Rats!

Freezebear · December 12, 2007

Help, my friend's brand new '07 Silverado had some damage done by rats chewing the wiring. They chewed some wiring under the passenger side wheel well near the radiator. There are 3 conduits coming together at that point. There are 2 big black wires, probably for fans or lights, there are also several blue wires coming out of each conduit, and a green. I don't know what blue wire to hook to what blue wire. He took it to the shop and said it wasn't warranty and he could be looking at $4000 to repair. That's crazy! I can't find a schematic for it and not sure if one would help due to several wires the same color(blue) . Can anyone please help? Maybe you could look at your wiring and tell me what wire goes to what wire in which conduit. I also have taken pictures and will try to upload.

Thanks

Razor1616 · December 12, 2007

has he tried an insurance claim? I dont know much about that kind of thing, but i would be looking at every option i could think of.

Triki_Dick · December 12, 2007

Is the wire cut in two or is the bare metal showing.

Reason I ask maybe take the connector apart and take wires's out and apply shrink wrap to wires's if wire's are not damaged at all.

Norseman · December 12, 2007

Make an insurance claim and put some rat poision/traps out.

ws6_guy · December 12, 2007

that sucks man. But yeah i'm with everyone else, or see if the warranty will cover it I highly doubt GM states they refuse to repair rat damage, could be worth a try

MHeffe · December 12, 2007

You should take some pics of it to help us understand what it is.

Freezebear · December 12, 2007

Yeah, they already told him it's not warranty. He doesn't want to have file on insurance because of the deductible and especially since it's something so simple for me to repair for him. They are chewed clean in two. I have plent of wire to make a good clean splice. But why do they have multiple wires of the same color?

I took pictures last night, but I don't know how to make them less than 300k because I took them in high resolution.

Freezebear · December 12, 2007

Ok See if this works. Harnesses are labeled 1, 2 and 3. Also what is this thing with the ? next to it. I almost thought it was a horn, but could it be a crash sensor?

Bostonsfavson · December 12, 2007

Holy s**t. Your friend needs to get some rat traps. And some cats. And maybe a gun.

redsled2007 · December 13, 2007

Please excuse me if I sound flippant, but try putting the same color wires together! It looks to me like all the wires are "color coded". Look close and look to see if there is a stripe. Get a splice kit and a pair of wire strippers and put them together. Don't forget to re-wrap the bundels.

From personal experience, If you found this, there's more then likely more you haven't found!! That's more then likely why the dealer wanted $4k. Gee, how much is his deductable? Even at $500, that's a whole lot better to get it done right with a warrenty.

forgottenmemory · December 13, 2007

wow are sure those were rats? looks like some one cut them/? OR THOSE ARE BIG RATS!!! LOL

Zembonez · December 13, 2007

This isn't an uncommon problem.

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine in his Yukon. Dealer wanted something like five grand to fix it. Since all of the harness wires are color coded, we peeled back the crinkle housing around the harness and started replacing wire sections using solder and heatshrink tubing. We patched about 75 frikkin wires in one weekend. Once we had everything buttoned up, it started up and ran another couple of years without issue until he traded it in.

If you exercise patience and solder every connection, heatshrink it, and use good 3M electrical tape, the repair should be as good as it was new. It's a pain in the ___ but it saves a few thousand dollars!

Good luck.

slimjim2525 · December 13, 2007

This isn't an uncommon problem.

A similar thing happened to a friend of mine in his Yukon. Dealer wanted something like five grand to fix it. Since all of the harness wires are color coded, we peeled back the crinkle housing around the harness and started replacing wire sections using solder and heatshrink tubing. We patched about 75 frikkin wires in one weekend. Once we had everything buttoned up, it started up and ran another couple of years without issue until he traded it in.

If you exercise patience and solder every connection, heatshrink it, and use good 3M electrical tape, the repair should be as good as it was new. It's a pain in the ___ but it saves a few thousand dollars!

Good luck.

Good advice, and good luck.

Freezebear · December 14, 2007

Help

Anyone have a schematic for this truck?

dreman · December 14, 2007

Why would rats cut the wires? I can see some possibility of them getting some nutritional value out of the casing (or at least think they do), but I don't think the wires would do the same thing.