Hi all,

Just found this forum and signed up today. Debated about whether to post this in the new members thread or here, but since I do have a couple of general questions I'd like I help with, I decided to go here.

My 1999 Accord is a tough car. It stood up to my wife putting about 250,000 miles on it over the past ten years, but this past weekend, it was attacked by squirrels and now it won't start. I'm trying to decide whether to get it towed into a shop or whether I'll be able to repair/replace enough of the wiring to get it started.






What I was wondering is if anyone can tell from this picture (I know it's not very good--it was on my phone with no flash) what these wires are that are chewed through. Can I purchase this as a harness anywhere? There's not a whole lot left to solder to.



If someone is willing to help me figure out what I need to do, I'd be glad to try to clear away more of the nest and take some better pictures.



Thanks!

 

I don't recognize the wiring because it's too close. Take a picture farther away (not as far as the top picture).

2nd one looks like the throttle cables & their drum on the throttle body. Not too sure which connectors are there, though.

Clear away all the leaves.

The hose chewed through in the last picture is the PCV valve. The PCV valve itself is the grey plastic elbow. That hose goes straight back to the intake manifold (which is buried under the leaves).

We can probably help you out. How comfortable are you with soldering? You can buy some sub-harnesses, solder some others, depending on what you find.

But to be honest, they probably chewed through a bunch of other stuff that you haven't found yet. Are you up for a big project without a clear idea of how big it will become?

 

That second to last picture may be the map sensor with the three wires. It also look like part of the wire harness coming out of the fuse box got damaged.

Jim is right, you will definitely be repairing a number of wires and you still haven't removed the all of the nest. Remove all of the nest to see what you are dealing with. Look at the injectors, all the sensors on the intake/throttle body.

Turn the key to the II position (don't try to start), turn off, repeat 3 times. Try to smell for gas in the engine bay, because the squirrels may have chewed through some fuel lines as well.

If you post some pics from further away, we may be able to give you a better idea of what was damaged.

Another option would be to pick up a complete wire harness from a junkyard.

 

Oh yeah, one more thing. Get a cat.
Or go to a garden-supply place & buy some stuff they sell to scare away rodents. It's dried urine from a big cat like a bobcat or cougar.

 

that looks like Pac-rats damage not squirrels.. Here in Southern Arizona we see a crap load of them and cause a lot of damage ,, they like to chew on wiring and hoses,,,,,We do at least a dozen per year , lot of them repeat customers ..

First thing you need to do is to make sure that there is no pac-rat still there, ( yep ) then clean everything up and then access the damage ,Once everything is in clear view , if you can fix it , do so, it will save you a lot of money ,, if not, take it to a shop ..
But the real problem is that Pac-rats will come back again,, some of my customers have spent a lot of money for a remedy not to have pac-rats return and cause more damage ,we see this a lot worse on people that reside out of the city , lot of trees area, people that leave cars parked outside ( no garage ) ...

 

I saw a friends truck get a squirrel's nest in the engine bay here in champaign. They chewed through the fuel injector wires within a day.

 

if it is squirrels, my mistake.........i see a lot of cars during the year that look just like that ( pac-rats damage )...........i should have never assumed that it was pac-rats..

it is new to me,, i did not think that squirrels would go into cars ..
either way it needs to be repaired

 

Hey Gianni:
Did you get my special E-mail I sent you the other day?
If not let me know and I will resend it..

Weren't Pac Rats those guys..ahh Sinatra , Joey B, Dean Martin and who was that other guy