Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Mirage wiring is tasty -- another victim

  1. #1
    Still Plays With Cars Loren's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Florida
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    1,225
    Thanks
    324
    Thanked 936 Times in 539 Posts

    Mirage wiring is tasty -- another victim

    Just to document this and give y'all something else to think about...

    I went out to my car Friday to go to lunch. It fired right up, but didn't sound right... like maybe it's sprung a weird exhaust leak, or it's not firing all cylinders. And as I drove it, it didn't feel right... and the CEL that's always on (the exhaust header removes the pre-cat, causes an O2 code) was vehemently blinking at me. So, I turned around and went back home.

    Popped the hood to see if I could spot anything like a spark plug wire loose. And sure enough, there was a pretty obvious pair of broken wires on the #2 fuel injector! That'll do it.

    At first I thought that maybe I'd routed them wrong (the engine has been replaced) and stressed them and vibration caused the breakage. But, BOTH wires are cleanly cut, within 1/4" of the connector. If it was random breakage, that cylinder would have stopped firing as soon as ONE wire broke. And there's no signs of stretching or anything. Nor does it look like any sort of cutting tool was used.

    Only thing I can figure is that a rat got under there and chose to taste those wires. No signs of rodentia anywhere else. And for all the exposed and unprotected wiring under the hood of this car that a critter would have had to get past to get to the CENTER fuel injector wire... nothing else appears to be disturbed. Weird.

    So, I ordered a new injector connector. Soldered it in and put some heat shrink on it to make it all pretty. Good as new!

    I also ordered some peppermint oil spray to try to deter the rats.

    And some convoluted tubing in a couple different sizes to armor the wiring harness and maybe protect it from things like this, as well as from abrasion and such. Just one more corner that Mitsubishi cut when they built this car. (I'm not complaining, it was done to both save money and weight, I get it.)


    Simplify and add lightness.

  2. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Loren For This Useful Post:

    Cobrajet (02-25-2020),Daox (02-25-2020),Fummins (02-24-2020),MetroMPG (02-26-2020),Top_Fuel (02-24-2020)

  3. #2
    Aw crap. Glad you got it sorted out, but you just reminded me to expect mouse damage when I pull my summer beater Miata out of storage in a few months! I've seen evidence they're around.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 63.2 mpg (US) ... 26.9 km/L ... 3.7 L/100 km ... 75.9 mpg (Imp)


  4. #3
    Senior Member Top_Fuel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Ohio
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    3,699
    Thanks
    2,582
    Thanked 2,537 Times in 1,471 Posts
    Check this out. Squirrels built this nest under the hood of my niece's car that was parked in my driveway. Note the full size twigs. I have no idea how they got them in there. Keep in mind this car was being driven daily! I only discovered it when checking the oil.

    I removed the nest and they rebuilt it within 3 days. After I removed it a second time they gave up. Thankfully they didn't chew on anything!

    Name:  squirrel.jpg
Views: 693
Size:  99.0 KB

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 52.2 mpg (US) ... 22.2 km/L ... 4.5 L/100 km ... 62.6 mpg (Imp)


  5. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Top_Fuel For This Useful Post:

    inuvik (02-26-2020),MetroMPG (02-26-2020)

  6. #4
    Still Plays With Cars Loren's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Florida
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    1,225
    Thanks
    324
    Thanked 936 Times in 539 Posts
    Wow! That's some ambition.
    Simplify and add lightness.

  7. #5
    Moderator inuvik's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Coos Bay, OR
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    3,835
    Thanks
    4,761
    Thanked 1,562 Times in 1,120 Posts
    Mitsubishi's new marketing tag line. "Mitsubishi Mirage--Squirrel Approved!"

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage ES 1.2 automatic: 40.5 mpg (US) ... 17.2 km/L ... 5.8 L/100 km ... 48.6 mpg (Imp)


  8. #6
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Oklahoma
    Country
    United States
    Posts
    327
    Thanks
    21
    Thanked 178 Times in 76 Posts
    I had this problem constantly with my 2015 Mirage. My 2017 doesn't seem to taste as good, it's run 66,000 miles without any of the wiring being chewed on.



Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •