter mothballs under your vehicle to discourage opposum from dining on your rubber brake hoses and radiator hoses. Apparently, they believe the critters were attracted to salt in the rubber. They didn’t explain why rubber tires were not targeted.

Arizona Pack Rats love to chew on late model VW wiring. The car started and ran but several lights were flashing. Dealer fixed the wiring under customer good will but the Pack Rat issue was one reason why I sold the VW TDI back to VW.

Had a very expensive mouse issue on the 2017 Camaro SS last year. Ate a mess of wires under the dash. Little bastards got in through the 1"x10" HOLE for the stupid "cabin air filter". Had to have the entire dash removed to repair the damage.

Yeah. I was very happy about it.

Had the tech fit a SCREEN over the cabin filter inlet. What an absolutely stupid design flaw! Like INVITING rodents into the interior.

A friend of mine who is a mechanic has told me that if I spray WD-40 on my wires it will keep the varmints from chewing them up.

M@THERF#CKIN rats (or squirrel or possum) chewed the wiring harness to my transmission fluid pressure sensor on my Subaru this week.

This is war.

quote:

Originally posted by phil in indy:
A friend of mine who is a mechanic has told me that if I spray WD-40 on my wires it will keep the varmints from chewing them up.

We use Silicone spray. Seems to keep the critters from eating the wires. Now if they would just quit eating hood insulation......