jazzpicker

I disagree, there is a difference in being cheap and being screwed. I don't think anyone that drives an Acura product should be accused of being cheap although we do get screwed sometimes.
It seems there is a documented problem that something is chewing through wires and for some strange reason, mostly the same wires. If rats/bats/whatever are chewing through the same wires and costing customers $300+ to replace a $5.00 wire, Acura should make a change to the insulation, add a cover to the wire and just make an effort to resolve this problem. It's only good business practice to correct something that is recurrent and expensive to the customer.
I detect a bit of anger in your post and this seems common in the car business. I just took a several thousand dollar loss in trading in a 2nd gen TL because of Acura's tranny issues but I remain a loyal customer hoping to see positive changes in the future.
Maybe if an Acura engineer would take a little time and design something to protect the engine knock sensor wire you would have fewer pissed off customers and sell a few more cars.
BTW, I'll pass on the meatball idea.

acura_service

maybe because i see this in every car mfg out there, also the accessability may be in the right area or path of climbing for a rodent, still not a defect in workmanship or materials also remember how powerfull a rats sense of smell is, have you ever smelled a vinyl decal? or a new tire, i guess i wouldn't eat it, but sounds like rodents seem to like it. wires being chewed is a very common problem with all mfg's like i said i have seen it time and time again from where i work with:

lexus
cadillac
gmc
toyota
hyundai
mitsubishi
oldsmobile
mercedes benz
honda
acura
volvo
chrysler
jeep


i'm telling you mothballs work put a couple in the engine compartment and a couple under the car

acura_service

yes but you don't see customers day in and day out, not acura people in general, but the general public,

i have seen ripped and i mean ripped seat covers, i swear its just coming apart, what you expect me to pay for that, thats a defect

scrapes on a bumper, look the paint is just coming off, what you expect me to pay for that thats a defect

crack in windshield from stone chip that spreads, what do you mean thats not covered. why should i pay for that

the best one, worn out tires, those were like that when i bought it..........you mean sir you bought the car brand new with no miles and the tires were worn out, yet you continued to drive for another 17,000 miles and they stopped wearing and they are in the condition they are in now from all that time........yes thats what i'm saying


not acura people in general, all kinds of service people, alot of the general public no matter what they drive say almost anything, and after 18 years, i haven't heard it all, but i've heard alot

i'm so glad i don't have to deal with that anymore

jazzpicker

Acura Service,
I understand that you see all kind of crap trying to get over on the warranty scam but when a problem causes as much concern as this maybe you should look at the customer's side of things. Broken windshields and torn seats are bullshit but when a pattern emerges (as this one has) maybe it has some credibility and is worth investigating.
I have a big list of cars in my history and never had one single car part eaten by any kind of starving, cold animal although I did run over a deer once.
LOL, Sorry, I was starving with food on the brain when I misread your post and was thinking why the hell would you put meatballs under the hood but now I see you typed mothballs. That sounds a bit better but I do feel sorry for the moths....

lbbrando

Come on. It's not Acura's fault the rodents chewed the wires and it wasn't a factory defect, stop the false sence of hope here.
If they do cover it or give you a break be sure to thank them.

ayethetiense

acura_service....

let me ask you a simple question..... has this ever happened to your brand new car?

how hard is it for acura to wrap the wires better? im not sure if its true that the wrapping on it now is made of a soy base or what not. but why is it usually the knock sensor wire? there are a bunch of other wires there right?

i can't even begin to tell you how bad a certain acura service at a dealership has been to me. they keep giving me the run around, and when i finally tell them how ive been helped at other locations, they own up and give me half assed service anyway.

i understand that you are frustrated, but so are we! i pay over 35k for a car and i get treated like shit! tell me thats fair?

a reply to post 115... you think its cheap that we pay 35k for a car then get stuck with a 400 to 600 bill right after for a damn wire. i understand that its not a manufacturer's defect, but we also didnt do shit like put a 100 watt light bulb near the wire and point our fingers at a rat.
you wana talk about cheap? how about acura spending a little cash to do some R&D on trying to find a way so that rodents dont get to the wires. wrap em in a sheath of thin metal. apply a substance that discourages rodents to get to it. cover the damn wires up in a plastic box maybe? o thats right.... then we wouldnt be charged about 450 on labor to repair a wire that cost about 20 bucks... where is my business sense going??!?!?! acura techs would lose a bunch of business to this 'normal problem'

to post 116.... how come they cant fix rattles? id say about 80 percent of the people that have brought their cars in for rattles get it back with nothing fixed. ive brought mine in on 3 seperate occasions.... they cant fix the rattles. they cant find it.... thats supposed to tell me that an acura tech knows more then an outside shop? when i got my wires fixed, the outside shop wrapped em in shrink wrap so that the wire covers would not be exposed. when i took it to the acura dealership the first time for the problem, i asked them if they can cover it up with something and they just kinda laughed and said no, flat out. so i asked 'what if it were to just happen again'..... 'then we'll just have to fix it again, it should cost about the same'

to 117.... my parking area is clean. its outside in a nice community in irvine on my damn driveway. leaves and grass are cut and cleaned up.

to 120..... im not asking for something ridiculus like a guy with a rat trap watching my car 24 hours a day... just for acura to take a step and help better protect its customers.

to 123... if you bought a new car and the leather started cracking less then 2 weeks into it, would you be ok with that? if you bought a semi-luxury car and it rattled like a damn rattle snake, would you be happy? would you even expect that? what if i told you that a service tech's solution was 'just turn up the radio'... or maybe if your headliner fell (cause you know everyone does a modification to make it look cooler) is that ok too in a new car? what about the vibrations that people are having?

bottom line.... rat chews wire, customer gets stuck with the bill, acura techs have work to do and get paid, acura design doesnt spend a small amount of money to R&D on a solution, and your shit has never been messed up by a rat! and even if it did, i'd bet that you woudnt have to pay as much as we did to fix it.

please reply to every response i have sincerely given. thanks!

alextclam

i am in the IT field and also work on jobs on the side to make extra $$. let's say you hired me for a $35,000 job to pull network data cables to 100 computer workstation locations and to do other misc computer related stuff. 4 months after the work is completed some rats chew up some of your data cable. you do some research and find out the cable i used was made of some type of material that attracts rodents. you call me to come in for repairs. i come in to rerun cables to replace the damaged ones. i use the same exact cable made from the same material. i charge you $5000 for the repairs and tell you it's not my problem deal with it. you ask me to install some troughs to protect the cable and i laugh in your face. you ask me what if it happens again and i just tell you oh well... i'll just have to rerun the cable at your expense.

tell me how you feel about this?

alextclam

btw, i took my car in to service listening to a dvd-a disc. now i can't play dvd-a discs and regular cds keeps starting from the 1st track when i start up the car.

i have a really strong feeling when i bring it in to service they're going to tell me it's another chewed up cable that they did not find during the first diagnostic test.

Bucky O

Ayethetiense,

You are dead on balls correct, and I feel the same way you do.

Acura_service,
Your pompous attitude blows, and if that's the attitude YOU take with customers, it's no wonder that people in general DON'T like dealing with dealer service departments. Maybe it's no big deal to you...if this "rodent problem" does happen to you, YOU have the means to fix it yourself. WE, THE GENERAL PUBLIC, DO NOT.
ACURA F'ed up on this....and they need to take notice.

PS: Did I mention that your attitude sucks???

ayethetiense

hey! what the hell! where is acura_service? he has not kindly responded to my statements.... its been a day hasnt it??????

aiia

I had a '96 infiniti i30 and the holes carry my windshield fluid got chew to the extend that I thought I had a little monster under the hood. Other wires are too hard to chew on. I don't know if the fluid attracts the rat or something, but I had to replace the whole set of new holes. Just let you know that rat does chew holes for some reasons.

dj5

I believe Honda/Acura has fabricated this mouse chewing on wires in order to cover a defective wire. I don't believe that a mouse chewed on the wire. The defective wire looks like it was scrapped with something sharp. The insulation was missing for a one inch area along with half of the copper wiring.

There is a similiar problem at the www.odyclub.com forum.

Honda should step up and admit they have a defective wire and cover under warranty.

rets

It's weird to see the mice chewing that I30's windshield fluid holes. Besdies Honda/Acura, does anyone know any other cases?

alextclam

i just sent a mass e-mail w/ an attachment of my invoice to all my friends regarding this issue. i'd say in 24 - 48 hours it should hit well over a million people. now everytime someone shops for a '05 TL they will be bringing up this rat issue with their sales person. haha

ayethetiense

i work at a bank and i was telling one my customers about my problem. he told me that his wife's M-class bens had the same problem. cost her over a G to fix. yikes, even more!

only if i knew.... i woulda made them sign a contract so that it would be covered under my warranty.....

ayethetiense

only if i knew....

man, i woulda made em sign an agreement to cover it under my warranty or else id just walk out of there.... its really hard for them to just let you go sometimes

alextclam

exactly my intentions of this e-mail. to make everyone aware. so if someone was shopping for a new TL they could possibly have acura work out something beforehand.

ayethetiense

man, where is this guy. its been awhile.... i hope he has time from his 'busy' schedule of messin with acura customers to answer my rebuttle to his comments.....

you know what, the sad part is. i bet most of the people on this forum have not even looked at this subject.

i kno that i personally saw it a bunch of times but never looked.... until my check engine light came on. it was a long shot, but i just looked around one day for any problem what so ever....

turns out, this was it..... i clearly over looked this before i had the problem... sad to think that so many TLers are not aware of this situation

PixelHarmony

Same thing happened to me on my TSX. One day my speedometer, gas meter, and engine light all failed at the same time. I had to drive all the way back to cincinnati relying on my tac. Total cost of repairs. $1300 and one month till I got my car back. Acura dealer didn't even give me a loaner. Thank God I had a $250 deductible.

Bucky O

Acura_service,

What happened??? Cat got your tongue???

Guess the truth hurts...

You should change your handle to Acura_Lack_of_Service

dj5

The Honda rep finally called me back today. Said the dealer told him a mouse chewed on the wire and they would not cover any of the cost. He did offer a free oil change. I declined and told him I change my own oil.

I told him about this thread and they should check it out and check out the thread on the Odyssey forum.

Total cost for replacing the wire on my wife's Odyssey was $333. If it was a mouse they picked her Odyssey over my TL. I still beleive they have defective wires and American Honda is covering in with this B.S. mouse ate the wire.

TBone2004

I am so bummed - I have skipped over this thread over and over and then it dawned on me that it has never really left the top of the list - so I'm like hmmm..what could still possibly be going on in this thread...wow - sorry I missed all the fun.

Have not had this problem yet - I park in my garage, but ya never know.

Did anyone post a pic of the area where they chewed so maybe we could take preventative action ourselves?

ChrisD7351

Mine wasnt the knock sensor i dont know what wire it was but it caused my check enigine light to come on and they acura covered it with the warrenty, but they said it too was b/c of a mouse....

mickey3c

I heard that Acura was going to make an adjacent wire (to the knock sensor wire) made of catnip. In this way they can remain environmentally sound as well as eliminate some of the knock senor damage caused by rodents.

here here.. way to go!!!

ayethetiense

BUMP!!! for acura-service.... where the hell are you?

rets

This is such informative thread, please do not try to "stir the coals". IMO.


Thanks.

jamesliu

This is funny because it happened to me but I was too embarrassed to post.

My rear brake line insulation was chewed by a mouse or a rat. I just took off the remainder of the insulation. But also my check engine light came on later on that week. I took it to the dealer and found out it was my knock engine sensor. They fixed it for free and all they said it was just faulty wiring. But maybe it was a mouse that chew through the 'cheese' wire. I will post pics of the insulation I cut off if I can still find the remaining piece of the insulation.

aiia

What Do You Know!!!! Got my TL for only 4weeks and my knock engine sensor got chewed by a damn rat in the garage. Just brought to the dealer. Cost me $300. Dealer said it's not uncommon. Damn rat!

mickey3c

You have been a member since 03, which model was this 2g/3g 04/05 etc..?

go_blue

The windshield wiper fluid pump did not work. Since teh auto-dim and both side mirrior were still working, I concluded it's not the blown fuse.

Took TL to the dealer. They found that the power supply line for the pump was "chewed" by a rat/mouse. The rat/mouse also did some damage to a few other wires in the same area. (behind and below the wiper fluid reservoir). Unlike the first time when I took the car in (when the entire knock sensor wire was gone), they were able to splice the wire for the washer fluid pump, and re-tape those other wires with damage insulation.

They didn't charge me any thing this time (Last time they charged me $360). The work order said "repair faulty wiring, N/C"

Same dealership, different service advisor, though. (Maybe he felt bad for me since I already paid dearly last time)

aiia

'05 TL only 650miles on it! I'll kill those damn rats.

alextclam

i was just reading the warranties manual from acura and came across this. it says if you are not satisfied with acura's decision in repair work that was done, you may request to have your case reviewed by BBB AUTO LINE. you can file a case with them by calling 800-955-5100. i haven't given up on this yet so i'll be making calls. i hope everyone that had to pay out of their pocket also files a case with them so it makes them more suspicious. this way they will put more pressure on acura. please make the call it will make a difference. thanks!

tlnyc

as a tl owner my hearts goes out to all those that had to pay out of pocket

all of you should not let this go, call the bbb! nice find alex

alextclam

i just filed a case with BBB. basically they take down all your information and ask what would you like the manufacturer to do? i didn't say i wanted my money back or anything like that. i said i want them to find a feasible solution and issue a recall. which in the end, if they do issue one we would be eligible to get reimbursed for out of pocket repairs.

please, every victimized owner should call! i was off the phone within 5 mins.

mic

Well, just got back from Acura and I now have an appointment later in the week to have my 7 month old TL fitted with a new, apparently tasty, knock sensor wire. $13 for the part and $600 to have it installed. The dealership even had the nerve to jokingly say they have people coming in all the time with the same problem.

Don't know about everyone else, but this sounds like a maintenance cash cow for my local Acura dealer. How the hell am I supposed to control the mouse population in my area. Apparently I'll need to consider this just another 6 month service interval and plan to have my car in the shop on a regular basis to have this thing replaced and fork over $600 to Acura.

I change my cars pretty frequently and have lived in the same area for a long time and I have never had a problem with rodents eating anything on my car. I'm somewhat skeptical that this is the actual cause of the problem and with Acuras apparent unwillingness to try to solve the problem.

I know it is a small thing, but I will seriously factor this experience it into my next car purchase

DarkWraith33

I'm in the "I just read this thread for the first time" crew... No problems yet, but as I live in the country, I do have the occasional mouse here or there in the attic... I think it might be time to be proactive in this fight and make sure there's a little rat poison out in the garage, JUST IN CASE. Should change name of this thread to YOU BETTER READ THIS....

DiaMondWhiteShiNingBright

LOL. I got my TL last may. I went to the Dominican Republic and when I came back my check engine light was on. The dealer told me a rat/mouse chewed through some cable in the engine and the cable cost $20 but the labor was over 4 hours. Curry Acura actually covered the cost. They said since it was my first visit, and I didn't have it for to long, they would let me slide. Curry's shown me nothing but great service so far. Scarsdale New York :0)

BTL05

Yes i agree with you that it happens with other manufacturers and from experience I can verify it happens even to luxury brand cars since I have this happened to mine since I work in a heavy wooded area. It even chewed out the firewall on the hood. But what I think people here are upset about is while Acura does not hesistate to compare itself to luxury brands such as BMW or LEXUS or INFITI, once sold and the vehicle is in the customer's possession, their service does not compare to the 'other' luxury brands. This happened twice with my other luxury car and they fixed it with no hassle under warranty. While I love the TL and Acura can be considered a luxury brand, it ranks the lowest among lexus, infiniti, bmw, MB with the public's eye. Why not change that perception and start with customer service?

Just my

KJSmitty

I would be questioning your dealer why others are paying $300-400 for this repair and you are being charged $600........?
I can understand a difference in their hourly rate, but ~$50-$75 more per hour......?
--The time alotted for this job should be consistant between dealers (say 4 hours)

mic

Sorry, my quotes are in Canadian dollars, hence the difference.