Are Rodents Chewing Up The Wiring In Your General Motors Vehicle?
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Are rodents chewing up the wiring in your General Motors vehicle? It may seem like a strange, out-of-pocket question, but this is, unfortunately, becoming more of a problem among owners of later model-year vehicles.
Some years back, the world’s automakers began using soy-based wiring coating in their vehicles. In addition to reducing plastic waste in landfills and oceans, this change also brought with it some cost benefits, helping automakers squeeze more profits out of today’s increasingly complex and expensive vehicles.
Unfortunately, rodents seem to think the soy-based coating is rather tasty, with more and more vehicle owners reporting that rats and other critters are chewing through their vehicle’s wiring. Toyota even had a class-action lawsuit filed against it over this issue, with plaintiffs accusing Toyota of using the soy-based coating despite knowing rodents are attracted to the material. It’s not just Toyota, either. A quick Google search will turn up complaints from owners of various vehicle makes, including Kia, Honda and Ford, among many others.
So, with that in mind, we figured we’d ask our readers if rodents have been chewing up the wiring in their General Motors vehicle as of late. While it’s not clear how many GM vehicles feature soy-based wiring coating, this material has become widespread in the automotive industry over the years and is used by a variety of suppliers. If rats seem particularly attracted to your vehicle’s underbody or engine bay, the problem could be related to extra tasty soy-based wires.
The internet is full of DIY solutions for tackling this problem. David Albin, who created a website dedicated to preventing rats from chewing on car wires, says the best solution is to leave your hood up at night, place Tomcat rat traps on the tops and bases of the tread of the two front tires and spray Rodent Defense into the engine compartment. Owners can also hang string lights near their two front tires to deter the would-be nibblers.
While rats have always chewed on car wires, Albin told Car and Driver in a 2018 interview that he believes the use of soy-based wiring has made the problem worse.
“I certainly believe that soy-based wiring has exacerbated this problem,” he told the publication. “I was curious about this as well, so I started emailing and contacting mechanics across the country. The common consensus was that rodent damage in cars has increased exponentially over the last 10 years.”
Feel free to share your experiences with rodents and your General Motors vehicle by voting and commenting below.
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This is not a new problem nor is it confined a general motors cars. I worked in the desert 40 years, and definitely know that rodents can eat anything that’s available. Doesn’t matter what it is! I’m not sure any of you are aware that Honda has an electrical tape that is rodent repelling. Anytime I do any rodent damage, I add this product. Check with Honda, it’s easy to order.
Also, peppermint spray works. It’s easy to find and order.
Mouse Proof Cars, Generators And Appliances
Hi: Everyone
I had a few wire on my car gnawed and now an idiot light stays on. This is not to bad but I also had mice get into my Generator and it stopped running. Mice can also get into some appliances. Soy based wire may be a big part of the reason for gnaw but there are other ways mice ruin things. If the mice are kept out it will probably end the problem with other gnawing animals. The mice are small and this makes it hard to keep them out.
Soy based wire may be a big part of the problem but there are other ways mice ruin things. So far I have not noticed gnawed wires in the generator but I may have just not seen them. Perhaps the soggy smelly mess the mice made of the sound deadening material that they had put in places with a lot of wires and connections shorted something out. I am going to try and mouse proof my Generator so mice can not get in the generator housing at all.
One metal fabricator I talked to said that he thought that if car manufacture wanted to they could make cars and generators mouse proof. It would be a lot easier for manufactures to make thing mouse proof than it is for a person to mouse proof a car, generator or appliances that is not mouse proof.
I wonder if a business that did Car and Generator mouse proofing would make money. If I could find someone who was good at this I would be willing to pay a good price for it. Mice can get though very small opening and a screen mesh needs to be fine enough to stop mice. For enough air to get though a fine mesh I think you need a fairly lager opening. The Generator company’s might say this would void their warranty, but if it is mice that stop a Generator they will just say it is not their fault so their warranty does not cover it. Ether way a person is left with a generator that does not run.
After my experience with the generator I would be willing to pay a lot more for a generator, car or appliance that mice can not get into. Manufactures will not do this because the first thing most people today look at when they buy something is the price. When I am looking for something on the internet it seems the first thing shown is the price, but often there is not enough information about the product to know if it is what you need. When you buy something on Amazon it is hard to deal directly with the seller. The way thing are advertised today it is sometimes hard to tell what is a quality product and what is not. A good price on something that does not work is not a began.
When manufacture make cars with wires or other parts that animals eat some people will hate the animals that they would not hate otherwise and then they may kill them. Both people and animals would have a better relationship with each other if things where made mouse proof. I love the Squirrels and some other small animals so when manufacture will not make thing mouse proof it makes me sad and I hold them guilty of being cruel to animals. People pay big bills to fix things that are not made mouse proof that get gnawed and then sometimes the animals are killed by anger people.
When I go to the internet and ask if anyone mouse proofs generators all the comes up is pest control which means Poisoning and trapping which I do not want to do. Live Traps can sometimes hurt animals. Live traps must be cheeked often if you do not want animals to die in the traps. Poisons just kill the animals. It is usually a painful death for the animals that are poisoned. I think Poison could kills animals that the poison was not intended for, may be peoples pets. (??Children??).
have a 75 corvette 07 jeep 97 harley never touched by rodents 2019 camaro has been eaten up twice
is there any known wiring that has a rodent repellet wire?
They chew on the hardy plank siding on my house. It’s made out of cement. They will gnaw on anything!
I have a 2024 Buick Encore GT and while I have only had it 2 months rodents ate through my wiring harness at a cost of $750. If GM is aware it should be covered under warranty.
Wrong. You need to take steps to better care for your vehicle. That’s your responsibility. Don’t blame someone else.
No, manufacturers need to stop selling defective products.
For your information I do take care of my vehicles. Having products may of soy are an invitation to rodents. I was not aware that car products were made
Of soy. Sorry not a rocket scientist!
How do know that there is soy used? Do you believe everything you read on the internet?
If you make wire coating out of something editable more animals are going to gnaw on it. Some mechanics say they have seen about a 10 times increase in wires being gnawed. Soy wire is cheaper so care manufacture do not want to admit it is a problem. One of the worst thing about this is that people want to blame The Animals and the some people get mad and want to kill The Animals.
I ask a person who works in a metal fabricating business if he thought it would be possible to make cars and generators housings mouse proof and he thought that this could be done if the manufacturers who make cars and machinery wanted to.
It seems that a lot of people would rather poisoned Animal like Squirrels and Chipmunks than fix the problem in a way that would be BETTER FOR BOTH PEOPLE AND ANIMALS. This problem should be fixed in a way that would end the problem for good. It would be worth paying a little more when you buy a car if it would end the gnawing problems for good. It seems that other parts of cars and machinery besides wiring are also be gnawed on more today.
What kind of steps to better care for their vehicle do you think a people should have to take? Kill animals? Cars can not always be parked in a garage. What happens when a person goes camping? You want to blame people not the car companys when the car manufacture could fix the problem for good if they wanted to.
Some People Love the Animals and do not want them hurt. I Love The Small Animals like Squirrels, Woodchucks and Chipmuncks. Other people probably do not care if the Animals are hurt or killed.
You’re making assumptions that have no truth behind them. All you have is hearsay. Where’s the proof of your allegations?
A good question is how do we know if what we read on the internet is true. This is a big problem on many issues today I am wondering just how does anyone know what is true today? Some people say the internet just searches for works but It seems to me who ever writes the search engines that decides what come up first on the internet are bias on may issues and it is not just words that determines what comes up first. GM seems to getting a fair share of the complaints about wires being gnawed but I think most New Cars today are using Soy Based Wire Coating . I do not think The Car Manufactures deny this they just say that Soy Based Coating on wires dose not increase wires being gnawed. There are websites on both sides of this issue.
Car manufactures claim there is no scientific evidence of wire coated with Soy Based Coating being gnawed more but Soy Coating is cheaper to make and this gives them an incentive not to admit it even if it is true. I think there is few if any scientific studies that are not payed for by someone, usually someone who has a reason to want a certain result. So it is hard to say what is true from what you read on the internet. Even if not scientifically proven there are a lot of people who have reasons to believe that Soy Based Wire Coating is gnawed more than wires with older types of coatings. Although this is not proven it may still be true and it does seem that wire coating made form something that animals can eat would be more likely to be gnawed. There has been gnawing problems before Soy Based Wire was in use but the question is, is there a lot more gnawing problems since Soy Based Wire Coating can into use. Possibly ten times as much in some arias. It also seem that a lot of other kinds of car part are being gnawed on more today.
I think that some car manufactures may be developing thin metal material to put around wires to protect them from gnawing. If this is true and it works it would be nice if this came into use on New Cars. Although it is claimed that some of the new materials made form plants are better for the environment there are also negative for the environment with these materials. Replacing wiring and other car parts is not good for the environmentally
I agree with Edward as I have owned over 50 vehicles during my lifetime; those from the last thirty years have all been parked in the same spots and have never had any wire-gnawing problems until recently with my 2018 Silverado and 2019 GMC Acadia. Fortunately my damage was limited to the hood latch wiring and although my dealer wouldn’t cover it under the warranty, a $60 part and less than an hour to swap took care of my problem for now. I did buy the best “mouse eradicator” that Lowes had in-store but the light only lasted only a couple months. The very light, non-intrusive “buzz” is still there and haven’t had any more problems so hopefully that’s the fix.
they are after the salt on the wires from being handled with bare hands. they eat the plastic tubing used in lawn sprinkler systems because of the salt. here in Pa where they use salt on the roads in the winter come spring you see groundhogs eating the dirt along the edge of the road come spring and summer
Someone wrote that I had no proof. I wrote in one reply “Although this IS NOT PROVEN it MAY still be true”. Does this person have ABSOLUTE proof for what they want to believe? I have seen conflicting studies all sorts of issues and things. How can anyone read much on the internet without realizing that there is no way to be sure if some thing on the internet are true. Why do you think there are double blind studies? For a lot of people if one article or study does not say what they want to believe they will find other studies and article that support what they want to believe. It is almost impossible to find the truth today on some issues. I have no faith in studies just because they says they are scientific. THERE IS FRAUD MONEY AND BIAS INVOLVED IN TOO MANY STUDIES TODAY.
My Generator failed because mice got in it. I am working on making my Generator Housing Mouse Proof. I will try to do it in a way that will allow enough air flow for proper cooling. Do you think the people who make the housings for Generators could not do this if they wanted to? Can their engineers figure how to make a housing with enough air flow for cooling that is mouse proof? It would be much easier for the people who make the Generator Housing to make the housing mouse proof than it is for me. It would be nice if the The Generator came with a mouse proof Housing in the first place so my Generator did not fail and I did not have have to figure out how to make the housing mouse proof. I do not like hiring exterminator, putting out poison or traps and if you do any of these thing you will have to continue doing them and you will also be hurting Animals.
Yeah there are several class action lawsuits about this very issue… which manufacturers did NOT deny the use of soy-based wire coating. So there’s that. Now to the idea that this coating is attracting them to chew. The observations given here and elsewhere should constitute some insight into that. It is at least possible and quite like probable as a reason for increased amount of destruction to newer vehicles. Let’s also remember that the vast majority of scientific discoveries are first based on observation. There are a couple commenters on here that want you to throw out your observation / experience and just “believe the world is flat”… why? because they said so. Wonder who the real shills are.
Some wire mesh from the hardware store might be able to help with your rodent-proofing generator project.
I’m still waiting to see some proof, not conjecture.
Hows about you show us some proof to dispell EVERYTHING since you know so much? Saying mice chew on your siding too is merely dismissive conjecture… two way street pal.
Mice, chipmunks and squirrels chew. That’s a fact of life. The little b@stards will eat anything soy or not.
What I would like to know is do these cars sit for long periods of time without driving anywhere? All of my cars have sat outside I have lived in Warwick NY and now Sussex NJ which is very country woods like setting and I have never ever had anything chew on my wires and we own a 2019 Buick enclave and a 2020 Chevy Equinox I didn’t even have this problem with my 2015 Mazda or 2010 equinox. Now cars that my family used to have sit on the property we owned in Warwick like the 1973 Buick estate wagon or one on dad’s old 70s Caddy’s they had evidence of rodents chewing on wires but those cars had been sitting and not running and they where older 70s cars no soy based wires in those.
I’m also a Bowtie Man and I drive my truck at least five days a week. My pair of ’63 Corvettes that have been parked beside the 2018 Silverado are seldom driven and have never been touched, but critters gnawed through the truck hood latch wires that initially gave me a couple of warning lights. I hadn’t looked to see what the problem was as it was time for an oil change anyway so I took it to the dealership who quickly informed me that it wasn’t covered under the original warranty (and I also have the 10 year extended version from the dealer). I’ve been dealing with these folks a long time so after he showed me where the critters had their feast, I just ordered the new latch with harness and installed it myself.
Recently had my 2011 equinox experience a electric issue replaced starter battery and some wires but I think the problem is a rodent tried to make a home and chewed some wires when I try to start the car it clicks one time and won’t start 😞 I hate electric issues