Car wiring

[Kwr68]

Just read a article in the guardian about a vw Tiguan where a rat found its way into the car and chewed through the wiring ,so the rat has found a way in to get of the cold and found the wiring ,it seem vw in a effort not to use plastic the wiring is now encased in a plant based material more appealing to rats , one vehicle was only 2 years old ,just wondered if anybody else has come across this.

[salim]

Hi
Had a airbag fault over a year ago and the vw garage said about rats chewing the wiring .
not realy sure what to believe as asked them to keep the damaged wiring but was told somebody
threw the damaged wiring away . thats life .

[Scratch]

I had this happen when I hired a VW car in Germany many years ago. The garage said it was a very common occurrence.

[TimF]

The article I read pointed out that rats will eat non-plant-based wiring too. And rats are pretty common anywhere, if not as common as an urban myth suggests:
<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014 ... from-a-rat>

When we used a wildlife-detecting camera in our garden for a while, it never picked up a rat, but did pick up mice. I suspect rats only have a go at cars if a) there are no other places to camp out which are more comfortable (cars will stay warm for quite a while after use) and b) there are no better food sources around. Given the way many folk discard their uneaten snacks etc, I'm sure most rats can find far more nourishing food than a car's wiring very easily!

[Kwr68]

Just read a article in the guardian about a vw Tiguan where a rat found its way into the car and chewed through the wiring ,so the rat has found a way in to get of the cold and found the wiring ,it seem vw in a effort not to use plastic the wiring is now encased in a plant based material more appealing to rats , one vehicle was only 2 years old ,just wondered if anybody else has come across this.

Sorry i should have said this was a consumer problem this particular article was about the insurance company reluctance to pay out on a claim,that’s partly why i was interested if it had happened to ant one els especially as the cost was £6,000and a similar claim was for £1400 whether they prefer plastic or plant based casing .

[And1385]

My ID3 gave a red warning for the electric drive system, VW tech came out and the car recovered to VW Listers. Turns out that a mouse had chewed through the out plastic casing on one of the wires, around 1CM. Okay fair enough but how can they justify the £3500!!! to replace it. This will be an insurance claim but just thought i would warn you all out there that not all insurance companies will cover it.

[LeffeP]

Hi, Same happen to me in my Touran some years ago. All dead except power-window. On my way home from workshop after 10 km. many warning lights go on and i towed back to workshop again and they exchange the steering-sensor.
After 6 month i sell the car ...

[TheJimster]

I know folks with a Jag I-Pace which suffered the same fate. The rat had done enough damage that the car was almost written off.