Electrical harness damaged

MTADESSE9

MEMBER
1997 CADILLAC DEVILLE
V8
AUTOMATIC
125,000 MILES

Late last summer my car that I bought less than a year prior started overheating. The one previous owner was a senior and had it sitting for 3 years, hence the tabs and debris. Since then I replaced the coolant reservoir, oil change, thermostat, radiator and battery. The codes in the car dash keep reading the wrong codes saying the car is still overheating. Also it drained the battery. I’ve been told it’s the electrical harness, looks like rats got into it at some point. What am I looking at so I can figure out the cost?

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

It is hard to say what may be needed when you get rats or mice involved. Did you intend to attach pictures? If so, they did not attach if you can try again.

However, the best thing I can suggest is one of two courses of action. First is the best and safest way to repair it but could be most expensive depending on what harnesses are effected, and that is just replace any harness that has any damage on it.

The other way, is to go through the wiring and find the effected areas, cut the damage out and solder the wires back together. You don't necessarily need to add a length of wire to it unless the two ends don't easily reach each other. Does that make sense?

All the issues you are seeing with the battery drain and codes makes sense with chewed wiring.

Let me know if you have questions and if you can post those pictures and we can go from there. Thanks