So it turns out it is NOT the water pump – some critters thought my car was a good place to hunker down and had chewed up wires causing shorts and such.
Bad news: expensive repair
Good news: covered by insurance
Bad news: adjuster determined car is a total loss (repairs > car is worth)
Good news: Shop negotiated and new estimate is within allowable amount.
Mediocre news: will be next week until I get it. I am picking up a rental today, and shop will give me a loaner (free except gas) for next week.
I’ve read somewhere Ford and GM both are formulating wire insulation that isn’t so tasty. I never heard of the phenomena until a few years ago and now it’s a lot. Critters evolved to eat wire harnesses?
It’s not clear to me how much of this is true vs. myth, but there has been a switch to soy-based insulation on wiring harnesses in the past several years, and allegedly rodents have found this more appetizing than petroleum-based insulation.
The Germans pioneered that inadvertently tasty edible insulation as part of their greenery push 30+ years ago to ensure cars can be disassembled and recycled and bio-degraded. For awhile BMWs were famous for having mysterious wiring glitches that could be traced back to gnawed-on (or fully eaten) wiring harnesses.
The problem, if you think about it, is that “biodegradable” and “edible” are the very same idea. It just depends on who/what is doing the eating. Formulating something that bacteria and fungi can thrive on, but that macroscopic critters like mammals can’t is a bit of a tough chemical engineering project.
Granted, plants have evolved a tremendous variety of chemicals for exactly that purpose. Of course some of them, like capsaicin, have made some plants more attractive, at least to humans.
Marmots chewing on wiring and rubber parts has long been a problem at trailheads in the Sierra. The National Park Service even has this advisory: Marmots - Protecting Your Vehicle.
At the species level definitely yes. This graphic is about animals, but good bet the case for plants is similar.
At the individual organism level not so much. We raise, and eat, an awful lot of biomass taken in its youth after a stunted existence by its standards. Plant or animal.
