Rodents chewed through the wiring to the fog, lights and windshield washer fluid. The dealership is stating the entire wire harness needs to be replaced which is over $5,000. Is this is necessary?

I feel like it should be easy to replace the wires for the windshield fluid reservoir and fog lights alone.

 

Or use a mobile electrician who can do a professional harness repair, and verify it's integrity via their test equipment.

 

Thanks, I did not think of a mobile electrician. I will look into that.

 

Dealership normally do not repair sections of bad wiring due to rodent damage because of liability and safety reasons.

I would suggest NOT to use a Mobil service and find a specialized Auto Electric shop. If there are none listed then contact you local Police and Highway patrol they may be good enough to tell you who did thier vechles eletrical servicing and instalations of all the eltronic they use.

ASE

 

Thank you and much appreciated. I found an auto electric shop in my area and will check them out.

 

I'd have no hesitation in recommending use of a mobile auto electrician; they come to your home or workplace.
The amount of technology on board their trucks is awesome, and one I used here in UK, does work for
local dealers, plus the emergency services/ local councils etc!

 

Good point I gave a blanket statement so let me clarify a bit more....
Unfortunately the case here in the USA is most mobile mechanics and other associated mobile auto services are not licensed in thier state ,county or cities. They also do not share if they even have any certification to indicate they are actually trained as such. Sort of like the so called vast growth in our country of gardeners and lawn maintenance individuals. LOL

I will say again at least if you live in the USA I would NOT recommend the use of a mobile auto electric service... unless your check to see if they are licensed and certified (at least a ASE level) in their chosen service .

ASE

 

To eliminate any possible issues, you should replace the entire harness.
There are various spray on deterrents you can use to help prevent rodent gnawing.
Though I'm not certain which ones are best or how effective they actually are.

 

Ya probably but to give an example that you will get..
Last summer I was contracted to do a restoration OEM complete wiring harness. The kit for the application was 750.00. I bid the job flat AT 1200.00 with upgrades for the stereo F/I conversation and ignition system. He got a killer deal. The time I was done I had 33 hours into his project. That is 36 per hour. I have not made that little per hour for my specialized services in over 3 decades
Point is the car had no interior only dash. Everything was easily accessible and yet it still took that long and I tend to think I know what I am doing... I think! LOL

The other example is a chevy suburban that well after the warranty expired like several years the front head light and the fuses and relays for the AC kept blowing. Turned out the body had been installed on top of the harness that was supposed to route inside the frame. Over the years it slowly wore through and finally shorted everything in the front of the firewall. We had to separate the frame and replace the complete front harness that some portion routed into the firewall under the dash. This was at a cost to the customer of 3500.00 in I think that was 1995?

Both thinking about a newer MAZDA were easy by comparison. There are at least 3 large core section of the harness that go through the fire wall and under the dash. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$
This is why I really suggested whom, to do the service repair over a complete harness replacement.


OH you will like this... I just purchased a semi complete wire harness kit for my Yamaha XT500. Estimated install time about 4 hours?

 

My last full harness replacement was on a 1993 Chevy Corsica.
Chipmunks had a field day with it in just one week of being away on vacation.
I didn't have the time so the local shop did it and cost me almost a week's pay.

4 hours for wiring a motorcycle...hahahaha
Then 3 days of sweating, swearing, cut knuckles and who knows how many 6-packs to hide all the wires.
Unless it's an old English Triumph, Norton or BSA with those fine Lucas electrics and then it's an eternity....