jdb8805

The following is a DIY for the knock sensor wire R&R, also in the 3G Garage...

Knock Sensor DIY 3G Garage #A-013

ex2k4

oh boy...another onehere!

blahsome

Count me in. Dealer's quoting $600. Has anybody successfully got any reimbursement from Acura except dealer goodwill?

ussi

iTrader: (1)

i did. i just talked to the service advisor i was cool with for a while and the service manager Ok'd it. it turned out the it wasnt the sensor or wire tho! oh well good thing i didn't spend my $$

Spryster

Hey ussi what dealer did you take it to??? I have had the same problem. I would drive to Irvine for a free replacement.

YeuEmMaiMai

lol you had bbq that day, didn't you?

BradDowies

I was told the exact same thing after the second time going to dealership for the knock sensor, except my estimate was $500. The first time they said it was fine, but the check engine light came back on a quarter mile away driving home from the dealership. When I went back they gave me the exact story and told me my warranty wouldn't cover it. It's funny how mice only eat knock sensor wires and they didn't bother to check the wiring the first time I went there. When I went to another mechanic he told me the wire had been pulled, not chewed through by a mouse. I am going to start filing a lawsuit, or least get a lawyers letter.

ussi

iTrader: (1)

^try a different dealership..maybe i got lucky but my dealership did it as 'good will'

RACINGHART03

iTrader: (2)

Oh you def got lucky lol. I do these on a regular and I have never goodwilled one! It is a bit labor intensive as the upper plenum, front injectors, t/b and some other odds and ends need to be removed.

ussi

iTrader: (1)

funny thing was that the sensor/wire wasn't even the problem! it turned out that it threw a CEL since my knock sensor wire ran through my ACM lol...oh well..i unplugged that and i was good to go

P1zzaman

iTrader: (1)

So I got a question...

I have a 2007 Acura TL, bought it 2 years ago. My engine light came on and the code referred to the knock sensor. After reading all the posts here, I am positive that rats might have chewed the cables. I didn't want to take apart the engine top so i can't see the wire.

Today, I bought a replacement harness wire. The guy said Acura knows the problem so they reinforced it. I see the wire and it's wrapped in this silver hard wrap with drawings of rats on it, assuming it's to protect against rats.

My question is, I have a 2007 Acura, I didn't see my wire, but wouldn't you think they would have put that same wire with the wrapping on the newer 3G models? Or no? Anyone know?

TL|GTX

Tiny rodents love TL

714tman

Add me to the list of victims.....damn mice. I just surrounded my car with mousetraps tonight.

R&R for me was $550. They saved the harness for me (what was left of it) and it did look like it had been chewed.

Leslie B

I just picked up my 2007 TL-S from the dealer last night. Sensor wire was some roughage for a mouse to the tune of $600- the part was under $20. From my article review, it seems that this problem has been ongoing with Acura now since 2004. Replacement harness has a mouse with a line through it. Obviously they know this is a problem so it should be covered under warranty. I even paid for an extended warranty and it was useless on this bill. Maybe there is power in numbers if we all write the corp.

...only lint left in my pocket.

SG81

iTrader: (1)

if acura is aware of this problem and even made the replacement harness "mouse proof" with pics of mice, then they def should cover this

waynesta

must be swiss cheese because its sure to have holes in it!

ssmtl2nv

iTrader: (2)

had mine replaced when they did the motor recently, the wire itself was 20 bucks and the labor cost $$$$$, thank god it was covered.

NWF6153

Add me to the list, I have the CEL for the knock sensor, rats chewed up my accord's fuel injector wires, so I pretty sure they got the TL's wires too. I am going to do the r&r myself, screw the dealer.

NWF6153

I took the intake manifold and the other required components off and replaced the knock sensor and the wiring harness. It took me about 4 1/2 hours due to the buried location of the knock sensor and how tight it was in there. I took out the rest of the air intake pipes because it was just too difficult to do with them in, it was easy to take them out and it exposed the sensor fully.
I found a rat's nest and other evidence of Ratville in my engine bay.
My car runs so so so much better than it did. Mileage is up from 19 to 32 and the horsepower is great. I love to drive my car again. There is no hesitation and my car is back to its old self. I have not gotten to see the full effects of the K&N air filter I installed until now.
I am ecstatic. I used the DIY literature from here, thanks, and some good ole Marine Corps know how.

Now, how do I keep the rats out?

mobilizer

Hey how did you get the intake pipes off -mine are stuck on good. I snapped the KS while trying to get the harness connector off so now I have to replace it and I don't think I can get it out without removing the rest of the intake pipes. Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

NWF6153

The knock sensor broke in half when I pulled the harness off also, like it was ready to fall apart. The bottom half of the sensor is in there really tight. I tried for a while to get it out without taking off the lower piping as well, but it is impossible, considering the limited room to work and how tight the sensor is in there.
Be sure that all the bolts are out on the lower piping, there is a hidden bolt on the driver's side of each half of the tubing, it is just out of sight.
Once I got the pipes off, it was still very difficult to get the sensor out, you need exactly the right socket or thin profile wrench. If you dont have either one of those items (like me)..here is what I did;
I used a small pair of vice grips facing strait down, exactly perpendicular to the face of the sensor body, I got the best grip possible without touching the block...then got a crescent wrench adjusted to the size of the vice grips handle and used the crescent to generate the torque required to turn the vice grips. Holding the vice grips over center was important and it was kind of a balancing act, but it will worked.
I looked all over for a better way, there is nothing else to remove when you are down that far and getting a good grip on what is left of the sensor was impossible.

Good luck. Improvise , adapt, overcome. USMC helicopters had many challenges just like that. Mechanics are mechanics and bolts are bolts, no matter what they are threaded into.

NWF6153

I got mouse proof wiring as well, $4.00 from the dealer. Maybe mice can read, or it tastes bad, worse than wires?! Start counting the days until the CEL is back on.

mobilizer

Hey thanks NWF6153 - it was the hidden bolt that was the problem with getting the intake pipes off. I got the new sensor and mouse/rat proof harness from Acura and put everything back together but now I have a rough idle and the CEL light comes on and is FLASHING. Haven't taken it for a drive due to the flashing CEL. Do you have (or anyone) have any idea what I might have done wrong? Did I forget to connect a sensor? Did I not push the injectorr/fuel-rail in hard enough? Thanks in advance for any help.

NWF6153

I photographed every connection that I removed, so that I could count and see every connection going back on.

You definitely missed something. Even with all that I did, I missed the biggest wiring harness connection on the intake.
Its got to be an electrical connection or a vacuum connection, there are several vacuum connections under the driver's side inlet portion of the intake. I believe that there are 11 connections that I loosed total. You may have loosed a separate connection to get access to the intake.
Seriously, be deliberate and count and re-count all the connections, you may have to take it apart again to be sure, but you can see all the connections from above.
I have some additional DIY literature that I got from the board if you need to reference it, it goes connection by connection, it may help.
Good luck and let me know how it turns out.

mobilizer

Okay - All external sensors and vacuum lines were properly attached (I took pictures too) so I had to take it apart again to have a look at the fuel rail/injectors and it turned out that I had not fully connected one of the injector electrical connections. Put it all together and it runs like a charm.

What I learned from this is that one bad injector can cause a flashing CEL and misfire codes. I also learned that I'm a bonehead and should triple check everything to save me from myself.

One last note - I noticed on my test drive that the brake pedal is good and hard when you first press it but if you continue to apply pressure (at a stop light for example), the pedal slowly starts to move further and further down. I don't remember it being that way but could be that I'm hyper aware now. Could this be a vacuum leak?

NWF6153

An actual Acura mechanic could tell you for certain, but alot of brake booster systems pull vacuum from the intake area.

Good work on the injector connection.

vpforever

I just had my car at the dealer for the same harness problem. The dealer quoted me $369. Told me it was a rat issue and has found actual dead rats in other people's cars. I called another dealer just to verify and get a quote from them and they told me it was $600 to do the job. He said they would have to REPLACE the harness and it was a lot of work. Those of you that are getting the $600 quote, I think your dealers are replacing your harness. I really don't know how much work this entails, but I know the original dealer placed a SUBHARNESS in (I don't remember the exact terms the manager used). The manager says it works just the same. Something you can try doing as well or asking your dealer to do.

Something else you should know is that all of the new harnesses acura has now have RAT POISON on them. So hopefully it was a preventative measure.

nfnsquared

Where did you hear this?

Doesn't make any sense. Rat poison may kill the rat, but only after it has already chewed through the harness. More likely the harnesses have been reformulated and the material that previously enticed the rats has been removed.

schmidt2k4

Just got my car back from the shop, the engine light came on, so I took it in, the codes showed knock sensor, and bank1 and bank2 o2 sensor...it turned out that my battery was just dying, so no new o2 sensor. However, the mechanic took me back in the shop and showed me where my knock sensor wire was chewed in half...they are going to sodder it back together for $115. Not too bad... If I would have taken it to the dealership, they would have bent me over. If anyone lives in the Greenville, SC area, Espicially Honda on Hwy123 is the best place to get your car fixed.

cdp5095

i took my 04 tl to the shop to get some stuff change, and the next morning i went and the mechanic told me that a mouse or something was chewing on my engine harness.. thank god he was able to repair the wires or if not that woudlve been a couple hundred dollars.

Cedric_N

I've had rats chew through the knock sensor wire twice. Now they chose to chew threw the VSA wire so I have no traction control on my 04 TL. For those of you who say "what kind of TL owner has rats in their car" ... I live in the city near restaurants which have dumpsters. Also, I've confirmed the wires were chewed by my own eyes...
I've tried everything from spraying ammonia on the hood liner, under the hood, to putting socks full of cayenne pepper in the engine compartment. (Obviously where it doesn't get hot.) Rats supposedly hate these ingredients, yet today I found more rat droppings in my engine.
I am so over this as I have tried almost everything out there including electric fences around the car to electric rat traps to poisons and repellents to lighting under the car with 500 watt flood lights....NOTHING WORKS.
On all these threads I have read I have not seen one solution to the problem....so it looks like I won't have a knock sensor or VSA anytime soon. For the rest of you who have this problem I empathize but I think we just have to realize there will always be a check engine light on.

debrujr

Apparently my car has the same issue. I am picking up the harness from the dealer today for $9 and fixing it this weekend. Did everyone that repaired it replace their Knock Sensor as well? My car has 60K on it so I had debated on doing it while I was in there...

Cedric_N

I'm just curious if the new harness has extra protective layers like wire meshing around the cable like previous posts / threads have suggested. Also, I doubt your sensor is bad for 60k but it's a huge pain to change the harness so you may want to take that into consideration and replace it if the sensor is cheap.

cdp5095

i have an 04 tl and i took it to the shop and a mouse chewed on the engine harness luckly it wasnt deep and the mechanic fixed it up

debrujr

I am picking it up after work so I will post a pic of the new one. It kind of bothers me that the problem has been known for a while but the 07-08 didn't have the anit-rodent harness installed. I threatened to splice it back togethar but for a $10 part it's woth it to go new OEM.

debrujr

Here you go. It looks like it is normal wire with a typical casing but it is wrapped in a form of tape that is a grey color with little mice on it that have an X on their back.

Cedric_N

Thanks so much. Did you buy this from Acura or a Honda dealer?

debrujr

I picked it up from my loacal Acura dealer. They keep them in stock if that tells you anything...... I assume you could buy the same thing from Honda with that part number.

cmorris

Acura RL 2005 - just had to replace the wiring harness and knoc sensor. Dealer said 4 hours at $120/hour. I ordered the parts - $56. My boyfriend did the work in 2 hours - yes, the intake had to come off. Now I have 2 more error lights - VSA and All Wheel Drive lights going off - this was a really hungry mouse. He's dead now by way of lots of poison packets in the garage! He had the makings of a nest laying just under the gas lines. Oh, and the new wiring harness came wrapped in anti-mouse tape!!!! - it had pictures of mice with a line thru them! So covered by manufacturer's warranty sounds like they knew over the years - mice like these wiring harnesses - so why now - years later are they just now starting to cover the wiring harness in mouse resistant tape?!

debrujr

The wrap still doesn't fix it if they are persistent.

Exhibit A: