Service Handling assist
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Service Handling assist
Here is a new one that might give us a break from the stressful worries of all the post on this topic. I, like many of you had that troublesome message show up on my newly bought 2004 corvette I always wanted and could never have for one reason or another. Outcome, a mouse had set up home in the two days I had parked and coved it in my garage and chewed through two wires in the front of the engine compartment. OK, service department : 
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 6,835
Likes: 302
From: Columbia SC
Thought you might like this writeup I did. It is an excerpt from an article I wrote on a 1971 DeTomaso Pantera I bought (and still have) via a US Marshal's sale. The car had not been driven for 8 years and only had 9200 miles on it when I got it in 1989.
I did look under the dash to inspect wiring since I knew of grounding issues. I found plenty of bare ground wires where high currents had melted all the insulation. Amazing that anything worked at all with green bare wires going everywhere. I replaced these with a larger gage wire. Not fun on your back waiting for molten solder to drop on your face at any time. I also found a nest some varmint had made behind the center gauges and radio. It had done no damage and the wiring issue was not due to this. I also found acorn nuts just about everywhere in the rear of the car. They were mainly behind the rear lights and a few other areas and I must have removed about a coffee can of them. Somehow the little critters had found a way in and must have accessed the dash area through the shifter tunnel.
After restoration picture:
I did look under the dash to inspect wiring since I knew of grounding issues. I found plenty of bare ground wires where high currents had melted all the insulation. Amazing that anything worked at all with green bare wires going everywhere. I replaced these with a larger gage wire. Not fun on your back waiting for molten solder to drop on your face at any time. I also found a nest some varmint had made behind the center gauges and radio. It had done no damage and the wiring issue was not due to this. I also found acorn nuts just about everywhere in the rear of the car. They were mainly behind the rear lights and a few other areas and I must have removed about a coffee can of them. Somehow the little critters had found a way in and must have accessed the dash area through the shifter tunnel.
After restoration picture:
