What the hell happened to my plug wires? UPDATE: Confirmed mouse turds
 

While I was working on the Miata this weekend, I popped the hood and was surprised to find...this:

Attachment 199627

Attachment 199628

What the hell? My first thought was maybe that the plug wire was scraping against one of the hood braces, but I checked the clearance and it shouldn't be rubbing.

Any guesses as to what's causing this? My second thought was mice...but why the hell would they eat NGK wire insulation? :brain:

Guess I need to order some new plug wires. Any reason to get anything other than the NGK set?

Yeah, how about you just pull the plug wires out altogether.

Seriously

$100 + 4hrs = COPS

You will never look back.

My vote is mice, I have seen them eat wires before. I read they do it to control the length of their teeth. Lock a cat under your hood, that'll show em ;)

That wire doesn't stick up far enough to rub on the hood does it?

If not, my vote is rats. If I were a rat, that wire would look pretty enticing.

Enabler.

Noob question I'm too lazy to just go look up in the COPs thread: can I run COPs with the stock ECU? Or is this strictly a post-MS install option?

definitely not even enough wear to be something rubbing...

Dwell reducer.

Yes. They seem to have a built-in current limiter, and the stock dwell is close enough, in some cases.

Definitely mice. I can tell by the marks on pic 1. Living on a farm I see plenty of mice damage.

<---Pro mechanic. Seen it many, many times before. That's rodent damage. Have a look around to make sure that is all they did. They also LOVE to eat foam noise insulation (though the mx5 doesn't have any). But take a close look at all the visible wiring under the hood.

^ +1
Intro comming, I just could'nt resist.
Just paid big bucks not too long ago to have a couple wire harnesses replaced in a small excavator (backhoe).
Maybe just as important, if not more important than replacing the wires; is finding and eliminating them buggers quickly!!! Or some kind of repellant/deterant if it's always out doors. :idea: If you look very closely, you'll see the teeth marks... Them boys are just gettin started...

Dammit.

We're dog people, not cat people. Might tolerate an outside cat, but I don't know. Anyone recommend an outside repellent that actually works? We have a carport, no enclosed garage (and I figure mice could probably find their way inside all but the best-sealed garage anyway).

Check the far back passenger corner of the engine bay behind the fuse box/under the wiper motor it's a nice place to start a nest and snack on the lovely wiring harness.

I actually have had pretty good luck this year in my shop. Historically it was terrible as soon as it got cold out. I put out these blue rodent blocks and used the electronic repellers that plug into an outlet. I'm sure most of the effect was from the bait, but I have been mouse free this winter.

It takes a couple of weeks on the blocks. For two weeks I would find stray blocks strewn around in the shop, but they were definitely eating them.

On the downside, I got a bit of smell going. Did a full cleaning of the shop and found five of the dead buggers under the workbench.

Mice or rats did this to my silicone vacuum tubing this winter, i'd go with rodents on the damage. Count yourself lucky they did not go for the wiring loom.

http://www.gerfitzgerald.com/bar1/IMG_74451.jpg

If your car is in a garage get some poison or traps ASAP

Just got home, stopped by Advance and got their only set of NGK wires for $42. I know, that's nearly half the cost of a homegrown COPS, but I don't have the time right now and want to run the Miata without worrying about that damaged wire. I can always resell the wires if I do COPS before I put too many miles on them.

In other news...I popped the hood and searched around with a flashlight. Nothing on the passenger side, but on the driver side, on the ledge underneath the brake and clutch master cylinders, I found...

MOUSE SHIT.

Not much, just 2 or 3 individual droppings. My guess is it happened within the last 2-3 weeks, as I've been driving the truck and it was going below freezing overnight.

And now my wife is already telling me we can't use poison because our Schnoodle (yeah, that's right) might get into it.

get a outside cat, problem solved. Either that or a .357 magnum but the collateral damage can be significant.

Grenades would work too.

I use a standard old mouse trap w/ peanut butter placed along the walls every 10 feet or so. I deployed 4 of them this year along with 2 of the "noise repellents" and I still managed 5 mice and 2 moles.

I keep a body count on a dry erase board in the garage.

Maybe making chalk outlines will let them know you ain't playing! :giggle: