My wife's 2015 Yeti 2L Automatic suffered a rodent attack during the winter. The cable loom was eaten at the bulkhead between the engine and the car interior, severing at least 6 wires.  The car still drives perfectly but there are multiple warning lights.  The local Skoda dealership said a new loom is required and suggested that writing off the car is the most economic solution. I think the loom can be repaired however access is restricted. On the engine side the access is reasonable if the battery platform is removed. On the interior side, I have removed the glove box however to improve access, I need also to remove the blower/pollen filter housing.  Has anyone done this ?  Is it possible without removing the entire dash ? Any advice/recommendations appreciated.

Dashboard removal whilst it may seem daunting is actually remarkably simple, I had to remove and replace mine after airbag deployment, I will try and add some photos so that you can judge if you will have enough access to repair the chewed parts.

 

I would not even think of fitting a new loom if the existing one can be repaired, I fitted a new one to a burnt out 1995 Galaxy and even on that I chickened out of dropping the headlining and cut n shut the new loom to the existing undamaged one runing over there.

 

 

thanks J.R.  The photo's are very helpful and I think removing the dash is the way to go. The cable loom enters under the pollen filter housing and I think removing the housing will be easier and the visibility will be improved with the dash removed.  I agree that a new loom is not a viable option.  Did you find instructions on removing the dash or did you figure it out by yourself ?  Photo of loom damage attached.

Good Morning Danduck 

 

You may just find everything you are looking for here LINK

 

A full set of workshop manuals for the YETI. Compliments of Arkaig - A truly valued Briskoda member!

 

Incidentally, you will find the manuals and a whole load of other exceptionally valuable & technical information in the Skoda YETI Guides section - HERE

It's a really informative and helpful section unfortunately often overlooked and not seen by many. I hope it helps! Let us know how the repair to the loom works out...........Best of luck - Tony

Tony,  many thanks for the pointers. I will check them out this evening and give a progress update later.

Just a thought, at risk of stating the obvious:

 

If you have a broken wire in a loom, then its replacement doesn't have to be minimised in length.  As long as you join the source to the destination with a new piece of wire with appropriate cross section, it will work OK.   So splicing in can be done some distance either side of the break, at a place where the loom is easier to get at.  The original broken section of wire is left in place but disconnected.

Thanks Austin 7.

Yes, I have decided for the moment not to remove the dash and blower housing. I am essentially following your strategy.

I have identified the 6 broken wires by colour code and can pick them up on both sides of the bulkhead. I have stripped the cable loom cover 50mm on each side of the bulkhead. access is still difficult but I think it should be possible to solder and heat shrink  6 interconnecting link wires.  Broken wires are now visible under the pollen filter (see photo). Will try to solder tomorrow.

I repaired the 6 broken wires in the cable loom today and reassembled all parts removed to gain access.

The car started and I drove it a short distance.  The speedo now worked and all the warning light except one (airbag) had gone.

I will investigate the airbag warning tomorrow. The loom repair was done without removing the dash. In fact the only item that was mandatory to remove on the interior side was the blower motor.

Airbag light will be from where you removed the glovebox, you had to disconnect the keyswitch to deactivate the passenger airbag for a baby seat, if the battery was connected at any time it will be a fault code and MIL light that will remain until reset with a suitable diagnostic reader.

 

It sounds like you did the repair without removing the dashboard, well done. You have saved a vehicle that the motor trade were ready to write off with determination and patience, well done to you!

 

I mostly figured out how to remove the dash by myself, pulling and pushing to find yet more fasteners that I hadn't seen.

 

The thing that had me stuck for ages was removing the steering column stalk assembly, I just could not see how the plastic parts latched together but did eventually.

"The local Skoda dealership said a new loom is required and suggested that writing off the car is the most economic solution". 

 

Am I the only one who finds it slightly worrying that a main dealer tells you to write off what is probable £8000+ of car  and then someone on this forum suggests "splicing in can be done some distance either side of the break, at a place where the loom is easier to get at".  (Well spotted Austin 7). You try it, it takes you perhaps half a day  (once you know what you are doing) and less than £5 in materials and you've fixed the problem. I appreciate that you don't have a new loom but then - do you care? It's a cost effective repair to a 6 year old car and can't be seen anyway. It makes you wonder what other expensive repairs carried out by main dealers might have cheaper, effective alternatives.

 

Glad to hear everything seems to have worked out well for you. Now, can I sell you a cat? Good mouser........

 

The dealer is not going to do anything other than the proper by the book repair, they should have directed the guy to a smaller garage with staff who use their grey matter.

 

Sadly there are those that would happily have just lodged an insurance claim, it would I believe be an insured risk, just like many with minor flood damage that could be fixed, the vehicle gets written off for (I will use your figure) £8K less the policy excess lets say £7.5k, owner is only £500 down and buys a new car, insurance company sell it at auction as the lowest category, it will probably make £6K, take away the insurance premium and the loading on the insured future premiums and the insurer has lost very little maybe even nothing.

 

The new owner does the £5 repair and has a cheap vehicle.

 

Unfortunately it happens all too often, the owners will take the £500 loss route rather than engage on repairs that could cost them a lot more and have a car that may have constant electronic problems.

 

Which they will probably get anyway if they replaced it with a new Octavia

Clearing the airbag light was a bigger problem than anticipated. The rodents damage was at 3 separate sites,  the engine bulkhead, the roof near the airbag crash sensor and at the rear of the car near the rear fuse board. Wiring repairs were required at all 3 sites to clear the airbag light.  The car is now fully repaired and operational with no fault codes.  The next task is to find a good rodent repellent as I have also detected some rodent activity on my daughters VW caddy. P.S. the dog was frequently jumping up on the car front wings and may have detected the rodent activity before I did.

11 hours ago, danduck said:

and at the rear of the car near the rear fuse board.

Where is that?

Apologies, on my car there was a small fuses units added for trailer lights etc by the previous owner.  This is not part of the standard build. 

The loom damage was behind the side panel of the car boot. 

I wonder if such damage would have been coverd by insurance?

 

If so writing off and buying back from the insurer might have been a profitable route!

In Ireland Rodent damage is covered by most insurance policies however the profitability of buying back needs to be checked carefully.

(1) if a claim is made, the  "no claims bonus" is lost and this has an impact on the insurance premium for 5 - 6 years.

(2) it depends on the scrap value placed on the car by the insurance company.

(3) in some cases, it is a condition of the insurance company that the car is crushed.

Rodent damage from Pine Martens is a growing problem in Ireland and we recently had a national radio program devoted to the topic.

Pine Martens are a protected species and there numbers are growing.