Tom, why not sue the Rodents...they did the damage, or the owners who didn't put out rat bait? I've had those critters eat leather seat upholstery, carpeting and make nests in air filters. Never a pleasant discovery or smell and learned early on "Black Cat" rat bait around a garage make them run for water, which dehydrates and leaves nothing but some fuzz. Comes in a pet proof plastic housing. You can find it in the rat department of Ace hardware.

Edit: Rats/mice have eaten wiring insulation in cars for the past 100 years. I don't know what the insulation was made of back in the day.

 

I'm sorry if you think I am wasting space posting this. Yes there has always been issues with rodents. What I've read, however, suggests that the new wiring insulation is greatly exacerbating the issue. Here's an example.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/lo...ry/news/local/michigan/oakland/2018/05/07/rats-rodents-cars-vehicles/578398002/

I live in a semi-rural area and don't have a garage. I'm glad your solution works for you. If you scan the forums here for rodent damage you will find many people have tried lots of approaches with limited success.

But my main purpose of the post was to see if anyone had heard of any actions similar to the Toyota situation regarding Subaru (or other car makers).

 

First I’ve heard of it.... and hadn’t heard of anything for Subaru.

Now, it IS somewhat funny that a lawyer in CA is the one representing the plaintiff that is suing Toyota for making their wire insulation out of a soy based product.

The lawyer sounds like he wears a cheap polyester suit and has an office next to a laundromat at a strip mall.

“He said he has heard that in the past, rats periodically chewed through wires in vehicles for nesting materials and to sharpen their teeth. But, he said, "we think the addition of soy in the insulation has taken the episode of rats chewing through the wires through the roof."

Kabateck said while Toyota claims this is not more likely to happen with soy-based than petroleum-based products "we continue to have a hard time believing that" based on the number of people calling the firm and its own investigation, including talking to service employees and others at dealerships.

He didn't have a specific number of people impacted, but said it's possibly "tens of thousands affected." “
​

“We think”.... “have a hard time believing”.... yeah, this one is hoping to settle out of court for small bills.

 

Yeah, no kidding. I saw that exchange as well. I asked my service mgr about the wiring question when I picked up the car and he said yes he'd heard about it but didn't have any further information. It wouldn't have an impact on the frequency of interior damage unless the wiring helped attract them. That seems a little much to assume. But I can believe that it makes the wiring more appealing to chew. If it is true, it will be an example of unintended consequences of trying to move to a more environmentally friendly product (which I support).

 

I was selling a Pilot back to the dealer recently and the salesman brought up the subject when he told me Honda does not use soy based anything and that I should consider replacing my Outback with a Honda. The Pilot may have been less tasty but I didn't like it enough to switch.

 

I have had a half-dozen Hondas, and if they are not using soy-based anything then they must be using cheeseburger-based material, cuz the rats ate up an air intake plenum. Maybe the salesman was telling the truth (pause for laughter), and Honda does not use soy based anything.

 

Viable solution: Duct tape a couple of Black Cat plastic cartridges (refillable) on an under hood fender or wherever; got to be more delectable than wiring insulation. You cannot put out a fire without killing the source of the fire as it will re-ignite.

EDIT: Tom if you are going to leave the car out again, while you are out of town, Just saw this ad, tape it under the hood...??:

Ultrasonic Pest Reject

 

If i'm not mistaken, there are far cheaper units available. Learned of these type devices on Scotty Kilmer's Youtube channel. Seems very good ,and some models can be wired for car use, by using a 9v battery, which obviously we need for car application.

 

It’s sometimes hard to stop those little buggers! Dad had a mid 1980s Ford that mice chewed the wires and it eventually caught on fire and burned up. I’ve had squirrels chew through a car battery charger wire while it was on the car charging the battery.

 

It’s sometimes hard to stop those little buggers! Dad had a mid 1980s Ford that mice chewed the wires and it eventually caught on fire and burned up. I’ve had squirrels chew through a car battery charger while it was on the car charging the battery.

@Squirrel!

 

Personally, I think we should sue everyone.

Now, before you tune out, hear me out.

I think suing everyone, and every company, will solve our problems, all of them. Someone cuts you off in traffic? Sue them. You get in a car accident? Sue the radio station for playing a good song during rush hour, thus distracting you.

Or maybe sue the civil engineer for not making the grade 15 degrees rather than 14.5 degrees which may have resulted in an accident.

I'd like to file a lawsuit against everyone to cover all the stuff that happens everywhere, all the time.

But before I do that, maybe I'll move for a preliminary injunction against everyone to prevent more stuff from happening during the adjudication of my main lawsuit.

Yeah, that's what I am going to do. Me v. Everyone et. al. That's it.

Stuff happens? Sue someone. Doesn't matter who. Just sue them. That will get their attention.

Got no case, no facts, no theory, no chance of winning? Sue them anyway, I say.

Sue them till they bleed.

How much did they make in profits last year? Well, we'd better sue them for making so much money. Because we KNOW that the more money people have, the more likely they're guilty of something, right?

Maybe if we sue everyone people will wake up and realize that they have an obligation to make sure that stuff doesn't happen to me.

See, suing everyone sounds good doesn't it?

Well, this raises the interesting issue of where to hold a trial when you sue everyone, never mind who would sit on the jury since the potential jurors would be part of the defendant class. Well, I think I'll have to file a companion lawsuit naming the founders of our country for not foreseeing my need to sue everyone. Yeah, that's it.

So, sue em all. That's the answer. It's the American way.

If I could sue everybody, I would. Maybe then people would wake up and take responsibility for the stuff that JUST HAPPENS to me. It ain't my fault, I know that. I'm the victim, and I want to sue someone.

Where's my Yellow Pages?

 

Well, I think I'll have to file a companion lawsuit naming the founders of our country for not foreseeing my need to sue everyone. Yeah, that's it.

I'm too lazy to go through all that work with suing everybody. I'll wait it out and if you are successful on this one I will just stand in line to receive my share of the reparations that will be due me.

 

The soy-based wire insulation is a direct result of federal mandates to reduce and meet production emissions target.... everyone wants a green environment.....this is one example of cause and affect...... the rodents have been doing damage to crops, buildings, food stores, causing illness for thousands of years..... and will continue to do so and no lawsuit is going to change that. If the insurance lobby, who has the greatest to gain, couldn’t influence change, no amount of class action lawyers will.... there’s been more than 20-years of unsuccessful lawsuits against Toyota and others regarding mice damage.

Also, IF a class action lawsuit were to be successful, the “plaintiff class” wouldn’t get much.....the many law firms working on the action would get the lion share of any proceeds.... the “plaintiff class” would get maybe $100 each if that....for their troubles.

If ya live in a rodent prone area, it’s incumbent upon people to deploy countermeasures

 

If ya live in a rodent prone area, it’s incumbent upon people to deploy countermeasures

My recommendation also - check out for example the creature you see in my avatar; this breed is especially effective catching mice.

 

I tried spraying coyote urine or something like it, around the car each night but neighbours complained of the epic smell. For us the issue is rabbits, especially in April when they wake from hibernation, starving as hell, with little food around. At least ten vehicles on my street suffered wiring damage two years ago. The guy at the garage told me to put out a bird feeder in the area, that will keep critters from looking for tastier foods. Seems to work.

 

I tried spraying coyote urine or something like it, around the car each night but neighbours complained of the epic smell. For us the issue is rabbits, especially in April when they wake from hibernation, starving as ****, with little food around. At least ten vehicles on my street suffered wiring damage two years ago. The guy at the garage told me to put out a bird feeder in the area, that will keep critters from looking for tastier foods. Seems to work.

Depending on the area you live in, bird feeders are not good. BEARS love them.
Get a fox in your area. Foxes love to eat those critters that eat our car wires.

 

The only winners in most class action lawsuits are the lawyers.

 

I remember a class action against block buster or Netflix a long time ago. Forgot which. They had a nasty little habit of offering free trial memberships. They required a credit card. When you went to cancel the membership, they would refuse and continued to charge it each month.
The customers who were defrauded WON THE CASE. ? YIPPY! JUSTICE HAS PREVAILED!!
Did they get their $ back? No.
Then what DID the people get for winning the case? A FREE one month membership to Netflix......just give them your credit card # pin and SS #s.
BTW, the lawyers for the people who were ripped got millions...I forgot but think it was tens of millions. ????

I got robbed by both of those companies when they committed that crime back then. However, I was not part of that suit.
My horrible bank refused to block Blockbuster and Netflix charges when we were going through that fraud. I kept contacting the bank and reporting the companies. The bank refused to do anything about it so I closed the account.
The bank also committed fraud as they demanded payment, fees, interest even though we kept informing them of fraud taking place. Closed the account with the evil bank, then their lawyers sued me for refusing payment for not allowing the bank to rip me off with fraudulent charges. These were big time high paid bankster attorneys BTW.

Short of a stressful ordeal about crooked attorneys being the only winners in many class actions is.....

I won the case twice! Why twice? The banksters sued again.
Why did I keep winning? My Councillor is the BEST in the state! Far better than the banksters councillors.
Mine didn't charge me a dime either. He happens to be my best Friend. I am very grateful to Him and will never do business with Netflix again. Last I heard, Blockbuster fell into a pit and WENT UNDER.

My Friend said the following to me when we won the case:

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

Isaiah 54:17

 

actions regarding Subaru. Car insur

I'm suing Adam and Eve

 

Get a cat

 

Get as snake

Also, how overdue is that 10.0 as of 2020?

 

We should start suing the suers for wasting valuable court time on idiocy.

 

There are several threads here related to damage from mice / rodents. I'm in New Mexico and left my car at my house for a week. When I came back, the car started right up but all the warning lights were on / flashing. Mouse (or something) chewed and broke the wire to the temperature sensor which caused the cascade of warnings. Expensive to repair, but it's working now. I've looked into this a bit and found articles about manufacturers moving to a soy-based material (rather than petroleum) for wire insulation. Turns out that seems to make the wires more attractive to rodents (makes sense). I've heard that this may affect Japanese cars more than others, but I don't know if that's true.

There's a class action suit against Toyota winding its way through the courts that at least a part of the damage should be covered under warranty. I'm curious if anyone has heard anything about an actions regarding Subaru. Car insurance covers this, I believe, but for me the deductible ($500) would be most of the $700 cost.

Just curious.

Tom

I live near Chicago, Illinois and the majority of the time our Subaru is in the garage. This past week we parked it in the driveway, and yesterday morning I started the car and could not turn the steering wheel. We had it towed to the dealer and low and behold, the wires were chewed up by rodents. I have owned Subarus for 10 years, and this was a brand new 2020 Outback that we have owned for 7 months. The research I did confirmed that the wire insulation are now soy plant based which are attractive to rodents. $1500 worth of damage! The dealer told us to put dryer sheets under the hood. Other advice I got was to spray with essential oil peppermint spray. Not a perfect remedy. This is a big problem and there is no guarantee it won't happen again.

 

Hi Betsy,
I also own a 2020 outback and live in a relatively small city with no mice or rats. Just squirrels and chipmunks. This has happened to my outback 3 times since I purchased it at the end of May. I have tried everything, rodent repellent under the hood, sprays, pebbles, dryer sheets, you name it. It’s not an issue with my property, as it does not happen to the other 6 cars parked in my lot. Has this happened to you again since this first incident? Any preventative measures that I did not list that have helped you?

 

I don’t recall it being mentioned here, but there are devices the purportedly emit sounds that are irritating To rodents

 

lol this cracks me up...

morons want environmentally friendly wiring that is degradable
morons complain when rodents eat their wires
morons want to sue car company for using said wire even though the car company had the use of it mandated to them

 

Bingo
Bingo
Bingo

 

What's that old adage? First you shoot all the lawyers....

 

There are several threads here related to damage from mice / rodents. I'm in New Mexico and left my car at my house for a week. When I came back, the car started right up but all the warning lights were on / flashing. Mouse (or something) chewed and broke the wire to the temperature sensor which caused the cascade of warnings. Expensive to repair, but it's working now. I've looked into this a bit and found articles about manufacturers moving to a soy-based material (rather than petroleum) for wire insulation. Turns out that seems to make the wires more attractive to rodents (makes sense). I've heard that this may affect Japanese cars more than others, but I don't know if that's true.

There's a class action suit against Toyota winding its way through the courts that at least a part of the damage should be covered under warranty. I'm curious if anyone has heard anything about an actions regarding Subaru. Car insurance covers this, I believe, but for me the deductible ($500) would be most of the $700 cost.

Just curious.

Tom

I just had my MAPI harness eaten through by rodents. $2,000 repair job on my 2021 Outback XT Touring. Luckily I have $100 deductible on comprehensive insurance. Insurance companies should form.

The soy-based wire insulation is a direct result of federal mandates to reduce and meet production emissions target.... everyone wants a green environment.....this is one example of cause and affect...... the rodents have been doing damage to crops, buildings, food stores, causing illness for thousands of years..... and will continue to do so and no lawsuit is going to change that. If the insurance lobby, who has the greatest to gain, couldn’t influence change, no amount of class action lawyers will.... there’s been more than 20-years of unsuccessful lawsuits against Toyota and others regarding mice damage.

Also, IF a class action lawsuit were to be successful, the “plaintiff class” wouldn’t get much.....the many law firms working on the action would get the lion share of any proceeds.... the “plaintiff class” would get maybe $100 each if that....for their troubles.

If ya live in a rodent prone area, it’s incumbent upon people to deploy countermeasures

Rodents are through my MAPI wire harness on my 2021 Outback XT Touring. I was never advised of the soy problem with the wire housing. $2,000 repair. Luckily I have a $100 comprehensive deductible. Now I spray peppermint oil inside the hood and in the engine every 2 weeks. I rarely park outside my garage now. My garage is air tight. Every Subaru should come with a disclaimer that the wire harnesses are made of a soy derivative and is at risk for being eaten by Rodents. This should be a required disclaimer given to potential buyers prior to purchase!

 

I recently had a flying squirrel that decided to move into my living room for three days. Not really relevant to this discussion but I was wondering if I could sue it for rent or something.

 

Not relevant or helpful, and definitely not funny.

Having rodents eat through critical wire harnesses made of Soy is expensive, time consuming and dangerous when it can disable every safety system in the vehicle including the turbo when it is the MAPI wire harness.

 

Not relevant or helpful, and definitely not funny.

It is my understanding that it is at least one of the three.

 

Do we know for a fact that those particular wires are coated with soy bioplastic?

 

Yes it is my understanding that all wire harnesses in 2020... Subarus are coated in soy bioplastic. Rodents love it.

 

How did you come to that understanding? Is it just "they use bioplastics these days" or is there an actual way to know which wires if any are soy bioplastic?

 

My understanding is that all Subarus 2020 and newer have bioplastic wire harness casing. I experienced the rodents eating my MAPI wire harness. All of the wire casings look to be made of the same material. Rodents love it.