shamoo

This afternoon, my girlfriend's 2005 Scion tC started to stutter really badly. Driving at any rpm above 2000 would be a struggle. I plugged my OBDII scanner into the diagnostic port and came up with:

* Cylinder 1 misfire
* Ignition circuit malfunction

So, it could be coil packs or spark plugs maybe. We limp it home and I pop off the engine cover to discover:

Underneath the plastic engine cover. There is foam under there that is burnt away. Not sure why there is foam there to begin with as it may be a fire hazard, but whatever.


Coil pack wiring


Closeup of the carnage


Do any of you know what could cause this? I researched some sites and did not find any TSBs that would apply to anything of this nature. Unfortunately the car is over it's 36K mile warranty, but would the dealer cover this one? It's obviously nothing caused by normal wear and tear or driver abuse.

If worst case the dealer won't cover it, how can it be fixed? Obviously fix the wiring, but do I simply cut the wires, splice, and splice into new clip (where do I find a clip?). Is that built into the entire engine wiring harness? Is it a partial harness? I have no idea.

Any advice/help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! =)

EDIT: I cross posted this on Honda-tech, and someone suggested that an animal may have chewed on it. Is that a possibility? It's recently been ~10 degrees for the past few days. The animal would somehow have to get under that plastic cover first too.

paS2K

Did you cross-post this on the Under the Hood forum here on s2ki ? You might get a quicker response there.

Ellen and I are the only ones on Upstate who are allowed to stay up this late.....and we're from VT and PA

NNY S2k

I was thinking an animal got to it too.

Bugsy

Critter, for sure.

Triple-H

Holy crap...

I'm thinking the burnt foam is the effect, and the cause is that bundle of destroyed wires.

I have to admit, the critter theory seems very plausable.

Did you make a thread in Under the Hood?

What else have you found out?

diskoe

It looks like something may have chewed through the wiring.

jguerdat

I wasn't so sure it was an animal until I downloaded the images and zoomed in what I could before the JPEG artifacts got too bad. The fact that the black covering is so neatly removed almost back to the next cylinder is the dead giveaway, as is the neat area of exposed wire on the violet wire. I do find it interesting that there seems to be absolutely no trash lying on the cylinder head under the wiring - did you clean it up?

As for fixes, you could probably patch something together but the connector has some issues, especially with the insulation being removed right up to it. The proper fix ($$$) is a new harness. Check a junk yard - that may be be cheapest. A quick check online shows prices for a Civic and S2K engine harness to be in the $350-400 range...

Neutered Sputniks

Might try looking for the parts you need here:


www.rockauto.com



Looks like a critter got to it, chewed through some wires, that caused the arcing. If you splice a new connector in, I don't see why it wouldn't work properly (use good, environmentally sealed splices, not that walmart crap). At the worst, you'll find yourself in the same predicament again, and can know that you have something more serious (sinister?) going on...

Triple-H

Damn rodents...
It's downright amazing where they can squeeze into.
I worry about this kind of thing with my trailer during winter storage because trailer wiring is in general so very exposed, and I have no idea why mice like to chew wire, but it is a fact, they do!

Neutered Sputniks

Sham: if you can wait a few more days, I have some good aircraft quality enviro splices I can hook you up with. (I'm in AZ till this weekend, though)