Thank you for your responses. I thought I would give an update to Rats. The car went into the dealer July 17 and I got it back August 9. They replaced the connectors on the top half of the engine and the knock sensor wiring as well as the sensors themselves. Original estimate: $759 parts and $1755 labor. The delay was caused by the first vendor being out of stock on the connectors. Since I have been having some starter issues and they were in there anyway, I had them do the starter and all hoses (Starter was $320 and hoses $603 + 1 hour labor) for a grand total of $3567 of which insurance paid $2296. The pics below show the nest.

 

Wow, what a nest. Looks like a whole family of mice were in there. Good call on changing the starter while they were in there, ya dont want to find out when it's back together that maybe that was bad also. Hoepfully everything is back to being in good shape. And for only $1270 out of pocket isn't too bad to revive an LS400 with that much damage, especially with the starter.

 

I had a nest in my cabin air duct.

What a pain that was to get out. a whole lot of insulation. so far evrything works. I hope it didnt get to the wires.

 

Oh jeeez; you're bringing back painful memories. I had the same thing happen (twice!!) to an '06 Mountaineer with a V8. The first time made the fan clutch lock up, the transmission jerk-shift, the engine-trouble lites in the dash light up, and virtually no acceleration. I couldn't even get any diag codes cause I couldn't link up with the computer. I had to take it to the dealer to trouble shoot it, and they told me what they thought it was, because you really couldn't see any damage anywhere. Know what it turned out to be? A rat/squirrel had built a nest under the intake manifold, and had chewed up my engine cylinder temp sensor leads, which apparently made the computer think the engine was overheating. That caused the fan clutch to lock up for maximum output (sounded like a jet taking off), put the engine in limp-home mode (every other cylinder was shut down), and forced the tranny to slow shift through only three (out of six) gears. I never would have believed that a break in one sensor could create all these symptoms; that was really an eye-opener.

Instead of paying them $800, I decided to tackle it myself, and sure enough, that's what I found. A year later it happened AGAIN, but in a different location; this time near the firewall, behind the A/C dryer, and they severed about a dozen wires. Boy, was I pissed. Luckily, I was able to remove the dryer, and splice all the damaged leads.

That's when I decided to go get some hardware cloth, and wrap all the critical wiring harnesses with the metal mesh, then wrap that with tape. I looked this problem up online, and found it to be really more common than you might think, and there isn't a good preventive fix. In fact, in the later model cars, it's even more of a problem, because they started making wiring more eco-friendly, using soy-based insulation. Rats love that. Even the pepper sprays, etc. are not that effective, according to the repair shops.

 

Wow. those critters sure went at it with the move in. Glad it is sorted out, maybe having a cat to patrol the area would be a good fix.

There was a lady in Paso Robles that the wife was talking with, I noticed all the cats roaming and sleeping around the house. She noticed my stare and commented that they are pest management. With 14 cats on the property, rats and mice were taken care of. That farmland area of Cen Cal has lots of critters.

 

I wonder how the rats got under the intake, I can't think where there is an opening that large

and the power of my home-made pepper spray is likely illegal, I mix it up to a wicked strength!

yeah - OP needs some cats or else a bunch of snakes!

 

Boat anchor!!!!

 

That is a great idea. Care to share your recipe?

 

get the 2oz bottle of habanero extract I linked to above

and a quart spray bottle

put the following into the empty spray bottle in order:

4 oz 91% rubbing alcohol (1/2 cup)
1/4 of the bottle of extract (1/2 oz)

fill up with distilled water and shake well

and be careful, it is like a quart of pepper spray, don't mace yourself - lol