Mice or rats chewed your car's wiring: claim, repair or sell

Start with a phone call to the insurer, then get a written repair estimate, then decide.

What insurance regulators say about animal damage

Comprehensive is the part of an auto policy built for this kind of loss. Wisconsin's Office of the Commissioner of Insurance describes it as paying for damage to your car from almost all causes other than collision, and gives fire, vandalism, falling objects and hitting an animal as examples. The same guide says most policies put hitting an animal under comprehensive, not collision (Wisconsin OCI).

Here's the catch. Neither the Wisconsin guide nor Michigan's insurance department page names rodents, and an animal you hit at speed is not the same thing as a mouse nesting under the hood. Whether your insurer treats chewed wiring as a covered loss depends on your own policy wording.

Michigan's Department of Insurance and Financial Services adds the other side: without comprehensive coverage, you could be left paying vehicle-damage repair bills yourself. Its example is a deer collision (Michigan DIFS).

And even an approved claim has a deductible. Wisconsin OCI defines it as the dollar amount you pay out of pocket on each covered claim. On a small wiring repair, that can cancel out the claim.

Questions to put to the insurer

Get answers before a shop starts cutting into harnesses:

1. Do I have comprehensive coverage on this car?
2. Does my policy cover damage from rodents or other animals chewing parts, or does it exclude it?
3. What's my deductible?
4. Do you need to inspect the car, or see photos of the nest and the chewed wires, before repairs start?
5. If the repair estimate is high, could you declare the car a total loss?

Take photos of the engine bay before anything is cleaned out, so you have a record of the nest and the chewed wires.

Soy-based wire insulation: what owners have reported

You'll find plenty online claiming that newer cars use soy-based insulation that draws rodents. What we can point to is narrower: owner complaints filed with NHTSA.

• 2012 Toyota Sequoia, about 70,000 miles. The owner says rodents chewed the wiring. The dealer diagnosed that the wiring contained soy products and had to be replaced. The owner was told the truck wasn't drivable because of the risk of an electrical fire, and it was not repaired (NHTSA complaint 10944534).
• Toyota RAV4. The owners say the wiring has soy-coated insulation, and the dealership told them the damage was from rodents (NHTSA complaint 11002293).

These are reports filed by owners. They aren't a finding that soy insulation attracts rodents, and NHTSA doesn't rule on that in a complaint. They do show two things worth knowing: a dealer may call the fix a full harness replacement, and chewed wiring can be a fire concern, not just a warning light.

Don't drive it until someone has looked

The Sequoia owner was told the truck wasn't driveable because of the risk of an electrical fire. If you've found a nest or chewed wires, have the car checked before you take it on the road, and tow it to the shop if you're unsure.

For wiring faults with other causes, see our electrical problems guide.

If the insurer totals the car

A big harness job on an older car can push a claim past the point where the insurer would rather pay out than repair. If that happens, the state's salvage rules decide what goes on the title. Here is each state's rule in brief.

A branded title follows the car into any sale, so it's worth knowing before you choose between keeping the payout and selling. Our totaled car guide walks through that choice.

Your loan can tip the decision

Still making payments? Set the payoff beside the damaged car's value. If the balance is higher, the CFPB's term for it is negative equity, which means a sale wouldn't bring enough to clear the loan. In the CFPB's example, a $10,000 balance against an $8,000 car leaves a $2,000 gap (CFPB). A big repair bill on top of that only makes the hole deeper. Our guide to selling with a loan on the car covers the payoff steps.

Repair or sell

Fixing it usually makes sense when:

• comprehensive pays the claim and the deductible is small next to the estimate
• the chewing is limited to a few wires a shop can splice or replace
• the car was in good shape before the rodents moved in

Selling as it sits is worth a look when:

• the insurer denies the claim, or you have no comprehensive coverage
• the shop quotes a full harness replacement
• the car won't run, or isn't safe to drive with the wiring as it is
• the estimate matches or beats the car's value

If your car has been sitting a long time, our guide to a car that's sat for years covers the other problems that build up.

Selling a rodent-damaged car to us

We buy whole non-running and junk cars, chewed wiring included. You sell the whole car as it sits, nest and all, with no need to repair the harness first. There's free pickup anywhere in the US.

To price it, send the odometer reading and model details, say if the engine turns over, what the shop or dealer found, and whether the insurer has made a decision.

Questions first? Call (877) 421-6008.