Rodent damage or Sabotage?

[Averagejoes]

This is a long and elaborate story so stick with me and feel free to ask questions. 

 My 2016 Legacy went from driving with no issues one evening to 24 hours later having multiple dash lights come on within miles of each other. Upon start up a day after running with no problems I witnessed an immediate SRS Airbag light appear on the dash. I thought this was odd so I exited the vehicle, popped the hood and did a search for anything out of the ordinary including looking for damaged wiring or any sign of rodents (this was about the only thing I could think would cause this issue with no other symptoms and I do live in the country.) I found nothing. Cycled the car off and back on to see if it was a fluke and the airbag light stayed on. A mile down the road the eye sight detected a non existent obstacle and then 10 seconds later EYESIGHT DISABLED appeared on the dash. Within another two miles SRS and EYESIGHT DISABLED were joined by CHECK ENGINE and ABS lights. I turned around and went home. I parked the car for two weeks and turned my attention to the home remodel I’ve been working on. After a few weeks I returned to the car project and attempted to start only to find a completely dead battery. 0 volts. Ran to the auto parts store thinking maybe a new battery would fix the issues that seemed like they had to be very electrical related. New battery started the car great but failed to clear any dash lights. I did not go back to the auto parts store and have them clear codes (palm to face). Instead I took the car to the dealer hoping they would treat me as fair as they had in the past, and hoping they would find the issue quickly since it was affecting so many systems of the car. The car was also due for a 90k service and I don’t have my shop built so I decided to let them get that done as well.
 

On my way to the dealership the low oil level light came on. I dropped the car off at 7am and went about my day. 4 hours later I received a call that they had found rodent damage to the single wire running to the low oil level sensor (my car always shows low oil light when due for an oil change and it was due.) I asked if that could be the cause of so many dash lights and was told it can throw all kinds of codes. I gave them permission to fix it. And continued my errands in town. I heard nothing for hours so I decided to head over to the dealer and start making a plan for having no car for the night. Long story shorter.... they had replaced the sensor and guess what!!! It didn’t do anything about the dash lights. Now they were on to more diagnostics. I asked to see the rodent damaged wire. They brought me out both ends of a wire that looks very cut to me and even shows indentations of a waffle pattern that looks like needle nose pliers. After 20 minutes of arguing and the dealer refusing to admit a cut wire, with no diagnosis of my car issue coming soon, I left. 
20 minutes after leaving the dealer I got a call from them. They instructed me to contact my insurance because the bill for the work was about to get steep. They claimed they found 3 plugs on 2 wire harnesses severed by rodents. I asked for pictures and got three blurry photos of severed wires. Again, they didn’t look like typical rodent damage to me. Without a way to prove anything my insurance got involved, work began to replace the harnesses, and the bill got up to 5 grand. I picked up the car today and they reluctantly handed over all the old harnesses. 

I have theories about what happened. And here is a clue. The night before the cars dash lights came on my wife and I inflated an air mattress using a pump connected to the 12V power of the car (engine was not on). On top of that two weeks later the battery was toast. Did we fry something? Conveniently the wire harnesses replaces are connected to the main fuse box so that got replaced also. But it wasn’t covered under warranty because it was RODENT DAMAGE. 

In the end (3) two pair wire pig tails were severed plus the severed single wire to the low oil level sensor. both wires in each pair are severed at identical length. No other chew marks or evidence of rodent damage on the wires or in the car. And all this damage happened in one night. 

 

I’ll post all the pictures I have. Please share your thought.  

[lmdew]

We had rabbits at work getting up on top of engines and chewing through plug wires and engine harnesses.  They can do real damage quickly.

[idosubaru]

The fact that you thought to check for rodent damage is interesting - very few people check for rodent damage as a nearly first step like you mentioned. That seems to suggest it’s likely or there’s reasons to suspect it.

Are there any food crumbs or items in the car - are kids or pets ever around?  That’ll attract rodents. 

That’s hard to tell. Rodent damage isn’t surprising, it happens. I’d think it’s going to be hard to say with the limited info here.

I’ve repaired a few rodent damaged vehicles. None were major, all were limited to one harness. But I’m sure they could go nuts.  If there was that much damage it shouldn’t be too hard to find animal excrement in the engine bay.  I’ve seen it TONS of times laying on top the engine, below the battery tray, anywhere. Usually on perfectly running vehicles. I’ve seen this dozens of times, it’s very common.  If they were in there any length of time there should be signs.

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by idosubaru

[Averagejoes]

Thanks for your responses! 
 

There are so many things that caused this whole ordeal to seem shady. Timelines, things the dealer said, lack of rodent evidence. And this conversation is more for my peace of mind than anything else at this point. The car is now fixed to the tune of an insurance claim and $5500. I am not the kind of person to throw any business under the bus if my fears cannot be proven. 
 

My instinct to go search for rodent damage was spurred by an issue 15 years ago in a totally different part of Oregon where some squirrels and made a nest out of my entire firewall between the cab and engine bay of a Mazda 3 I owned. That being said we do have wildlife at our home in central Oregon. Since we have lived here in July 2020 none of our other vehicles (all parked outside) including two diesel pickups, tractors, side by side have not had any issues. 
 

Upon pretty intensive inspections both before and after dealer visits I never found any nesting material, feces, or urine in the engine bay. Now that I have the original harnesses at home and can see which wires were severed I have traced their locations and specifically looked for rodent evidence at these locations. I found none. 
 

The most difficult thing for me is that, in order for the dealers claim to jive, something would have had to have gotten in to the car in one night, selectively chewed all the way through not just one wire but all the wires in 3 different harnesses plus a random oil sensor wire, without leaving any poop, pee, or nest. And there is no other damage to the other 500 plugs on the harness or any chew marks on any other wires. The only damage is within a 1/4 inch length of right where the wires are severed.  Seems like this mouse had some Subaru technical training. 
 
I am also curious, is it standard mechanic procedure to replace entire wire harnesses when one or two plugs are severed? Both ends of the wire were still there, color coded, and only on sections of the harness where there were two wires. Seems like a pretty easy splice to me. But I don’t know if splicing is ground upon in the mechanic world. 

thanks for all your input. 

 

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

just a coupla comments. A lot of rodents have urine that will glow under UV I think. Not sure which rodents ot what wavelength UV - worth researching ....

 

Rodents MUST chew due to incisors that never stop growing.

 

rodents are able to get into really cozy spots. If ALL the cuts are to wiring with 'clear and easy' access to a persons arm/hand equipped with diagonal cutters....suspicious.

[1 Lucky Texan]

also, batteries in Oregon would last longer than batteries where I live but, you battery, if original, was certainly not 'young'. The original issue could have been caused by a weak battery, with a partially sulfated cell or ....?

I have had spurious codes set by failing batteries on 3 occasions in 2 different cars.

I have read elsewhere that oil lelvel sensors have been known to fail such that the light comes on when levels are only a few ounces down - increased sensitivity. Check subaruoutback.com for posts about oil level sensor.

 

I also think it's 'possible' that, in order to satisfy your request to see a damaged wire, the dealership grabbed the first wire they could find, cut it, and displayed it. Doesn't mean they lied necessarily about the actual problem, but maybe your 'real' part/wiring had already been thrown in the bin andno one wanted to dig for it. just an idea.

 

 

[Averagejoes]

Thanks for the input. 
 

the first wire they showed me was attached to a dripping wet oil level sensor. It was the wire that looked most cut and not chewed with a little waffle pattern imprinted in it. Looks just like the pattern on the jaws of needle nose. Ironically the OEM part comes with a automotive wire tie that pushes into the frame. And that tie was right where the wire was severed. 
 

it is totally possible that everything after that point was so fogged over by my anger that my bias is influencing how I see the issue. 
 

unfortunately as I argued with the service advisor over cut vs. rodent damage, mechanics were coming into the lobby and listening to our conversation. If I had to bet money I’d say the mechanic working on my car knew about my accusations within 30 seconds. 
 

The more I post on this issue the more I realize it doesn’t do much good at this point. I was hoping to find someone that would have some clues that would connect a bad battery with the lights I had appear on the dash. Sounds like this has happened before to others. 
 

I will always wonder if the problem would have been solved by clearing codes after a battery replacement. 
 

thanks all. 

 

 

[idosubaru]

Those codes clear themselves once the issue is rectified. The controllers are simply monitoring real time electrical signals - they are in range or not. Once they’re back in range the code immediately goes away. It’s like your light switch and would be nearly as instantaneous. That’s a little oversimplified, but for the purposes of your question it’s the case.

Those markings are jaw prints.  The question is was there rodent damage and then subsequent markings as well?  If so, the markings aren’t that telling   I routinely break parts that were already damaged because they’re damaged - often it doesn’t matter if I damage them more. I don’t carefully remove bad wheel bearings so as not to make them “more bad” - they’re going to scrap. Okay I’m sort of joking here but I’m just unsure on sequence of events and details.

It’s nearly impossible to confuse rodent damage with pulling a wire out of socket.  Pulling apart results in stretch and fatigue in the copper strands, wire sheathing, and associated conduit and it pulls apart in a very distinctive way.  Rodents wouldnt. Pulling it will not create nearly the same type of stretch, gnawing, pieces, material breaking and random fracturing as chewing does. We weren’t there to see it all insitu but it’s nearly impossible to confuse the two by anyone who’s seen both. 

By your description it sounds like there was potentially some heated discussion - any time attitudes are flying I’m not surprised to see poorer outcomes, miscommunication, or missing data. Keep in mind the service advisors often don’t even look at your car nor have never worked on one before. So you’re getting third hand information that may be practically truthful but relayed with errors. That’s the case in a very smooth and highly cooperative situation but compounded in a more heightened one. 

[Averagejoes]

Thanks for the info about the codes clearing up on their own! This was not the case for my battery swap. 
 

I am an electrician for a large railroad and have see. My fair share of rodent damage to wiring (not so much in vehicles, but I would be surprised if it looked different,) I also have cut my share of wires. I totally agree with you about the potential for damaged components being removed quickly over carefully. 
 

I also agree that the service advisor probably never saw the work being done on my car or my car at all. And I was very clear I wasn’t questioning his integrity. Maybe I painted a picture of the situation that was slightly off. I wasn’t close to throwing blows but firmly suggested that the first wire they showed me was cut. The whole situation was bad cause I believe they attempted to trouble shoot an issue that wasn’t an issue first. As previously stated I was due for an oil change and that low oil level light always comes on when it’s due. I think the tech threw a new sensor at it before checking to see if the reason for a low oil light was,... low oil. I hope the rodent damage wasn’t an excuse for a oh crap moment when he changed the oil after replacing the sensor. I also hope that there wasn’t a panic to make it look like rodent damage after the mechanic received the news that I was in the lobby arguing my case. 

 

bottom line is pictures I post aren’t the same as holding it in your hand. When I put on my detective hat and compare what I see to pictures of rodent damage and real life experience, my harness don’t look the same. The random damage to relatively easy human accessible spots, damage only to a specific spot on three different two wire portions of the harness and not a single mark on the other 15 feet of it. 
 

does anybody have information about the fuse boxes in these cars and if they are smart? I read years ago about the system in my pickup and how it monitors voltage to give the driver feedback when a tail light goes out. Put in the wrong LED headlight bulbs and you can fry the whole brain of the fuse box. Is Subaru the same? 
 

thanks. 

[1 Lucky Texan]

CANBUS systems are sensitive to some LED installations as you mention. Most soobs have had canbus since '05, '06 , maybe varying a year or 2 depending on model?

 

good post by Ido above btw.

[idosubaru]

Subarus aren’t like the trucks you mentioned, the fuse boxes aren’t part of any feedback loop. but the LED comment above might warrant looking into.