Mice :(

[ThatOneGuy99]

So after my 99 'sploder sat for a few months I got in one day to the lovely sight of a little mouse nest (made out of my registration paperwork) in the glove box. After a somewhat long drawn out battle with my new found small furry enemies they decided to move out. After that I found they got in through the blower motor and ate through the insulation into the glove box, whatever, not worried about some insulation. Problem now is I have no communication between the OBD port and the GEM. Honestly my first instinct was to smash my face into the steering wheel repeatedly and find a nice cliff, but after looking at it some more everything works fine, everything the GEM controls still works 100%. Basically my question is does anyone have a nice explanation (preferably pictures, reading hurts my brain) of the wire(s) going from the OBD port to the GEM? I'm not trying to follow every single wire to find the little bite marks left by my "friends". Also on a side note my steering column started smoking the other day, turned on my turn signal and that happened, stopped after maybe a second or two, but I park a bit further from my house now just in case. Thanks in advance, if I don't respond check the news for an explorer catching fire somewhere in Northern California

 

[J_C]

Turn signal, replace the MFS (multi-function switch) or start by pulling it out to see if the wires/contacts in the connector to it, have pulled out and are shorting.

The diagnostic port (aka OBD2 port) connects to the PCM. You might check the wires on the firewall connector to it, otherwise I could not guess, let alone give you pictures, of every area the wire runs from there to the PCM that a mouse might fit and decide to chew.

I can provide a pinout of the '96 4.0L (OHV) PCM and of the diagnostic port, then you can use a multimeter to check for both continuity between both ends, and not shorting to ground, and power on power pins and ground on ground pins.

If a non-ground is shorting to ground, cut the wire at both ends and string a new replacement wire between the two.

If there are no shorts to ground but loss of continuity (or very high resistance point to point) you could try to find where that wire is severed to reconnect it, or again just clip the wire at both ends and string a new one.

 

[J_C]

I should have mentioned that the PCM connector picture I attached previously, is just something I dug up, and as mentioned previously it is for a different model year. You could compare the wire colors, to the wire colors on yours if you need to verify you have correct contacts during testing, if there seems to be a fault.

 

[410Fortune]

The gem module has scp data bus + and - wires, the same wires that the pcm uses to communicate with the scanner/modules

I would pull the radio bezel, after that there are 3 wiring plugs going into your gem module, I would inspect the wires there
Likely they chewed up a wire behind the radio bezel
May not be as difficult to spot as you think

So the only issue you have is your scanner cannot communicate to the gem? I’m not sure I have ever tried to talk to the gem module? Only pcm and ABs is the gem module something you have communicated with in the past?
Have you checked all fuses? Did you clean out the blower motor box?

 

[Mr. Alligator]

When you are done, if your “friends” have a specific target (like fuel injector wires….) you can stop them by wrapping the wires (or other target) in the rodent tape Honda sells.

I tried to stop the rodents with moth balls, anti rodent spray, duct tape… nothing worked. The mice ate the bag for the moth balls. Snap traps kill ‘em, but they come back. I tried the Honda rodent tape. Expensive, but better than pulling manifolds on RV to replace fuel injector wires and connectors.

The Honda rodent tape works, and the “friends” have not been back for about ten years….

Good luck!

 

[410Fortune]

I have three cats in the shop
Mice infested trucks get pulled into shop, I leave all doors open and leave it in there for a week or so

Also I use bucket traps to catch and kill mice. You can set a small bucket trap up in the truck with peanut butter and overnite catch the entire family. Snap traps only catch one mouse (if you are lucky) then they are done. Bucket traps keep working over and over



The Honda tape is *****in!!
Also can leave the hood up on vehicles that will sit for a while, less likely to attract rodents with the hood open

I hate mice

 

[J_C]

The gem module has scp data bus + and - wires, the same wires that the pcm uses to communicate with the scanner/modules

I would pull the radio bezel, after that there are 3 wiring plugs going into your gem module, I would inspect the wires there
Likely they chewed up a wire behind the radio bezel
May not be as difficult to spot as you think

So the only issue you have is your scanner cannot communicate to the gem? I’m not sure I have ever tried to talk to the gem module? Only pcm and ABs is the gem module something you have communicated with in the past?
Have you checked all fuses? Did you clean out the blower motor box?

Where do these scp wires split to go to both GEM and PCM? I'm thinking that if only the wires to the gem are severed, the diagnostic port should still work to communicate to the PCM, unless the wires go to the GEM and daisy chain off the GEM connector to go to the PCM.

 

[410Fortune]

I’ll get the pinout
He said he cannot communicate with gem, apparently he can talk to the pcm just fine?

I have 2000 explorer book wiring is the same as 99

 

[J_C]

I’ll get the pinout
He said he cannot communicate with gem, apparently he can talk to the pcm just fine?

I have 2000 explorer book wiring is the same as 99

Yeah we need to know more details of what is going on. I assumed he meant, can't communicate with anything.

I've not been able to find any diagram showing the GEM has SCP data bus connections, only that the GEM pin 25 connects on ISO9141, pin 7 on the data link connector. Simplified diagram:

 

[410Fortune]

Copy that! I came to the same conclusion today! No can bus wires to any of the 4 gem module connections

 

[ThatOneGuy99]

Thank you all for the help, I haven't gotten to look into it too much yet, but hopefully on my next couple days off I'll do some more looking. I think 410 is correct, everything else is communicating fine, even things on that same pin (RAP, ABS, and while I don't remember if I can see an airbag module on my scan tool I don't have the light on my dashboard so I'm assuming it's fine). And as I said before everything the GEM controls works completely fine all the time, so my guess is it's just that one from the DLC after it branches off to the other modules.

 

[yeahokay]

When you are done, if your “friends” have a specific target (like fuel injector wires….) you can stop them by wrapping the wires (or other target) in the rodent tape Honda sells.

I tried to stop the rodents with moth balls, anti rodent spray, duct tape… nothing worked. The mice ate the bag for the moth balls. Snap traps kill ‘em, but they come back. I tried the Honda rodent tape. Expensive, but better than pulling manifolds on RV to replace fuel injector wires and connectors.

The Honda rodent tape works, and the “friends” have not been back for about ten years….

Good luck!

I live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by wildlife, the only thing that keeps the mice away for me are cats Im not a fan of cats so I tried everything before getting a cat. Ive repaired too many wiring harnesses due to these rodents luckily ive never had to replace an entire harness... although some neighbors have at ridiculous costs.

 

[J_C]

You could probably make your own rodent tape inexpensively. Take a roll of cloth surgical tape, and smear super hot, hot sauce on it. Just don't rub your eyes after handling it. It wouldn't even need to be *normal* hot sauce, probably better to just take some super hot peppers and pulp/cook/reduce them down to paste, without putting any acid (vinegar, etc) in, nor any salt which is also corrosive. Wear nitrile gloves at all times or else your fingers will be on fire later.