Squirrels got into my Mini over the winter, and after cleaning out the nutshells, I found that one chewed through a wire...

The photo is of an area in the engine compartment, just behind the passenger headlamp, about 6 inches off to the left of the dipstick...

You can see that it's a popular spot for chewing, I already taped the same wire once before in another area! I was glad I had wire loom on a lot of the wires, they chewed into the loom but not the wires

I planned to twist/tie the wires back together and cover this with electrical tape - do I have to disconnect the battery??

Car runs fine, everything operates well - but this wire goes to something, and I don't know what... What are the red plastic things along the wires? Fuses of some sort? Can someone please solve the mystery for me?

Oh, and by the way, I just ordered some Citrus-based cleaner and plain on detailing the engine bay!!

Cheers,
Melanie

 

The red thing is a butt style primp connector where it looks like this was repaired before. You need to either have the wires soldered and covered with heat shrink or at the very least a connector like the crimp connector you have, but cover it all with heat shrink to keep the elements out.

Don't just twist back together and cover with tape. This is not some patch job in your house, the stranded wires won't stay as well in a wire-nut and the vibration and heat will take this vulnerable situation and it will be exploited, especially if not protected from the elements.

 

Thanks for the advice!

You know....they are butt connectors, now I remember that they were put on before for the same thing! I think I better soldered them and cover them with the heat shrink.

But what are the wires to?

Melanie

 

The mechanism at center bottom is a hood latch. It looks like the connector is on a switch that is simply detects that the hood isn't closed. If you close your hood completely and turn the key to second position (don't have to turn the engine on), do you get the warning light for hood/hatch open? Then connect the wires and repeat, and see if the warning goes away.

 

Thank you, that makes sense - I will try that!

I am relieved to know that the wire is probably to something not too important (not that I want the bonnet to fly open while driving, but the way it slams shut is plenty enough indication to me that it's closed!)