There was a mouse in the house....

[BirchyBoy]

Rather, in the engine bay :(

I fired up the RV and headed home from the storage yard. When I got up around 35mph it started struggling and the check engine light came on. I pulled into a truck stop and topped off the tank, thinking that maybe I had put too much gas conditioner in last fall and it needed to be diluted. Nope.

I called the wife and she met me in my Jeep. I pulled my ScanGauge out and plugged it in and it was giving me an error code with coil 6. Uh oh. I pulled the dog house off the engine and sure enough, coil 6’s harness was chewed through by a rodent. Thankfully all it did was chew that and some insulation (that I know of). The bitch of the problem is that this is the only coil with two purple wires. The other nine all have a purple wire and then another color, so purple is the common. I’ll be damned if I can see any difference in the two wires and the wife couldn’t see any either.

I sent her home and said I’d figure it out. I didn’t have a multimeter to do any continuity checks and the truck stop didn’t sell one. I did some research and after an hour or so I learned that coils won’t be damaged if the two wires are swapped. It won’t work as efficiently as it should, but it won’t destroy anything. So, I twist tied some new wire onto the engine side and used some butt connectors to attach the harness. I plugged it in, started it and no codes.

I went to Napa and got a new harness and some butt connectors with the solder in the center. I’m going to figure out the correct polarity tomorrow and then attach the new connector. Then I need to figure out how to make it rodent proof.

[TeJay]

BB,

Good luck with rodent proofing the RV. You could just place a few traps under the dog house and see what happens. If a family of mice decide to take up residence that's about the best one can do.

Using the standard trap with food might work for a time but when the food dries up it might not attract a mouse. The sticky type trap some don't like for obvious reasons.

You might try adding a layer of insulated wire under a trap with real food. When the food dries up they might eat the insulation.

We live out in the woods with little around us. We see all kinds of animals from possum to racoons, cats, fox, deer, dogs, squirrels etc, etc. Our RV stays under a carport attached to the house but it's open at both ends. I'm in and out most days while we are home so there's a lot of activity that might have something to do with animals searching for food.

We've only had one rodent chew through an injector wire. Discovered it when we took the RV out for a propane run. While living here we've had 6 different RV's. Three TT's and 3 motor homes. That's not to bad for living out for 40 years.

[ClassyClassA]

Originally Posted by TeJay

BB,

Good luck with rodent proofing the RV. You could just place a few traps under the dog house and see what happens. If a family of mice decide to take up residence that's about the best one can do.

Using the standard trap with food might work for a time but when the food dries up it might not attract a mouse. The sticky type trap some don't like for obvious reasons.

You might try adding a layer of insulated wire under a trap with real food. When the food dries up they might eat the insulation.

We live out in the woods with little around us. We see all kinds of animals from possum to racoons, cats, fox, deer, dogs, squirrels etc, etc. Our RV stays under a carport attached to the house but it's open at both ends. I'm in and out most days while we are home so there's a lot of activity that might have something to do with animals searching for food.

We've only had one rodent chew through an injector wire. Discovered it when we took the RV out for a propane run. While living here we've had 6 different RV's. Three TT's and 3 motor homes. That's not to bad for living out for 40 years.

Hi there, I’m dealing with my 2000 F-53 V-10 misfiring. New plugs and coils, although faulty, has not helped so I’m looking for other causes. Can you tell me how you found a rodent-related injector wire failure? What were your symptoms that caused you to look for chewed injector wires in the first place? Thank you

[TeJay]

CC-A,

I was taking the RV out to fill the fuel tank. It had sat most of the Winter. As I was going up our steep hill it started missing. When I got back I took the dog house of and inspected the intake manifold and the injectors.

I spotted some acorns and a few other bits of materials often used by rodents to make a nest. I spotted one of the injector wires tht was obviously chewed through by a rodent.

As a kid I built ham radios from kits, and some from scratch. Then 12 years later in my AF career I worked on ground radar units. Soldering the chewed wires for the injetor was finished and the RV drove as it had in the fall. The miss was completely gone and never returned.

This happened on our 1999 34' Dutch Star by Newmar. That was one of the very early V-10 RV's put out using the fairly new F-53 chassis.

What you have done is the correct thing to do. Those injectors and plugs may or may not be the original. It is fairy normal with the V-10 to not change the sprak plugs until close to 100,000 miles. We have 43,000 on our 2013 chassis and I'll probably change the pugs after this season. They may be OK but it won't hurt and I can do all my own work so we are only talking about the cost of plugs.

Now on to dignosis. One of the worst things any tech can do is assume what they just finished was done correctly and with all good parts. I know my abilities but I don't know yours. More than just a few things can go wrong when performing this type of repair. I'll tell you what I've learned over the years and you can go from there.

In the aircraft repair industry if a technician either uses a spark plug that comes out of an unsealed box or while handling a plug accidently drops it they do not know if the integrity of the plug was in any way compromised. They can not use a plug from an opened box or one that has been dropped. A crack in the ceramic part of the plug may not be visible until the plug get hot. That's just asking for a misfire. At 16,000 feet in the air is not the place to have a misfire.

Secondly. Back when we owned the 1999 DS and even after we bought this current unit I have looked for replacement injectors. I'd have to do research again but dealer injectors/coils are very expensive. Aftermarket ones are much cheaper and while I was looking I found some that were very good and highly recommended by others who had installed them. What I'm saying is I don't know where you bought your replacement injectors/coils. Even if you bought from a dealer were they all in sealed boxes? Did you drop one? Did you buy a less recommended brand and is it possible theres a defective one?

Any of the above mentioned things can and do happen. Sometimes it's nobodies fault but if you think, believe your repair work was correct that's great and nobody would doubt you. However if you unknowlingly installed a defective injector/plug/oils and assume they are all OK that's asking for trouble.

There's two things you can do. You can run a scan to see if you show a misfire and on which cylinder. If nothing shows up on the scan you need to do this or something like it.

Drive it a short distance to determine and get the feel for the miss. You might be able to do that in a large parking lot. Just driving a short distance should show a missing plug, coil or injector.

Disconnect an injector wire and drive it again. If the injector was working it now is not and the missing will increase. If missing is the same you can assume the injector was not giving you fuel. Do that until you find an injector that is defective. If none are defective then it's time to do the same with the plugs. Or pull one bank of plugs and look for a cracked cermic part of a plug. Or maybe a plug that looks wet and not firing.

That I know will take some time and work. As BB reported in post # 1 above. You should also have a code for the misfire and the PC should also tell you which cylinder is missing.

I hope you were not offended with my take on your work. I'm sure you did the best you could with your skills. I've had to many kids make the bad assumptions that what they did was correct and with a good part. In fact having participated in dozens of automotive hands on contests it was standard paractice when asking for a replacement part students were often given a defective part. Instructors who experienced that were only bit one time. I had hear it happened so I always cautioned my students to never, never assume the replacement part was good.

Good luck with your issue and please report what you do find.

[TeJay]

CC-A,

Even if what was discussed in my first response above isn't the problem you still have to verify all those parts: injectors, plugs & coils are working.

TeJay

[ClassyClassA]

Originally Posted by TeJay

CC-A,

I was taking the RV out to fill the fuel tank. It had sat most of the Winter. As I was going up our steep hill it started missing. When I got back I took the dog house of and inspected the intake manifold and the injectors.

I spotted some acorns and a few other bits of materials often used by rodents to make a nest. I spotted one of the injector wires tht was obviously chewed through by a rodent.

As a kid I built ham radios from kits, and some from scratch. Then 12 years later in my AF career I worked on ground radar units. Soldering the chewed wires for the injetor was finished and the RV drove as it had in the fall. The miss was completely gone and never returned.

This happened on our 1999 34' Dutch Star by Newmar. That was one of the very early V-10 RV's put out using the fairly new F-53 chassis.

What you have done is the correct thing to do. Those injectors and plugs may or may not be the original. It is fairy normal with the V-10 to not change the sprak plugs until close to 100,000 miles. We have 43,000 on our 2013 chassis and I'll probably change the pugs after this season. They may be OK but it won't hurt and I can do all my own work so we are only talking about the cost of plugs.

Now on to dignosis. One of the worst things any tech can do is assume what they just finished was done correctly and with all good parts. I know my abilities but I don't know yours. More than just a few things can go wrong when performing this type of repair. I'll tell you what I've learned over the years and you can go from there.

In the aircraft repair industry if a technician either uses a spark plug that comes out of an unsealed box or while handling a plug accidently drops it they do not know if the integrity of the plug was in any way compromised. They can not use a plug from an opened box or one that has been dropped. A crack in the ceramic part of the plug may not be visible until the plug get hot. That's just asking for a misfire. At 16,000 feet in the air is not the place to have a misfire.

Secondly. Back when we owned the 1999 DS and even after we bought this current unit I have looked for replacement injectors. I'd have to do research again but dealer injectors/coils are very expensive. Aftermarket ones are much cheaper and while I was looking I found some that were very good and highly recommended by others who had installed them. What I'm saying is I don't know where you bought your replacement injectors/coils. Even if you bought from a dealer were they all in sealed boxes? Did you drop one? Did you buy a less recommended brand and is it possible theres a defective one?

Any of the above mentioned things can and do happen. Sometimes it's nobodies fault but if you think, believe your repair work was correct that's great and nobody would doubt you. However if you unknowlingly installed a defective injector/plug/oils and assume they are all OK that's asking for trouble.

There's two things you can do. You can run a scan to see if you show a misfire and on which cylinder. If nothing shows up on the scan you need to do this or something like it.

Drive it a short distance to determine and get the feel for the miss. You might be able to do that in a large parking lot. Just driving a short distance should show a missing plug, coil or injector.

Disconnect an injector wire and drive it again. If the injector was working it now is not and the missing will increase. If missing is the same you can assume the injector was not giving you fuel. Do that until you find an injector that is defective. If none are defective then it's time to do the same with the plugs. Or pull one bank of plugs and look for a cracked cermic part of a plug. Or maybe a plug that looks wet and not firing.

That I know will take some time and work. As BB reported in post # 1 above. You should also have a code for the misfire and the PC should also tell you which cylinder is missing.

I hope you were not offended with my take on your work. I'm sure you did the best you could with your skills. I've had to many kids make the bad assumptions that what they did was correct and with a good part. In fact having participated in dozens of automotive hands on contests it was standard paractice when asking for a replacement part students were often given a defective part. Instructors who experienced that were only bit one time. I had hear it happened so I always cautioned my students to never, never assume the replacement part was good.

Good luck with your issue and please report what you do find.

No offense taken at all, I’m here to learn. Since I posted my last, I’ve found a bad exhaust valve, probably stuck open, so now I know I’m out of my league. My neighbor has given me a name to chase for engine work.
Again thank you for your input, we’re all here to learn. Cc-A

[Hittntheroad]

I installed 2 of these. They make a noise and flash lights when they detect movement. Wired to the 12 volt battery.