Mouse chewed my wire harness

I've been having electrical problems for awhile, specifically the passenger low beam and blinker aren't working. I thought the underhood fuse block might be the culprit because one of the fuses was partly melted but not blown. I replaced it but no change. Then I noticed the foam grommet around a thick wire bundle in the driver footwell firewall was chewed up. After removing the battery I can see that at least two thin wires in the bundle are chewed clean through right at the firewall. I'm wondering how to go about removing the bundle to either splice or replace it. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

I am not sure how to get at your issue, but it may be something to safeguard against in the future. At some point soy based products came in to use for wire insulation. I thought it was a little later than your model, but not positive.
We had this issue constantly with the newer refuse trucks when I worked at the city garage.

There's no magic to repairing wires. Crimp connectors generally work OK. I like the kind that have a sealant in them. Heat shrink for the wires is good as well. For small diameter wires in a non-stressed place, I like to twist and solder wires the move the heat shrink back up over the repair (having put a suitable length on before soldering the wires) and then heat it to shrink it on the repair.

Some people will say that manufacturers don't recommend soldering, and the reasoning is good (vibration cracks the solder and fails the joint), but I don't have confidence that crimped connectors don't allow the wires to pull out, so...

Basically, choose your poison and go for it.

For mice, the little <bleep>ers seem to like nesting on top of the cabin air filter. They'll get insulating material from any insulating blanket available, such as hood pads, battery wraps, or the pad material right there under the plenum. I clean it out as best I can, and leave a half-block of green party food from your local home improvement store. It sits nicely beside the cabin air filter. Mice chew it up and go elsewhere for their last dance. I put the other half of the block into the engine air box, as I have had them sneak in there and make holes in the air filter medium while stripping off the fuzzy snow filter part of the filters designed for snow country.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Cheers,


PH

I’d sure hate to have one eat the party food and go to sleep on the cabin air filter. Growing up friends had a gerbil that died *somewhere* in the house and that whole place was gaggingly stinky for months.

Thanks for the tips. I was thinking about the splice, solder, and heat shrink method. The main problem is the inaccessible location of the damage- right where it passes through the firewall. I guess I'll have to investigate where the bundle goes and see about disconnecting at least one end so I can pull the damaged section through the firewall where I can work on it. It looks like it is headed from the interior fuse block on one end.

After thinking about it some more, I think I'm going to cut back the wrap on either side of firewall and splice in some 1-2' lengths on the damaged wires. The other option would be to sell the car back to VW, at which point it's not my problem. Guess I'll have to decide pretty soon.