Mice love the Toyota Prius. Sure, their little feet can’t reach the pedals, and they have a hard time turning the wheel, but the environmentally friendly soy-based wiring insulation is delicious. Is that true? I don’t really know. Maybe mice just like chewing on stuff and soy covered wires are as good as anything else. You’ll have to check with a rodentologist.
Regardless of the “why”, if you leave a Prius sitting for long enough, and there are mice around, there’s a good chance some nibbling is going down. This Prius came in with a P0101 (MAF sensor circuit) and a single cylinder misfire.
Nibbled to the Nub
Solder repair
The mouse didn’t leave us much to work with. We can find and purchase Toyota connectors fairly easily. Toyota lists the part numbers in the wiring diagram. However, the connectors don’t come with terminals, and it’s nearly impossible to order terminals because they aren’t listed in the service information or the parts catalog.
Heat Shrink
The connector can be disassembled to expose the wires. Even if there’s no wire left at all, I can solder directly to the terminal. Flux is the key to soldering, especially when trying to solder metal that’s hard to wet like nickel-plated copper.
The wires must be insulated of course. Marine grade heat-shrink tubing, also known as “double-wall” or “self-gluing” it the best way to seal the repair.
Any Color you Want, As Long As It’s Black
We stock marine grade wire as well. Marine grade wire has silicone insulation, which is very flexible and able to withstand high temperatures. It also has more / finer strands which makes it more conductive and more flexible. Finally, the copper strands are coated with nickel for corrosion resistance. It’s much better than regular automotive wire, but we only stock black, so temporary labels are needed to identify the wires.
Pigtail Complete
Ready for installation. We used the same process for the damaged injector wiring.
Splicing in the Repaired Connectors
MAF Repair Complete. P0101 Doesn’t Reset.
Flexible conduit projects the wire from rubbing damage and makes the repair look neater. We stock flex conduit is bulk. Flex conduit is used on virtually all cars. A quick spray with mint spray (apparently mice don’t like mint) and the car is ready to go.
Did you Like this P0101 repair? Check out these other articles!
Mice short out a hybrid battery by peeing on it
Wiring harness rub-through causes annoying intermittent