Mk5 TDI Rodent Damage

[jets]

Anyone else had this problem? Started car one night while out & noticed some of the dash warning lights didn't come on.
Made it home OK but lifted bonnet in my garage & shone a torch around & confronted with this.

Next day I pulled the front of the car to pieces to extract the damaged loom.

I priced a new loom but found it would be made by hand, take 6 weeks & cost $10,000.[not a typo]
I couldn't find a join in the loom as it past into the back of the dash & down the back of the motor.
The only solution for me was a repair in car.

After tracing the colour coding on the wires I was reasonably confident of a good result.
A friend soldered the wires together, slipped on heat shrink & wrapped with tape. Here's the result.

Around next Easter I will be putting out mice & rat bait at the first sign of mice/rats. I am also leaving the bonnet open. The mice like a nice warm & dark place. My wife has also hung camphor blocks in each engine compartment. This year in SA we have had mice plagues & have had mice in 3 of our cars.
My friend ,who soldered the wires together told me there is a class action in the States against Toyota who are using wires that have soy in the insulation that is proving very tasty for rodents.
I have started the car & everything looks good. Now I just have to put it all back together again.

[benough]

Good work!


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[weonarok]

A great repair job. I have heard in the past where a farmer has gone to prep his 'full of electronics', one year old, half a million $ header at the beginning of harvest to discover a major infestation of rodents. Say no more. $$$$$

To make it all look OEM you could cover the repair with something like this.



I'm now a convert of Tesa cloth tape as it looks VW original and have placed all my vinyl tape on the back burner. Haha


"You don't know what you don't know"

Cheers dave

[jets]

To make it all look OEM you could cover the repair with something like this.

My Golf is an '06 model manufactured in late 05, so nearly 12 years old. The tape we used is identical to the original.

[Transporter]

Not that uncommon and even if you use the car everyday, this can happen. Next to look for is damaged tubing to the windscreen washers, cause they also like to drink and can sense the water in the lines.

[weonarok]

My Golf is an '06 model manufactured in late 05, so nearly 12 years old. The tape we used is identical to the original.

Wow! This has been a learin period for me.

Had a look at my own 06 Golf and back up what you say. Sorry mate, nothing personal.

I wonder when VW changed over to cloth?


"You don't know what you don't know"

Cheers dave

[jets]

I wonder when VW changed over to cloth?

I just took a look at our '09 Tiguan & that has the later tape, so sometime in between those years. I have also been checking in the engine
bay of the Tig. where my wife spotted some minor damage to the wiring cover but I had not noticed the different tape used.

[jets]

Not that uncommon and even if you use the car everyday, this can happen.

Our Golf is used almost every day & that is the vehicle that the rats targeted, probably because the engine bay is often warm.
I told my friend in western Sydney, towards the mountains, & he also said it occurs in his area also but at a different time in the year
because of the different climate. I remember now that he had to repair an almost new Mercedes for the same reason.

[Hoss1962]

Rats chewed my Jetta and my Tiguan..I bought a electronic rat emitter for $20 on Amazon and have had no problems since. Hooks right onto the battery. Honda has a class action suit against them for this problem..