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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?!
Curious, did the vsa harness come rat resistant also or just the knock sensor harness?
Not a good day. I just got back from dealership after indicator light went on. Darn rats love our Acuras. Dealership quoted me $580 to replace the 'rat eaten' sensor harness and knock sensor. The service advisor said it would be about $50 less if knock sensor doesn't break during the process.
It also turns out that the rat (or one of his/her buddies) bit thru the wire that causes the lock chime (when you press the button twice to lock the car). To solder that wire together, they want $260 or more than $1000 to replace the harness. I opted to remove the air filter box myself and repair this one.
Did anyone get anywhere with writing to Acura/Honda Corporate? My dealership (Niello Acura) did not offer much 'goodwill' to me, unless you count that the dealer will show me the area where the (chime) wire needs to be soldered.
Whats up everyone, Unfortunately I am victim as well. Twice. The first time this happened to me was last year. I paid a local guy 375, but he ended messing up my rack and pinion. And it happened today again. Im considering doing it myself. I see theres a DIY here. Im gng to study the instructions a bit. I want to know whats the longest anyone has driven the car with the CEL on due to the knock sensor, Just in case I decide to take it to Acura, it wont be until another month, I dont want to drive the car like that if its going to affect other things.. Thanks
Are you doing it yourself? the acura dealer? or a regular shop? My light has been on for the past week. Im thinking of doing it myself ..I already paid 400 bux last year. Theres a good DIY in here that will help
Originally Posted by DimwitRj
I'm in the process of changing my knock sensor harness right now. Damn those mice.
Not a good day. I just got back from dealership after indicator light went on. Darn rats love our Acuras. Dealership quoted me $580 to replace the 'rat eaten' sensor harness and knock sensor. The service advisor said it would be about $50 less if knock sensor doesn't break during the process.
It also turns out that the rat (or one of his/her buddies) bit thru the wire that causes the lock chime (when you press the button twice to lock the car). To solder that wire together, they want $260 or more than $1000 to replace the harness. I opted to remove the air filter box myself and repair this one.
Did anyone get anywhere with writing to Acura/Honda Corporate? My dealership (Niello Acura) did not offer much 'goodwill' to me, unless you count that the dealer will show me the area where the (chime) wire needs to be soldered.
I did it myself, took me a few hours because I had to run to the dealer and parts store. I didn't expect that it was actually the wire. Also I didn't even use a DIY, it's pretty straight forward what you need to remove to get to it. I'm sure if it happens again, I can do it in 1/4 the time.
Originally Posted by el.profe
Are you doing it yourself? the acura dealer? or a regular shop? My light has been on for the past week. Im thinking of doing it myself ..I already paid 400 bux last year. Theres a good DIY in here that will help
I just brought my '04 TL in for maintenance and because the check engine light was on. The service guy told me the engine light was on because a mouse chewed "the knock sensor wire." He said this was common in MDX's and older generation TL's. It's going to cost me over $300 to have it replaced. The wire itself is under $20 and the rest is labor.(over 4 hrs) Has anyone heard of this happening before? Does the repair cost sound high? He said he was going to show me the chewed wire.
i just had the exact same thing happen to my 09 tacoma, it seems the manufacturers have been using wires with soy based wire coverings (made in china i might add) which the rodents can smell and being predisposed to chew anyway, is a recipe(no pun intented) for impending doom for you wiring harness.
the insurance company will sometimes cover this, but, i think as a pre existing condition, should be covered by your warranty. i'm having a meeting tommorrow with the dealership and insurance company. the biggest problem now is that my vehicle has a bumper to bumper warranty, and if the dealer and insurance company can't aggree on a labor price the insurance company will try and send me somwhere else, which in turn could void my warranty.
I have had a"chewed" wire for the last year or so (just put up with the damn CEL light). A friend of mine an his buddy took apart the intake manifold and replaced the damaged stuff in less then an hour and we only needed the new wire ($6.15). Don't go to a dealership, those guys are scamming people.
In one of these threads on the knock sensor wire replacement, someone mentioned a way to replace the wire by pulling the PS pump & not having to pull the intake manifold. Anyone have more info on this?
Got a vehicle with a chewed-up wire harness? It’s
probably the work of rodents, and if it is . . . Acura
parts stock has just the thing to deal with it:
Rodent-Deterrent Tape (P/N 4019-2317).
After repairing or replacing the harness, wrap some
of that tape around the affected area. It's got
capsaicin, the stuff that puts the fire in a bowl of
five-alarm chili. This should keep any critters from
causing future problems.
I just picked up the wire and knock sensor from the dealer $60. The wire harness does have the rat picture with an X on it so the dealer is aware. Also the parts guy told me for some people the wire just burned out and it was his best seller lol.
I still have this issue myself... it's been a long while now.
The dealership wants over 200 for the knock sensor and wire.
over 550 for them to do the job [before taxes, taxes add another 13%].
Talk about stealing my money!~
I'm probably just going to order the parts online or something.
wow they are killing you. Try to order from Acura online its $41.50 for the wire and knock sensor shipped. maybe take it to a local shop to do it. I'm gonna try to do it myself seems simple enough just time consuming
ok so I just finished installing the knock sensor and harness and let me just say this is not a easy job. Took me 4hours of hard labor. I replaced and clutch faster than this.
Btw if you are just removing the wire harness only, you don't have to touch the intake manifold or anything. just remove the power steering unit omg this is way faster and hassle free, but if you need to replace the knock sensor this is the only way.
this was after I remove the upper part of the intake manifold and the Throttle body.
Remove the 2 8mm bolts holding the fuel rail in place, in order to access the 12mm bolts holding the intake manifold in place
old sensor and new sensor
this is where the knock sensor is located and you will need a 24mm long socket to remove it.
also you only need to remove one side of the intake manifold and fuel rail which is the side facing towards the driver/pass... the other side can be left alone.
I don't recommend this to everyone so if you think you cant do it take it to a mechanic. All bolts need to be torque back to factory specs.
Just tackled this job yesterday evening. VERY easy, did it within an hour, probably can do it in 30 minutes the 2nd time. Only hard part is not dropping the screws for the bracket, damn thing will be well to find down there.
I dropped the mounting bolts for the fuel rail, it fell on top of the block so i just got a long screw driver and rubbed it against the back of an old speaker, and bam, a magnetic screwdriver.
A fairly rewarding DIY, have no idea how this can cost anymore than 60 bucks to do.
The diy doesnt mention you need a 24 mm Long socket however, i tried my spark plug remover to remove the knock sensor, but it (knock sensor) broke. Ended up loosening it with the 24mm and doing the magnetic trick for the socket to pull it out.
Mice are a serious problem with damage to vehicles. I work a dealership and you wouldn't believe how many damaged cars come in each week due to mice. One car we had come in with even mice still in the cabin filter. We've installed a couple mouse blockers in vehicles with great success. Customers love the idea of preventing damage to their brand new cars from mice. Check it out for yourself, mouseblocker.com
i had the same problem, a mouse chewed the wire and i replace the entire sensor and hardware, you will need to take off the manifold and and belt pully. good work bullseye nice pics
I finally got my knock sensor and sub-wire replaced for the 03 CLS today. I just wanted to post a couple things specifically for the CL or (2G). overall it's pretty much the same, but there are a somethings a little different for the photos on the thread and the 3G TL. The knock sensor for the CLS is located under the front intake manifold instead of the rear. Also the connector tip of the sub-wire to the engine harness is different from the 2G to 3G. So make sure you get the right one. Sub-wire Part# 30531-P8F-A00. BTW I highly recommend having a 12mm Ratcheting wrench and a flex extension for your sockets.
Is there a way to see or verify if there is any damage done to the knock sensor or wire before taking apart the intake manifold?
Most of the time, yes. You can get a flashlight and look down from the passenger side under the intake manifold and see the broken wire.
I am a service advisor at a dealer as well. We have seen a few of these as well. It certainly isn't an every day occurrence though. We charge 2 hours labor for it. Parts should just be the sub-harness and sometimes the knock sensor itself. They tend to get stuck together so when you try to pull the harness off it breaks the knock sensor. I really can't see why places would charge more than a couple hours to do the job though. Shouldn't ever take longer than that to do. That is frustrating for those of us that work at dealers that are honest.
Sorry to everyone that has to deal with this. You can try to prevent it as best you can but sometimes it just happens. We had a client with a squirrel that ate the wiring harness on their RDX up by the driver's side headlight and the PCM which their insurance covered since it was a large repair. We gave them a loaner RDX and the same thing happened to that one the next day. Those are the only two of those I've seen though.
My CEL has been on and off the past month with the knocksensor being the issue. I have NO lack of power and NO hesitation, ZERO issuesat all. From research if you have noticeable lack in power, etc it's the knocksensor. I have noticed some very slight pinging (I always use 93 octane). Couldit be I need new plugs/injectors? I haven’t looked under the intake to see ifmy wire is chewed up. I would think since I have no noticeable issues that it'snot the sensor. What do you guys think? I'd rather not tackle this job and it notbe the knock sensor.
Haven't read whole string of posts, but personal experience after having chewing problems, by mice, chipmunks & groundhogs, on multiple cars, including my '07 TL-S, I've sprayed wires / wire areas with ammonia, and after about 1/2 year have had no further problems.
Wow I cant believe I stumbled on this thread.... This happened to me in my 03TL-S many years ago. I swore the dealer was full of crap. He walked me out to the service bay and said "yup, see those two cars, the mice got them too." I cried until they good willed half of it so I paid 150ish since I had just bought the car.
Another one here. Brought my '07 TL-S w/78k on it to the dealer this morning for the check engine light and knock sensor fault. Just got a call two hours later that the wire was chewed through my a mouse or some rodent -- says he sees this all the time. $8.25 for the wire, $410 for labor. Ugh.
Good God, I'm in the process of switching this out too (had to stop because I don't have a deep socket wrench for the sensor)
With all these stories of rats chewing the wire, I feared the worst when during the process of removing the manifold, my buddy and I saw some brown hair. We thought maybe a rat had chewed the wire and then decided to die in the engine bay (I had an ant issue in my car a few weeks too, so it seemed logical). When it came time to remove the rat, I just got too disgusted and couldn't pick it out with pliers. I then saw a vacuum in my garage, and decided to try sucking the body out instead.
It seemed like it worked, until it got clogged. After I withdrew the vacuum cleaner tube, we saw a bunch of brown er...hair? Similar to maybe what Chewbacca's hairballs would look like. We were stumped as to what it was, until we returned to the car and saw that part of the hood insulator had deteriorated.
TL;DR thought I had a dead rat in my engine bay from all your horror stories, turns out it was part of my hood insulator.
Needless to say...I'll be removing that once I finish up with the knock sensor.
Post #2: I havent been with that issue before but couple months back, vtec oil pressure magically came on after a month of sitting (was poor, no money for tires). I thought I had it lucky by running a new wire. I wonder if rats are the answer to my immobilizer and scan tool problem. Of course with the genuises at Acura, placing the group of wires DIRECTLY behind the heater core, maybe I'll never find out.
Since this thread is getting kicked around again I thought I'd add my experience with rats and the knock sensor. I had to do the job on my brother's 08 Pilot which is near identical to the doing the job on a TL. Honda dealer quoted $500 for the job and said it was all labor. It ended up costing him about $30 bucks for the interconnect, some gaskets, and shipping plus a really nice bottle of gin for me.
1) It's usually the short interconnect ($5) wire from the sensor over to the main harness that they eat. Typically the sensor itself is fine.
2) The "rat proof tape" doesn't work. It was on his wires from the factory and they ate right through it. The replacement part is wrapped in it too. It has little white icons of rats with X over them. They love the stuff! It supposedly has capsaicin in it (stuff that makes peppers hot). Rodents must like Vindloo
3) You do not need to remove the intake risers once the manifold is removed. Get yourself a set of long needle nose pliers (double articulating kind) and you can do everything you need to do by working between the intake riser "tubes". I used both kinds below and was able to disconnect the old interconnect and fish the new one in and connect it to the sensor.
The job still is a lot of labor but being able to not have to remove the intake runner/riser was a big saving. Plus the pliers are cool as hell to have in the toolbox. Disregard if your sensor is toast.
FYI, there's a company that now will manufacture a complete harness of any type for just about any vehicle. They will also 3-D print single connectors, so no need to buy an entire harness just to get a connector. My sister's Xterra had the main electrical harness chewed through by squirrels and Nissan no longer stocks the harness. The insurance company contracted these guys to make a whole new harness and the Nissan dealer will install it. Worth a look if you find yourself in the same situation:
03-19-2010, 11:47 AM
