A couple months ago my GS stopped making the chime when I locked and unlocked my doors. When my car was in for service today I told my advisor at the dealership to look into that for me. A couple hours later I received a phone call from him saying that something got into my door panel and ate threw part of my wiring harness in the door. He then started to tell me that this is something that can't be repaired and that the cost of a new harness would be $8k-$10k. He tried selling me on the fact that I can go though my insurance and file a comprehensive claim to get this fixed. I know they make a percentage of all the jobs they write but come on...replace the whole wiring harness in my car for two little wires that were chewed threw. After looking at the pictures the tech took this looks like something that can definitely be repaired as I'm pretty positive there won't be any resistance issues with how small of a function these wires provide to the overall electrical system. Wanted to get some thoughts on here before I go ripping off my door panel and trying to fix this to get my lock/unlock chime back. Does anyone know if these wires control any other functions of the car besides that? I haven't noticed anything else effected by this since that happened. I attached the pictures the tech took when he was inspecting this earlier. Thanks for the insight.

 

It should be easily spliced as long as you can reach enough of the wire to re-attach the wire ends together (or add more wire to increase the length) so the wires can be twisted together and soldered, and covered with tape or heat shrink for protection.

 

I'm an electrician, solder and heatshrink that in my sleep if I could get at least a cm either side.

 

@DomCard I'm an electrical guy. That is a 10 minute fix tops. If you are not a DIY person, go to a local audio enthusiast store and they can fix that for you.

P.S. You need to find yourself a new dealership. Plus, that entire door harness can be found for <$100 on eBay.

 

Whenever I see stories like this I cringe crazy how destructive these critters are to an automobile. We have rats that lives in the ivy behind our house. Thank goodness they don't come near our house or cars. I guess I have the neighbors' cats that roam my backyard to be thankful for, but then they poop all over my yard. Hope you can easily fix this issue by splicing some cables together. But I'd be nervous to drive that car, fearing other critical wiring harness that have yet to be discovered are chewed through as well. I'm always vigilant to check for rat droppings around the house and board up all access points well.

 

I will fix it for you for a mere thousand. That’s a fraction of the cost!

All joking aside, you really should find a new dealership.

 

Sounds like there's a whole bunch of crazy mice and rats running around out-of-control in control of California!

 

So I ended up taking my door panel off and was unable to find the wires the pictures showed. Went snooping around to my fender area, jacked my car up and took the liner off and there it was just hanging down. Took me a minute to find the other end of the cut wire which looked like the tech at the dealership tried to hide from me. Twisted the split wires together and pushed my lock button and low and behold it started chirping again. Called the advisor at my dealership and told him I just fixed his $10k wire harness diagnosis for free in 30 minutes. Went to my local hardware store bought a soldering iron and some heat shrink and patched it up. Put my liner back in place and got it back on the road. Didn't see any other sign of mice intrusion while I was in there either which made me happy to see. Thanks for the info on here everyone.

 

P.S. this was the Lexus in Glendale. I will absolutely be using a different dealership from now on for my services.

 

 

Well there's your problem. Glendale dealerships are notorious for that kind of stuff. Wouldn't be surprised if the tech chewed through it himself. Got my fair share at Pacific BMW up the street. Never went back again. It's a bit of a drive, but the guys at Longo Lexus haven't steered me wrong.

 

Appreciate the info and will definitely give them a try for my next service. Luckily I drive about 5,000 miles a year so they will be few and far in between.

 

How does as mouse even get into the door. Are there any holes in your door panel. I've taken a part the door panel and there are no openings big enough for a mouse.

 

This was actually behind the fender liner and not in the door panel. Not sure how a mouse can get in there either as everything for the most part is covered but I guess they are pretty crafty.

 

oh ok, that makes more sense.