RATS!

[madriver]

We bought a 2013 second hand about 6 months ago with 18k on miles. It's been fantastic so far.

Came out to drive it to work Monday and got the dreaded SSN warning and was mortified.
Having read one of the first posts on the subject of SSN being attributed to rats I looked under the hood and found rat had made a nest of a white fabric and had chewed off several little wires.
Is there a blanket material that's usually over the wires?

I was going to take it to the dealer anyhow to have the modem recall addressed but I'm afraid of what they will say in terms of cost and time for repairing this.

Tempted to do it myself but unsure of how to do it safely and disable the current. And even if i repair them, will I be able to bring the car online myself?

Anyone know what these small wires and plugs above the larger orange ones are for?

Is anyone using one of those underhood rate emitters or something else to prevent this?
I'm thinking they are drawn to the current when it's charging?

 

[Pearl]

Take it to a qualified Ford EV dealer. Don't mess with the high voltage harness. We're talking deadly currents here. Leave it to the professionals.

 

[triangles]

The small wires form a "shield" around the high voltage wires. By "shield" I mean they protect against shorts by having the car computer cut power to the high voltage wires when one of these small wires is cut. The theory being if the small wire is cut the larger wire is likely cut too. Looks like the rodent chewed thru these small wires. I'm guessing ford will want to replace the whole wire assembly which won't be cheap. If it's just the small wires that are damaged and you are handy with a soldering iron you may be able to fix it yourself. There's a document on here somewhere that was aimed at first responders. It tells you how to disable the battery so you don't fry yourself. I would suspect this same info is in the owners manual somewhere too. If you are unsure of your abilities, by all means spend the money to have a dealership fix it instead of risking frying yourself. I would guess it would be about $300-$500 dollars for a new wire harness and a couple hours of labor to install it. Let us know what you do. I am curious if you do take it to the dealer how much the repair costs.

 

[Pearl]

Here's the First Responder's Guide
https://www.fleet.ford.com/resources/ford/general/pdf/emergency-response-guides/2013_Focus_EV_Final.pdf

I cannot seem to find the High Voltage Wiring Harness on www.fordparts.com, to see the cost.

 

[madriver]

Thank you. It's helpful to understand their function. I couldn't see any damage done to the main wires, just the little ones.
There seems to a fuse or something in each connector too. I will be sure to post what I hear from the dealer.
I am hoping that since they have to do recall service anyhow they won't mind splicing a repair into these little wires and connectors.
I am leery because I've never dealt with this dealer and I think the next Ford dealer is 200+ miles away.

Does anyone know how I can mitigate issues with rats in the future? We live in the country but I could charge at work during the winter if I thought it would help.
Are they more attracted to the car when it's charging vs not charging?

Do those emitters you put under your hoods work?

 

[Robert123]

Get a cat lol

Or if you don't have animals, use Rat Poison / traps.

 

[triangles]

FYI From Left to right. Those are the high voltage wires to 1) the heater, 2) the AC compressor, 3) the DC-DC converter. If your car is functioning as I understand it should (in other words I could be wrong) none of the above should be energized. In other words with those small wires cut you should have no heat, no ac and no DC-DC converter which means your 12V battery isn't getting charged and all the 12V stuff (basically everything but the motor, AC compressor and heater coil) is running off your 12v battery which won't last very long. If you haven't already I'd get a stand alone 12V charger on your 12V battery asap.

It can't hurt to ask but I'd be shocked (no pun intended) if any dealer would try to fix the harness. I doubt any dealer even has the equipment to repair the wires. I'd expect them to tell you the harness must be replaced. I had initially glanced at your photo above and I had thought these were the wires going back to the battery which they clearly are not. Not sure what I was thinking. Anyway They are three separate wire harnesses all are fairly short and I wouldn't think would be more than $100 each unless Ford is really greedy. But I'm really just throwing out a wild guess at cost here. Good luck and keep us updated.

Oh yeah you can see what I believe is a partial part number for the one wire in the picture. CV68-14B323-??

 

[Pearl]

Oh yeah you can see what I believe is a partial part number for the one wire in the picture. CV68-14B323-??

I did a google search on "CV68-14B323-" and it sent me on an adventure, finding it listed in a Ford Ranger EV document here:
http://www.evchargernews.com/miscfiles/ranger-ev/2001%20Ranger%20EV%20Wiring%20Diagram.pdf

 

[ATL-FFE]

2 words -- Insurance. Claim.

 

[WattsUp]

Wow. Brings new meaning to the phrase, "a rat's nest of wires".

 

[madriver]

Insurance claim was right. I'm so glad we had comprehensive with geico on this.

Dealer found damage to the compressor (2200.00 part) along with parts of the harness pictured above.
It sounds like the overall invoice will be around $3400 - I'll share itemized parts costs when I see them.

 

[EVA]

Wow amazing. You dodged a huge bullet there. Insurance, sometimes it does exactly what we need it to do.