Brand new 2017 4Runner Limited with less than 20 days and under 600 miles. Some buddies wanted to go out this morning. Started the 4Runner and it was very rough. Chalked it up to a chilly morning in Seattle. Before I got around the block check engine light and trac off light. Would not idle. Dealer diagnosed it as a rodent chewed wire on an injector. Cost of repair was $516 outside of waranty.

Somewhat concerned due to the fact that this is not a story of a rarely used truck parked for a long period in a rural barn. My previous ride, a 2004 Lexus GS430, parked in the same spot for 9 years. Never an issue.

I do not know about the soy based wire insulation and whether or not it played a role. Could have just been bad luck, but my feeling is that it did play a role. I have been advised by another local Toyota dealer to place dryer sheets in the Engine compartment and the glovebox cabin filter. Seems like a less that ideal situation.

My question is where do you put these sheets, how do you fasten them, and how often do they need to be changed? How many do you use? Does the soy based insulation get baked and become less tasty to rodents over time? Does new truck soy based wire taste better and more tender? Ok I am getting silly, but was hoping that I would be talking about the joy of new ownership and the build to make this the Cascades snow going machine. Instead, my wife wants me to research lemon laws on this issue. Please note, that I am a Toyota fan and have owned for the past fourteen years a Lexus GS and the past ten years a Lexus RX.

Update #1- Now that injector wire #4 is fixed. this was the service advisors feedback- rodents like the warm engine area just under the intake. Unfortunately, to repair the wire the upper intake needs to be removed. Thus the expensive repair. The service adviser remarked that it usually is the #4 injector wire that is most often chewed, in his opinion.

The PLAN- Going to add peppermint oil to 2 magnetic GuardFather cans in the. engine compartment; Honda anti rodent tape on all accessible wires. Unfortunately, the injector wires under the intake are not accessible, so I plan to spay a small amount of paper spray on these. I plan to add peppermint oil about every 2-3month and certainly before going camping. As to the pepper spray, not sure yet.

Bummer.
A friend in Redmond recently needed the whole main wiring harness on his 2014 Tundra replaced due to rodents. The total bill was close to $7,000 but he only needed to pay his $500 auto insurance deductible.

My old 2006 Scion xB had its writing chewed over here in Redmond as well a few years ago. In my case, my mechanic was able to repair the wires after he priced the harness from Toyota at about $4,000.

I don't know about the dryer sheet idea, but I'll be following this thread to find out more. With another 2017 Limited that's the same age as yours, in the same basic area, I'll put dryer sheets everywhere if it'll keep the rodents away...

My daughters 2009 Honda Fit fell prey to mice just after Christmas. They chewed through the main harness at the engine and transmission right down to the nubs. 3 days and $1400 later it happened again, though this time it was just one wire and we were able to repair.

Service guy said to start putting peppermint soaked cotton balls in little cups inside of the car. I think my daughter just soaked some of the oil into the corners of her carpets, as it smells like a candy shop in there now! Also found some human safe rodent away packets on Amazon which we added on top of that.

Freaking mice are evil when it comes to this and once they find something they like, it's tough to keep them away. If your vehicle isn't going to be used much and it will be left in a rural barn, I would spend a little $$ and get an exterminator out there before it gets worse!

I would demand the $516 you paid get returned to you. if not sue Toyota.
Toyota Soy Wiring Class Action Lawsuit | Class Actions Reporter

Yes, the sales department is paying the service department. So basically after raising a fuss the dealer is paying. Still concerned about the long term reliability of this truck based upon the class action lawsuits and this one experience. Subtracting the 5 days I have been in a loaner for a slight snafu on paint protection film, this problem occurred almost immediately during my ownership (really two weeks).

I also filed a NHTSA complaint since reviewing those lawsuits, this seems to be the record that is being qouted. Not saying that Toyota or soy based insulation is to blame, but collecting data is good to understand the problem. As a side note, I had the main wiring harness replace under warranty on another vehicle (Yamaha FRJ motorcycle) NOT due to rodent damage, but the bike never ran the same afterwards.

If this is a problem, the solution of dryer sheets or comprehensive insurance is poor solution. Might work for Toyota but does not work for anyone else involve with this problem. BTW and FWIW, the lawsuits allege that Toyota has no incentive to fix the problem since it does not fall under waranty and since nobody has gotten injured.

If you park in your own garage, I would be more concerned with the rodent issues your house has. If you ignore the source your just encouraging the issue to happen again.

I laugh at that claim. I don't know how long you have been driving but it's almost 40 years now for me and rodents have been eating wires and insulation ever since automobiles have been built. Petroleum based, soy based, it does not matter. Seriously, this is not a new "thing" that just happens to Toyota. Rodents get in there and chew on stuff. I've seen hood insulation, wire insulation, hoses, air cleaners and everything a mouse, rat or squirrel can sink their teeth into get eaten. My son's 2014 Subaru had his drive belt gnawed on by a squirrel. How did we know? When he started it up the squirrel was still there. Squirrel guts everywhere. The belt broke and you could see the teeth marks. The vehicle had only sat in my driveway less than 10 hours too.

So think and do what you want. Those lawsuits are people looking for someone to blame besides nature. Mice don't have any money.

As far as dryer sheets, Every few months I put them under the seats and shove a few of them under the hood. So far no rodents. Probably a coincidence but so far they work.

I find that if you hang a dead squirrel from your rear view mirror it also works.

I live in an older part of Seattle and park on a the street. I will put some bait out prior to collecting the truck today. I realize that this is not a new problem and maybe the soy based insulation has exastetbated the problem. Not an expert in rodents nor wire insulation so really will leave it to the experts. Seems to me that a car company could make rodent restitant wiring since this is a known problem. The dryer sheet solution seems easy enough but I doubt the true effectiveness.

BTW, been driving and running motorcycles for about 43 years. Never had this problem. Maybe I was just overdue. Wish it could have happened to the wife's car rather than my new truck�� Ha

House is rodent free. Wife might think I am a rat some days. That should not count. Reluctant to bait outside since eagles and Seahawks frequent the area, which is close to Lake Washington. However, war has been declared when you f*** with a man's new truck.

You need a hood ornament

If only it could occasionally pee coyote urine and alternatively peppermint oil then that could be exactly what I am looking for.

I have a 1989 Toyota pickup. It sits in a barn. I use it every two weeks or so. Don't have to worry about rodents with it. If it was my 5th gen.. no way it would still run. It's completely different now. The soy based wires are very attractive and it happens constantly. Toyota's seem to be the most attractive for some reason, but it does happen to other brands.

Another theory that I have is that they do like newer vehicles that are clean. The more grime and oil... they less they mess with it.

If the soy insulation is demonstrably more attractive to rodents, and if vehicles with soy insulation are damaged by rodents significantly more than those without, if Toyota knew about it but continued with it in order to save money, and could have done something about it but did not, then they should pay.

They are in the business of making money, sometimes businesses need a little guidance toward making a better product.

Also, having tried to get simple and non-controversial information from Toyota, and failed; and being dissatisfied with warranty service, I have no sympathy for their business model.

In fact, I may even have some schadenfreude.

OP, sorry for your troubles but you are not alone. This can happen to any vehicle even if the soy-based wiring insulation exacerbates the problem in newer vehicles. I had a rodent problem last September and on the advice of my neighbor who has lived here for 25 years without a problem to his vehicles, uses lemon pledge to clean/coat his engine compartment weekly. No rodent problems in the 6 months since I started doing this (I'm a 4th gen guy -2008). Check out this thread link for details :
Possible entry points for rodents getting into 4th gen passenger compartment?

Good luck.