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Rodents chewed wiring but car runs, should I repair?

Tiny
GUASI
  • MEMBER
  • 2012 HYUNDAI ELANTRA
  • 1.2L
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 166,000 MILES
Rodents chewed through the wiring of my 2012 Hyundai Elantra Touring, with 166K miles. The car lives on the street, so it's not in great shape. It has hail damage, scuffs from people bumping it when parking, damage on the ignition cover and a new side window from a theft attempt.

**The car runs fine**, but the check engine light is on. The check engine light used to come on and off with a fuel leak code, but I think since the wiring got chewed up, the check engine light has been constantly on. Have not checked what code it gives now.

Given the state of the car, I don't think I could get more than $1000 for it, so I'm wondering it's worth repairing.

Can the severed wires be patched or would the entire engine wiring harness need to be replaced? I figured replacing the whole wiring harness would cost north of $1500, more than what the car is worth.

The dealer said they think the severed wire was connecting to the camshaft sensor, but I'm not sure.

Is it worth repairing? How costly do you think it may be?
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Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 AT 7:42 PM

7 Replies

Tiny
JACOBANDNICKOLAS
  • MECHANIC
  • 108,375 POSTS
Hi:

Looking at the pictures, it appears to be wiring to the AC pressure sensor. Does the AC work presently?

As far as a camshaft position sensor, it isn't located in that area, so I'm not sure what they were referring to.

Let me know.

Joe
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Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 AT 8:21 PM
Tiny
GUASI
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Just checked and AC runs fine, cools quickly and gets quite cold.
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Wednesday, May 1st, 2024 AT 8:39 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,052 POSTS
Looking at the wire colors it appears that the 3 wire item is White, Red, Grey and that would be the camshaft sensor. The other looks like Green and White and that appears to be the knock sensor. Both of them look like the pigtail with the connector could easily be repaired by getting a replacement pigtail and splicing it back together. 5 crimp and seal connectors and some tape and either new or salvage yard parts and you might but out the CEL.
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Thursday, May 2nd, 2024 AT 6:46 AM
Tiny
GUASI
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Thank you Steve, I have confirmed that the 3 wire connector is indeed for the camshaft sensor, and I will trust your knowledge about the 2 wire connector to be for the knock sensor. I will follow your advice and get the connectors and a bit of the wire from a salvage yard and then splice it back together to what's left in my engine harness wire.

Thank you very much. I will reply with a picture of the result when I fix it all.
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Thursday, May 2nd, 2024 AT 11:50 AM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,052 POSTS
You are welcome. The engine runs without those but it isn't really running at it's best as it will choose a substitute value from a table in the ECU. However it loses the ability to adjust many other things when in limp mode.
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Thursday, May 2nd, 2024 AT 1:12 PM
Tiny
GUASI
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Thank you Steve! With your advice I was able to repair my car for $23.40! I got the connectors from a salvage yard for $12.56 and got some adhesive lined heat shrink tubbing and automotive electrical tape for $10.84. I don't have a soldering iron so I just twisted the wires together. All is well, the CEL went off and it's running better, without hesitation and high idling, which was happening before. So glad I came to this forum and asked for help!
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Thursday, May 9th, 2024 AT 2:43 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,052 POSTS
Without an iron I might have suggested some low heat solder seal style connectors. Those are a form of heat shrink that has a ring of low temp solder inside them. You would slip it over the wire, twist the wires, slide it into place then heat it up. The heat melts the solder and shrinks the tubing. It also melts the glue to lock it together.
Like these on the jungle site. They work pretty well.
https://www.amazon.com/Connectors-Sopoby-Waterproof-Electrical-Automotive/dp/B0BKSJQC9Q?
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Thursday, May 9th, 2024 AT 5:44 PM

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