Hey gang,

As I have posted several times, my 2001 V6 Accord has been pretty much parked "up the hill out back behind the shop near the hay field" since May. About a month ago I offered the Accord to one of my brothers who is trying to reinvent himself and needs to keep costs down during his transition, and two weeks ago he took me up on the offer and came up to New Hamster to fetch it back to his home Connecticut.

While following his wife (she was driving the Accord) he noticed there were no taillights on the car and called me to ask about that. I told him I had the car inspected in late August and all of the lights were working then. I did a few searches here and figured out Fuse 10 on the Passenger's Side fuse box, labeled "Small Lights" was the likely candidate. Sure enough, that fuse was blown, and as soon as he replaced it, it blew again.

He took the car in to a local shop and they diagnosed a melted wiring harness. "Hmmm," I said, "I remember seeing a chipmunk bail out of the right rear wheel well after starting the car the day before he picked it up; I wonder..."

The good news was the shop was able to install a new wiring harness for $500 and all of the lights both interior and exterior are now working again. The shop's diagnosis? "A rodent chewed through the harness."