My journey begins when I drove home with the fuel light on. Made it home just fine and parked on my graded driveway ~4am.
The next day the car cranked but wouldn't turn over. I thought that perhaps the angled driveway wasn't allowing fuel to reach the engine so I rolled into the street and after a few more attempts to car started and ran just fine...well except for all the blinking dash lights. After work the car wouldn't turn over again. I disconnected the battery which did nothing. Again I cranked and cranked and it finally started up. I checked the CEL to find that it was P0118, which the internet revealed to be coolant temp sensor related.
Having only 14k miles on the car, it's still covered under warranty so I made an appointment at the dealership. Their technician says "unless a rat chewed up your car then this will be covered under warranty." They hand me the keys to a loaner Pontiac Vibe and I'm out the door. A few hours later I get a call that a rat had indeed chewed up my wiring harness, specifically to the coolant and crank sensors and it would not be covered under warranty.
Luckily my insurance was going to cover the vehicle, tho I have a $500 deductible. All in all it cost $9XX to fix the issue and I'm out $500 to feed a rat.
Anyways, there wasn't much information regarding this CEL code out there for the STI so perhaps there's some knowledge for other people to learn from my headache.
My car had been parked outside for a week or two as I worked on organizing my garage. I get to pick it up tomorrow and it won't be parked outside again. I'm hoping that they haven't thrown out my old wiring harness and will allow me to keep it. I'll have it fixed up somewhere and keep it handy in case the rodents strike again.
I googled rodent wiring damage and there are endless amounts of stories that can be found about peoples vehicles being damaged by rodents. What preventative measures can be taken to stop this?
The next day the car cranked but wouldn't turn over. I thought that perhaps the angled driveway wasn't allowing fuel to reach the engine so I rolled into the street and after a few more attempts to car started and ran just fine...well except for all the blinking dash lights. After work the car wouldn't turn over again. I disconnected the battery which did nothing. Again I cranked and cranked and it finally started up. I checked the CEL to find that it was P0118, which the internet revealed to be coolant temp sensor related.
Having only 14k miles on the car, it's still covered under warranty so I made an appointment at the dealership. Their technician says "unless a rat chewed up your car then this will be covered under warranty." They hand me the keys to a loaner Pontiac Vibe and I'm out the door. A few hours later I get a call that a rat had indeed chewed up my wiring harness, specifically to the coolant and crank sensors and it would not be covered under warranty.
Luckily my insurance was going to cover the vehicle, tho I have a $500 deductible. All in all it cost $9XX to fix the issue and I'm out $500 to feed a rat.
Anyways, there wasn't much information regarding this CEL code out there for the STI so perhaps there's some knowledge for other people to learn from my headache.
My car had been parked outside for a week or two as I worked on organizing my garage. I get to pick it up tomorrow and it won't be parked outside again. I'm hoping that they haven't thrown out my old wiring harness and will allow me to keep it. I'll have it fixed up somewhere and keep it handy in case the rodents strike again.
I googled rodent wiring damage and there are endless amounts of stories that can be found about peoples vehicles being damaged by rodents. What preventative measures can be taken to stop this?
