Eco-friendly brake cables eaten by foxes after switch to soy insulation
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
I wonder if the foxes are vegan?
Eco-friendly brake cables are being eaten by foxes, after manufacturers switched from petroleum-based insulation to soy, forcing owners to wrap their cars in tarpaulins.
Recent photos show multiple cars covered in blue plastic for protection after a spate of attacks in Worthing, West Sussex, with locals claiming at least 20 vehicles were targeted by foxes.
Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy, said the animals may be attracted to the soy-based insulation on brake wires.
Since 2000, peanut and soy-based oils and waxes have been used on car parts including gearbox insulation, primer bulbs and diesel injector wires, instead of petroleum-based coverings.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Perhaps they have developed a taste for brake fluid.
‘Liar! You’ve got antifreeze.’
It is the Telegraph , so they probably do not know what they are talking about .But it is about the insulation on the wiring cables .
And the wires to the ABS systems on the front brakes would be easily to get at by animals getting under the wheel arches .
if they have been using these substances for a quarter of a century it sounds as if there hasn’t been a wide spread problem.
so this seems to be a random event likely not caused by the soy or by a group of foxes who have got the taste perhaps through other means
Further misuse of food crops.
And the law of unintended consequences
Off Thread once more but this is Saturday and we are still at 2 gigawatts. It’s a week and a news story. Why nothing on the BBC? I’m Complaining.
Please do complain. I have complained so many times now, I think they are just ignoring me.
Another associated point is the fiasco that is German energy policy. Right now 69.4GW of wind capacity is running at just 1.24GW generation. The result is that they are importing from ….almost well every grid they possibly can i.e.
West Denmark, East Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and South West Norway. The only place they are not importing from that they could is Luxembourg!
Just think, when they are connected to the UK at Grain in Kent they will no doubt blood suck on us and we will no doubt willingly oblige with UK bill payers subsidising the cost.
I think I’m getting sarcastic replies to my appeals now.
Reply to your Cassley question below.
Sorry forgot to add South Sweden to that ridiculously long list. And they are interconnected via AC with Luxembourg so are probably shipping from France/Belgium over those links as well!
Also I see we are importing 5GW via the European interconnectors. At the same time only 3GW from gas and 0.38 GW from coal. Why would they use coal when they have loads of spare gas capacity? Is it cheaper to import electricity from the continent? Are we short of gas?
Ratcliffe on Soar closes later this year. To get rid of any coal stocks left would likely cost them money. It’s probably cheaper for them to burn it and sell the electricity for peanuts rather than move it after closure.
Many of the imports are actually very cheap indeed. With low weekend demand France’s nuclear plants are underused so they sell excess on cheaply. Although we have 4.4GW direct capacity from France (IFA 1, IFA2 and ElecLink) power can also be “transhipped from France via Belgium and The Netherlands to the UK via NemoLink and BritNed. Lots of fingers in the pie.
Perhaps this website helps explain things.
https://app.electricitymaps.com/map
It’s a very long time since cars had “brake cables”. Maybe Worthing has a high number of vintage cars?
Yes I was wondering about that. Older cars may have cables to hand brakes but most modern cars don’t even have manual hand brakes anymore. I can only presume they must be talking about electrical cables (hence insulation) but in that case why particularly only ones that service the brakes? And also why foxes? Rats/mice I can understand as they are well known to go for electrical cables but never heard of foxes even trying to or likely being able to access them easily.
How do they know it’s foxes? Nah more likely to be mice!
Or squirrels. https://squirreluniversity.com/why-do-squirrels-chew-on-wires/
My son in North Carolina had car troubles and the garage quickly diagnosed squirrels had chewed the insulation off a cable bundle, very common apparently, cost just under a thousand dollars to fix, insurance declined to pay.
Yes, vermin a standard exclusion. Case in UK where insurers tried to avoid paying out for a thatched roof house fire started by a rat that died of warfarin poisoning and eventually spontaneously combusted.
Avoch, I was going to say a few things … but already been said … and the stupidity of the entire Eco stuff, just triggers me …. and the day’s only just begun.
O/T Google search by Photo KNOWS I’m in the UK, but keeps referring me to answers from Overseas or Reddit ( rubbish too ) …. another triggering moment ! SMART TECH ??
We’ve had rats eating cables in our Skoda Yeti. Our dog got a whiff of something in it and tore off the mud flaps to get at it. We discovered a nest behind the plastic lining inside the wheel arch. No foxes yet.
All sounds a bit far fetched.
But can’t help hoping that some trendy far-left city folk who spent many virtue-signalling months campaigning for the abolition of fox hunting, discover that their little chums have been at work, just as they speed towards the top of Beachy Head.
I reported on these pages a year or two ago that my neighbors Rover had it’s engine wiring eaten by gray squirrels. It was out for weeks, as they had trouble locating all the damage.
Rover and Jaguar, at that time, were the users of organic insulation.
I’m thinking people who can afford those probably have a garage, hence the problem isn’t more widespread.
Garages offer no protection. They are favoured nesting sites for rodents.
They’ll keep squirrels out. Squirrels are the problem here.
You wrote:
I’m thinking people who can afford those probably have a garage, hence the problem isn’t more widespread.
That must assume that they always come home and park in their garage, if they travel and visit, there could still be issues.
I have had issues with rats or other creatures causing damage to my vehicles in my driveway.
Car sitting in driveway everyday will be found by vermin. Parking at Holiday Inn, not so much.
Parking at a Holiday Inn, the problems will more likely be human vermin.
Just discussed this issue with my son, (a lead designer at JLR!) who says the issue has now been resolved with a rodent deterrent additive. In the course of the discussion he pointed out the serious and incredibly dangerous issues involved with these sorts of electronics problems. He said “never heard of Anton Yelchin” – I hadn’t. “Look him up” So I did – strewth very worrying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Yelchin
the issue has now been resolved with a rodent deterrent additive
Has anyone been fired for all the trouble they caused?
Hey, of course not! Nobody seems to be responsible for anything anymore.
BTW:
Brake cables have no capacity to be ‘eco-friendly.’
I don’t suppose the HV cabling insulation for BEVs is eco friendly.
Sorry to be off topic, but are you familiar with Loch Shin? Odd question but I am trying to exactly identify the weather station alongside the Cassley Power Station. Met Office claim it is CIMO Class 1 – I think it is pretty crap!
This is a photograph I found online – the weather station seems to be the white bos to the right of the 32kV powerline pole.
Any info would be appreciated.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/951943
Ray,
Not somewhere I’m familiar with I’m afraid. I haven’t been that way for about 20 years. But it is pretty remote and not far as the crow flies from Altnaharra.
But it’s confusing as your link says northern shore of Loch Shin and this says Southern
https://canmore.org.uk/site/172996/loch-shin-cassley-power-station
Also Google says there’s a power station of the same name in Inverness itself. But it seems to be invisible.
Finally there’s a reference to the weather station here.
https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst89906.html
Cable can’t be friendly.
Hmm. IMHO it can definitely be unfriendly.
A case of history repeating itself inasmuch as I K Brunel had much the same problem one hundred odd years ago when he used leather for the flaps to seal the longitudinal valve running between the track on his atmospheric railway in Devon. Rats ate the leather.
And the tasty animal fat grease
I live very close to that line and helped get an example of system into into teignmouth museum. There are still two pumping stations locally.
I think it would be very interesting to recreate the system using modern technology
No – This time I don’t believe it. Brake cables have wound steel linings.
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Only if they are mechanical cables. Most modern cars now have hydraulic brake systems and electrically operated hand brakes. I presume they mean electric cables hence the insulation.
A friends new VW Transporter had the wiring looms eaten by mice, yep new ‘green’ product from VW.
Mercedes used to sell some reliable cars that became “less-than-reliable” when the biodegradable soya-based insulation on the wiring harnesses in the engine bays degraded too quickly.
UK domestic and commercial “VIR” (Vulcanised Indian Rubber) wiring used to degrade after a few decades, can’t be much left in existence now though.
I thought soy was the preferred snack of upper class, leftwing eco warriors with names like Tarquin, Indigo and Rubella!
edible wiring and plumbing ?
What could possibly go wrong?
oh….
https://www.axa.ch/en/ueber-axa/blog/mobility/marten%20damage-martens-vehicle%20damage.html
LOLROTF at this stupidity. It’s bad enough that mice eat non-soy car wires. Had it happen to me and switched to metal garbage cans so as not to attract mice to the driveway.
What they mean is electrical cables.
In recent years I have regularly seen extnsive damage to car wiring looms, even cars parked in garages.
I have seen injector wiring under engine covers damaged and needing replacement( accompanied by large quantities of seed/nut husks.)
I have seen air filter boxes completly filled with nuts. and in one case a vw golf that got written off as the damage to the ABS wiring neccesitated a whole new loom.
A nice warm place the engine bay!
Rodents did a huge amount of damage to new cars parked up outside waiting for chips that were in short supply post covid to arrive. Yep, econutjob insulation.
Hey gezza….can’t resist but why were the rodents waiting for chips?