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Car Manufacturers Sued Over Rodents Eating Soy-Insulated Wires (hackaday.com)
An anonymous reader writes about "a little-known problem plaguing many newer vehicles from the likes of Honda, Toyota, and Kia."
The car makers used soy-insulated wiring to cut costs and "Go Green", but owners in rural areas are finding the local wildlife finds the wiring irresistible; thousands of dollars in damage has been done by rats and other critters eating wiring harnesses. Hackaday is asking their community to brainstorm solutions to this unique problem, as owners of affected vehicles have had to resort to sprinkling their driveway with coyote urine and putting rat traps on the wheels.
Hackaday reports that "It isn't just one or two cases either, it's enough of a problem that some car manufacturers are getting hit with class-action lawsuits." Back in 2010 Slashdot reported that rabbits had already discovered the joys of eating soy-insulated wires, and were turning the parking lot at the Denver International Airport into their own personal buffet.
There's even a web site called HowToPreventRatsFromEatingCarWires.com, which reports that Honda has already manufactured a special wire-wrapping tape that's infused with the active ingredient from chili peppers.
Hackaday reports that "It isn't just one or two cases either, it's enough of a problem that some car manufacturers are getting hit with class-action lawsuits." Back in 2010 Slashdot reported that rabbits had already discovered the joys of eating soy-insulated wires, and were turning the parking lot at the Denver International Airport into their own personal buffet.
There's even a web site called HowToPreventRatsFromEatingCarWires.com, which reports that Honda has already manufactured a special wire-wrapping tape that's infused with the active ingredient from chili peppers.
Its not just cars. I bought a battery charger/jump starter from Harbor Freight, which has much of its products made in China. After only one month, I went out to my tool shed to find it and, lo and behold, all the insulation on the wiring was stripped clean. I live in SE AZ, in the desert so we have lots of wild life, but it was done so fast, I figured it might be a whole family, but I set a trap using a coil of insulated wiring from Harbor Freight, and caught the lil fckr. He was fat a sassy, and over the next two days I found several power tools all stripped of insulation.
However, I have had a '86 Honda civic sitting in the car port that the wiring was untouched. So its obvious a recent thing
Lovely. Chewed up wiring and dead, smelly animals in your car.
What's not to like?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I live in surburbia, and this happened to me. Rodents ate the wiring in my Honda Odyssey a few of years ago.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Most people would rather not have the wiring eaten at all, rather than finding it being used as a part of a multl-generation breeding experiment to develop a wild/feral population of wiring-averse rodents.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
"Honda has already manufactured a special wire-wrapping tape that's infused with the active ingredient from chili peppers."
Mexican rats love that stuff.
Or worse, your wires are all chewed up, and the rodents have now built up an immunity to arsenic! Lets make the wires radioactive as well!
Obvious answer is poison but thats not great for mechanics, and also not addressing the root cause. The real answer is to not use soy insulation in the first place.
As someone who likes classic cars (i.e. that need to be around for a LONG time) I really don't like the whole thought that insulation should biodegrade after a few years anyway.
Why on earth would anybody want wires with biodegradable insulation? That makes zero sense.
Even without providing rodent buffets, cars will be shorting out in a few years due to the wire insulation BIODEGRADING. If these executives and engineers think it's such a great idea, let's see them use this wiring in their homes.
Personally, I think wiring should have insulation that can last through a century or more, if possible.
Hello! Thank you so much for featuring my website howtopreventratsfromeatingcarwires.com here! I am happy to help answer any questions anyone may have regarding this issue, especially if you are in the midst of a rodent attack! Thanks!
There is no warning "Beware of the Leopard" on the glove box, showing the good faith of Honda and Toyota.
The EULA very clearly states that, " ... it is the responsibility of the user to prevent rodents from eating the wiring harness. Honda/Toyota recommend the use anti-rodent devices and the user must install and keep all such anti-malorganism devices up to date.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Wire harnesses are a critical component to vehicle safety. Wires that can degrade during the normal service life of a vehicle can be deadly. Think about a wire harness with insulation that's been eaten that controls the ABS, fuel injection or an airflow sensor, and you hit a bump in the road and it shorts. Now you lose power or braking. Are we willing to have someone's vehicle fail and the people seriously hurt or dead because of a fundamental design flaw?
I've worked on my own cars for years and seen some really stupid compromises and designs that make regular service difficult or results in failures just outside the warranty period. This, however, takes the cake, and we need to stand up to this by declaring the insulation issue a fundamental safety issue. I'm now thinking about mitigation strategies beyond my standard maintenance that neither I nor anyone else shouldn't have to think about, like underhood blinking lights, sprays, capsaicin tapes, etc..
I would encourage anyone with one of these vehicles to file a NHTSA complaint stating that soy wire harnesses should be banned and recalls instituted to remedy the problem by either (a) replacing the harnesses with standard synthetic non-edible polymers as appropriate to the specific application, or (b) providing coatings that provably prevent rodents from consuming the insulation over the lifespan of the vehicle. We should also inform our congresscritters about this issue.
NHTSA complaint form: https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/... Congresscritters: https://www.house.gov/represen... and https://www.senate.gov/senator...
We used twine laced with arsenic when I installed wiring in tech control facilities. They don't get immune to it.
Arsenic won't in itself biodegrade, it's a metal. It will spread in the environment. Probably not in dangerous doses just from wire insulation, but still no good idea. I would rather go with non-edible cables in the first place ...
This is all about the length of time a car will last.
The manufacturers don't want them to last, they want you to buy a new one every year.
This way, the every time they get parked outside, they get eaten, a bit at a time. :)
Cuts down on the impurities in the recycled copper, too.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Soviet Field Mice Attack German Tanks
From 'Enemy At The Gates' by William Craig:
"Finally the German High Command made a move to cover its (6th Army's) flanks. The 48th Panzer Corps, stationed more than 50 miles southwest of the ominous Russian bridgeheads at Kletskaya and Serafimovich on the Don, received priority orders to move up to the threatened sector.
Led by Lt. Gen. Ferdinand Heim, a close friend and former aide to Paulus, the 48th clanked onto the roads and headed northeast. But only a few miles after starting out, the column ground to a halt when several tanks caught fire. In others, motors kept misfiring and finally refused to run at all. Harried mechanics swarmed over the machines and quickly found the answer. During the weeks of inactivity behind the lines, field mice had nested inside the vehicles and eaten away the insulation covering the electrical systems. Days behind schedule, the 48th Corps finally limped into its new quarters. It was almost totally crippled. Out of one hundred four tanks in the 22nd Panzer Division, only 42 were ready for combat."