Field mice...

[Bink]

Three times so far the wires under my eGolf have been eaten by rodents.
Unfortunately I don't have a garage, but there are two other vehicles parked right next to mine, and the eGolf is all they go after.

I've tried Cayanne pepper under the car, I've tried dryer sheets, nothing seems to work.
I can't use poison because there are too many other animals that would jeopardize.

They haven't gotten into the cabin of the car, just the wiring underneath.
There has to be a way to stop this.

Anyone have any ideas? Because I can't keep paying hundreds of dollars just so mice can eat these damned wires.

 

[miimura]

Try wrapping the affected harnesses with this rodent tape. I don't know if it's a deterrent or a poison, but people say it works. However, if it is the high voltage harness, you need to somehow retain the orange color. I don't know how you would solve that.

Amazon - Honda Rodent Tape

 

[Rsolaregolf]

Moth balls work well for us

 

[JoulesThief]

Three times so far the wires under my eGolf have been eaten by rodents.
Unfortunately I don't have a garage, but there are two other vehicles parked right next to mine, and the eGolf is all they go after.

I've tried Cayanne pepper under the car, I've tried dryer sheets, nothing seems to work.
I can't use poison because there are too many other animals that would jeopardize.

They haven't gotten into the cabin of the car, just the wiring underneath.
There has to be a way to stop this.

Anyone have any ideas? Because I can't keep paying hundreds of dollars just so mice can eat these damned wires.

Well, German cars are notorious for having tasty insulation and wrap on their wires, to rodents. Same thing happened with a rat and my sisters Audi 100S, in 1992. Wish I had a solution for you, park your car over rat traps?

 

[RM77]

We use moth balls.
Every time the car is parked the moth balls are put in the engine compartment. I keep the moth balls in used glass jars with a screw on lid. When I put the jar of mothballs in the engine bay the lid is taken off and the lid is placed on the driver seat. The lid is put on the driver seat to remind me that the jar of mothballs is still under the hood and needs to be taken out BEFORE driving. Then I can screw the lid on and keep the jar in the car and it will not stink up the car, mothballs stink! Driving around with mothballs/cakes open under the hood will give you a headache. The $500 repair that consisted of a diagnostic and crimping chewed wires back together was painful. The wire loom is pretty extensive, I don't know how much an entire loom would cost.
The aerodynamic (and insulated) shield at the bottom of the VW e-Golf engine bay makes for a cozy place for rats/mice/rabbits to climb in and chew to their hearts content. My Temperature sensor wire has been chewed twice and the water pump wire(same branch of wires) also chewed. Once on my Chrysler minivan (V6 3.8 liter) a rabbit chewed off all three of my front fuel injector wires. The rabbit was still there when I opened the hood.
When repairing these wires I recommend removing the electric fan mounted to the radiator. It is held in with just two clips at the top, depress them and the fan slides up. Then disconnect the single wire connection. With a little wiggling the fan and shroud pull out. This gives you room to access the chewed wires.
Wrap all of these wires with lots of tape to make it thick and not easy for them to nibble like a blade of grass.
These new wires are insulated with tasty-good-smelling bio-friendly insulation which rodents enjoy.

 

[RM77]

I was just thinking about how cozy the aerodynamic shield at the bottom of the engine bay makes it under the hood. Maybe I will remove that shield just so there is no place for the critters to lounge around on. The shield is what they sit on while they eat my wires!

 

[RM77]

So twice in the past week when I popped open the hood to retrieve the jar of moth balls there has been a wild bunny rabbit sitting in the bottom of the engine bay. The only thing that saved my temperature sensor wires from being chewed on again was the physical barrier of the glass jar being next to the temperature sensor wires. It seems that the mothballs have no effect on this rabbit because it was right next to the jar. So thankfully the jar blocked the rabbit from accessing the wires, otherwise my car would have been out of commission again!
So today I jacked up the car and removed the aerodynamic plastic shield from the bottom of the engine bay (which the bunny rabbit was sitting on ). It is held on by several Torx screws (on my 2015 e-Golf). Most of the screws are a small common size of Torx but the back three screws are very large and my size T-40 Torx screw driver was able to grab them but it was a little sloppy so maybe it is the next size up to fit properly. I bagged up the screws and duct taped them to the plastic shield and stored it in my garage for future re-installation. I was really impressed with how clean and oil/grease free the bottom of the motor was, so the shield does a nice job of keeping everything clean, unfortunately it also makes it comfy for rabbits to sit there and eat my Temperature Sensor and Water Pump wires.
I did find quite a few Macadamia nut shells and seeds from my Canary Island palm on the shield, nestled in the insulation, but no poop to identify if it was a rat or squirrel (rabbits don't carry food around) which has been dining there. Of note is that my friend had his fender peeled back by his dogs when his dogs were trying to get the squirrels hiding in the engine bay. Some dogs REALLY like squirrel!
I have since driven on the freeway and do not notice any increased wind noises. I do believe I may have more wind drag and reduced economy without the shield in place. But now my car will not be disabled by Mr Bunny chewing on these particular wires.
I still put the jar of mothballs under the hood , but now I set it on the battery tray to hopefully deter Mr Rat from sitting up on top and chewing on those wires.

 

[RM77]

I was thinking about the question
"Why my electric car and not the gas powered ones next to it?"
While fixing my chewed wires I noticed how clean I was when I was done. No greasy fingernails and oil oil up to my elbows like after working on any of my gas powered cars.
So I think part of the reason animals like chewing on our e-Golfs is because they do not like greasy oily engines either! So when they have a choice they will pick the nice clean engine bay of an electric car in stead of a nasty greasy oily engine of a conventional gas powered car.

 

[BomBoi]

Try placing those ultrasonic noise to deter pests.

 

[dc8lwthu]

I just found a dead rat in the engine shield of my 2015 egolf. But I only found it because I heard a buzzer sort of noise coming from the front of the car hours after the car had run. It was almost like a game show wrong answer buzzer. I started looking around and noticed a tail dangling from the edge of the engine shield. Rat looked a couple days dead no more than 5.

I heard the same buzzer noise maybe 3 more times across multiple days before I found the rat. I couldn't see any damage and the car works without complaint, but the noise persists.

I've looked for other descriptions of a noise like this, and the closest thing I could find is some diagnostic that occurs when you turn off a VW--couldn't tell if that included eGolf or not. Anybody hear a noise like this? Maybe the dead rat and the noise are just a coincidence. First time post. Cheers

DC

 

[msvphoto]

Rodents attracted to wiring is definitely a concern if the critters are near you car. Cost over $4500 for a friend to fix their 2014 Ford Explorer after rodents got into the wiring. They now use deterrent spray called Rodent Defense https://exterminatorschoice.com/product/vehicle-defense/ on the wheels and tires (apparently the critters crawl up the tires). I don't know how much it has helped yet, too soon to know for sure.

This is an industry-wide thing because the wire manufacturers that supply the auto industry use plant based insulation on automotive wire for various reasons including environmental as well as (hopefully) an insulation that doesn't disintegrate like a 1908s Volvo wiring loom. No car is immune to it and we EV owners have more wires to worry about including some big ones with lots of volts and current.