Rat nest in my engine compartment- AC won't blow cold anymore

[High Plains Drifter 11187]

AC suddenly stopped blowing cold. I pop the hood and see this...

 

 

sitting right on top of AC compressor.

 

Cleaned the nest off:

 

 You can see where the dirty black insulation has been chewed off revealing a white area underneath (between the red connector and the compressor). The white has been chewed slightly, but doesn't appear to be chewed through. Running outside of that insulation are two small wires that have been completely chewed in half.

 

Here are the two chewed wires up close (one blue one black):

 

 

and

 

 

The AC seems to be working fine, its just not blowing cold. The compressor is turning on when I turn on the AC, the blower works, the AC clutch is engaging. Could those two tiny ass wires be the problem? Or did the fucking rat chew a hole somewhere and all my freon is gone?

 

One last pic. This is where the white shit came from:

 

Questions:
 

1. If I just wrap that exposed white in electrical tape, and splice in some wire to reconnect those two chewed wires and wrap those, am I risking screwing up something even worse?

2. Should i just recharge the freon and see what happens? You can see the recharge port in the lower left of the last pic.

3. If the fucking rat did chew a hole somewhere, and the freon is leaking out, is there anyway to easily find the hole?

 

This is the wife's car. No AC is not an option. I'd rather not spend a shit ton of money if possible.

 

[ztejas 44227]

3 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

This is the wife's car.

Ah. I was confused for a minute there. 

[Gil Bang 26240]

fuck that rat

[TwiceHorn 32079]

Oddball engine compartment.  Subaru?

I can't figure what those wires might control there at the compressor, other than the clutch.

[RPM 26628]

Check every wire on the a/c system. If they've been chewed, they need replaced. Rodents are the ultimate pita because they will go places you can't see or reach and chow down on wires.

[Jerry Callo 8960]

Rats aren't likely able to chew through anything carrying freon.  Start by replacing those wires.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4999]

Pics of wife and her RATS?

[SquishMitten 10497]

Start with the easy stuff. The wires need to be replaced anyway, so take care of that and hopefully it solves the problem. Every time I’ve tried to recharge Freon I’ve overdone it because the gauges on those DIY kits suck, but might be worth it to pick up a pressure tester or leak detector. I wouldn’t underestimate a rats ability to chew through anything.

[High Plains Drifter 11187]

9 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Oddball engine compartment.  Subaru?

I can't figure what those wires might control there at the compressor, other than the clutch.

 

Yeah, fucking subarus (no lesbian). engine and transmission run great (approaching 200K miles) but everything else is falling apart. AC clutch seems to be working. I have no idea on the wires. Extensive googling is no help. I think I can replace the wires with some shady shade tree rig job, and see what happens.

I do like the oil filter sitting right up top. I don't even need a oil filter wrench to get it off.

[High Plains Drifter 11187]

1 hour ago, SquishMitten said:

Start with the easy stuff. The wires need to be replaced anyway, so take care of that and hopefully it solves the problem. Every time I’ve tried to recharge Freon I’ve overdone it because the gauges on those DIY kits suck, but might be worth it to pick up a pressure tester or leak detector. I wouldn’t underestimate a rats ability to chew through anything.

 

How much we talking here?

 

[Jerry Callo 8960]

39 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

I have no idea on the wires

You should be able to Google [year] Subaru [model] ac wiring diagram to figure out what the wires go to.  Most diagrams will identify the wires by color.

As an example:

 

ETA:  I'm a Google/YouTube certified mechanic.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Jerry Callo

[davidg 4057]

1 hour ago, Jerry Callo said:

ETA:  I'm a Google/YouTube certified mechanic.

I bought this for a buddy of ebay.

[TwiceHorn 32079]

From futzing around, it looks like the black thing actually on the compressor is a pressure sensor (to which the chewed black wire may lead).  That feeds into the ECU/AC controller and starts/stops the clutch/compressor depending on conditions in the compressor.  There are some other things that feed into the ECU to control the clutch/compressor  and electric fan and idle speed, etc.

None of them, however, would seem to account for a complete absence of cold air.  Intermittent operation, yes.

Are you getting hot air?  Blend door maybe?

[Sbbruin 22144]

Fucking rats caused us to blow an engine on our Explorer.  Chewed some wires, caused some misfirings and blew the engine.  Had to replace.  Fortunately the mechanic found a Mercury Mariner (same engine) that had been totaled but the engine was fine.  Still cost $3,500, but better than the $8,000 we were quoted.

[RPM 26628]

Rodents will fuck shit up overnight. The only defense is dogs or parking indoors. Wire insulation and copper are like crack to them. Squirrels are the worst. They will gnaw through 4" wire harnesses and hunt for more.

[MagicSoccerSpray 1736]

6 hours ago, RPM said:

Rodents will fuck shit up overnight. The only defense is dogs or parking indoors. Wire insulation and copper are like crack to them. Squirrels are the worst. They will gnaw through 4" wire harnesses and hunt for more.

Hunters at a ranch in South Texas used to park their trucks with the hood up and never had any rodent problems out in the country. That removes a covered, dark, and cozy spot for them.

[Assman 1830]

Since the wires are already fucked, just cut and strip them and run jumpers between them to see if it solves your problem.  You have to fix them either way, so you might as well figure out if that's your problem before you go any further.

[High Plains Drifter 11187]

22 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

You should be able to Google [year] Subaru [model] ac wiring diagram to figure out what the wires go to.  Most diagrams will identify the wires by color.

As an example:

ETA:  I'm a Google/YouTube certified mechanic.

 

Thanks, I'll do that when I get some time.

 

 

21 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

From futzing around, it looks like the black thing actually on the compressor is a pressure sensor (to which the chewed black wire may lead).  That feeds into the ECU/AC controller and starts/stops the clutch/compressor depending on conditions in the compressor.  There are some other things that feed into the ECU to control the clutch/compressor  and electric fan and idle speed, etc.

None of them, however, would seem to account for a complete absence of cold air.  Intermittent operation, yes.

Are you getting hot air?  Blend door maybe?

 

Yeah, hot air works fine. not sure what "blend door" means.

 

13 hours ago, MagicSoccerSpray said:

Hunters at a ranch in South Texas used to park their trucks with the hood up and never had any rodent problems out in the country. That removes a covered, dark, and cozy spot for them.

 

Thanks, i might start doing that as we have covered parking.

 

11 hours ago, Assman said:

Since the wires are already fucked, just cut and strip them and run jumpers between them to see if it solves your problem.  You have to fix them either way, so you might as well figure out if that's your problem before you go any further.

 

I was planning on doing that as soon as I get some free time. Probably this weekend.

 

 

Thanks for all the feedback, fellas.

[High Plains Drifter 11187]

23 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

I was planning on doing that as soon as I get some free time. Probably this weekend.

 

 

 

please excuse self quote.

 

Well, sitting around not doing anything other than surfing surly, I figured I had some free time.

10 minutes later--

 

Pics to follow soon.

 

[High Plains Drifter 11187]

 

 

and there was cold AC. now just need to shorten and splice those wires and some electrical tape and we the wife is back on road.

 

 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4999]

Those are not the pics we were hoping for.

[Texas St. Armadillos 1388]

Rat shit, bat shit, dirty old twat.  69 assholes tied in a knot.  Hooray, lizard shit. Fuck 

[Horn_Spanker 524]

14 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Those are not the pics we were hoping for.

Really hard to fap to.