Hello fellow Jazz owners,
I seek your wisdom on an issue I'm having with my beloved 2009 jazz vti-s.
Normal day just got into my jazz and realised dash board was lit on. Checked the light switch n headlights and ensured that it wasn't from my stupidity and it wasn't. Hoping the battery didn't die on me I started the engine. It started just like how it normally starts but dash was still malfunctioning. Then, eps light was on along with abs, srs and parking brake lights. also the centre monitor screen was off and rpm gauge and fuel needle wasnt responding. I reversed out of garage and power steering was functioning. So I took it to the dealer and after whole days worth of reviewing they came back to me saying it appears that a mice may have chewed wires and they'll replace the harnesses that are damaged.. to me it is very difficult to admit and understand the cause of this issue and the feed back I got feels as if dealer is trying to rip me off or something. Has anyonehanyone similar experience or any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Luke

 

Your dealer's explanation sounds perfectly reasonable to me. You clearly had some sort of an electrical problem involving multiple circuits/subcircuits. If the damage was in some relatively inaccessible place, it could take a fair bit of time to track down (especially since the dealer presumably has other cars to work on during the day as well).

While I have no way of telling if your dealer is being fully honest, especially from halfway around the world, nothing in what you've posted suggests to me that they are mistreating or misleading you. Many relatively recent cars have vegetable-based insulation for their wires that critters find more appealing than some of the older petrochemical insulation materials. This has been a recurring problem in some areas, such as the Denver, Colorado airport: Under-the-Hood-Winked Denver Airport Parking Rabbits Eat Car Wiring

 

yah, animals do gnaw on harnesses. this is one MAJOR issue if you live in rural areas or store vehicles in an unattached (and unattended) garage.

ive heard it's a good idea to place mothballs and even dryer sheets under the car to prevent rodents from living in your engine bay as they appear to hate the smell.

the soybased materials used on wire jackets, insulation material, and some car bits attracts rodents.

 

Ask for the old harness back to verify their claims.

 

This actually happened to me with my 2010 Fit. I popped the hood one day and noticed the plastic coating surrounding the wires going to my mass air flow sensor were chewed through. Luckily the wires themselves were still intact. I was very surprised by this because I live in the city and have never seen mice anywhere near my house or garage. My mechanic neighbor said the exact same thing about the wire coatings being made with soybean oil.

 

And I did read somewhere that mice do not like dryer sheets so maybee start slapping up dryer sheets all over the place lol!!

 

yep. and if you dont have pets, place some d-con under the car too for backup.

 

Thank you DrewE & Kenchan for allowing me to understand the potential possibilities on mice chewing away wirings. And hogwyled, YES that was the path I was going to go when Dealer would have finished the job. Anyway so this is what happened. Dealer got back to me saying 'It appears that the main harness from the dash board was unpluged. Normally the harness is tied down securely but someone or something may have pulled it off from the housing. We suspect that the car may have had front end damage at some point and that's why cable ties were cut loose and the harnes plug had twist which could have been another factor how it got unplugged. Anyway, it took our technitians 1.45 hours to locate the issue and therefore it's $150 just for the labour.'

That is word by word from the dealer.. No mention of mice at all now.. not too sure why it took them so long to get to this point.. Am happy that I got my car back but reliability on dealership is as low as it can get.. Any thoughts guys?