Battery Cover

[Tulet]

Has anyone else had a problem with the felt battery cover? It seems that an air flow has shredded my battery cover. Not only did it shred the felt, the debris of felt converged around the 2nd cylinder wire lead and frayed it to the point of failure. Have contacted Ram dealer locally and will have an answer tomorrow. Yesterday it started running rough so I ran a diagnostic on it today and found P0032, P0038, P1129, P0301, P0138, and P0152. That's when I pulled the Engine cover and Air Intake hose from the manifold and found the offending felt. Don't know if it can be repaired in place or if the harness needs replacement.

 

[crash68]

Mice have been known to chew on the battery blankets and vehicle wiring harnesses.
It's possible that the damage is from airflow but there would be more reports of it happening and why is the debris just around the #2 cylinder?

 

[Tulet]

There is no sign of animal interference, and it looks as if the debris was twisted around the wire. The swirling air must have done this because it looks like that is the only place under the engine cover that had room for air flow from the grill to the firewall.

 

[Pull Ya]

That sounds really strange. I've had 3-4th gen trucks and I've never seen or heard of that problem and I'm under the hood all the time. Good luck trying to figure this out--good luck with the dealer also---
Jay

 

[heefageLA]

My cat LOVES my battery cover. She spent the entire winter there. Every morning before work I have to pop the hood and make sure I dont have an extra passenger.

I dont see how soft felt could cause anything to fray like that... Are you sure you havent found a rats nest?

 

[Tach_tech]

Only time I’ve ever seen them frayed or damaged was from mice etc. If the felt ended up under the engine cover, it would have to be from rodents. Cylinder 2 is also on the passenger side so it would be quite the vortex under the hood to rip up the battery cover and blow it across to the passenger side of the engine.

Ive seen lots of wiring chewed up by rodents with no sign of them in there, so I have my doubts airflow did it or it would likely be something more common.

 

[Tulet]

UPDATE: FOUND EVIDENCE OF A MOUSE. So, a MOUSE has caused me all kinds of grief. My new truck started running rough and it lost about 4 miles per gallon on the gauge. Heavy vibrations at medium speeds and steady shaking also. Ran a diagnostic to find a cylinder not firing. Opened the hood to find the Battery box cover shredded. Removed the manifold cover to see the beginnings of a nest and 2 wires chewed on. Fixed the wires and truck runs fine now. Almost had to take it in at a cost of $600-700 dollars. WHEW!!!

 

[Hawkman]

Rodents ate threw a wiring harness on my brothers F-150. Had to replace an entire wiring harness. Cost him dearly.

 

[buddy guy]

Funny cause I looked at mine after reading your first post and thought there is no way a wind vortex under the hood was able to get that sucker through the mess of wires etc in the way to the intake.

 

[tidefan1967]

We've had this problem before too. A mouse ate through a couple injector wires on my moms Explorer when it was almost new, I think it had a little over 7K miles on it at the time. Now that you've figured out everything its time to get some mothballs or some of those Christmas tree air fresheners and put them under the hood and that will keep the vermin away. I prefer the mothballs because they last a long time and you know when they need replacing because you can't smell them anymore.

 

[buddy guy]

irish spring soap. use it when storing motorbikes over winter all the time. i just set a bar on a towel on my seat and the vermin hate the smell.