Sabotage?!

[MarkB_MI]

My boss just had his Kia SUV in for a recall (tech said to get it fixed or it might burn to the ground) and while he was there, he questioned them about two tpms (tire pressure monitor system) sensors that weren’t working. They said them had them on hand and could replace them while doing the recall. He goes to pay and was informed that they only had one sensor and the other was back ordered and would be in next week. I was on the other side of the wall listening to all this. They had him pay for both sensors and the sensor installation. The two sensors were $333. Each. So both sensors were $666. Then there was the installation charge. $150.

If you think I was gouged on the price, I'd say that's far from the case. Six hundred bucks to find and repair a wiring problem in a modern vehicle is a pretty fair price, in my opinion. Their original estimate was $1300, including a new sensor. They could have told me they replaced the sensor (they didn't) and I would have been none the wiser.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Maybe they were going to steal the tailgate ?
Cut the harness and couldn't remove the gate ?
Michigan tailgates don't always pop off the hinge , and the harness is a pain to unplug properly.
The valve stem could be from road debris

That did occur to me. One would think a potential thief would check to see if the tailgate was unlocked before trying to steal it, but maybe not.

If the other two issues hadn't occurred at about the same time, I'd be inclined to think it was a botched theft attempt. But three separate problems occurring at the same time sounds like more than a coincidence.

 

[NDIHC]

Don't know about sabotage, but I have had 2 car problems caused by squirrels or other critters. Wires cut as good as my best electronic pliers could do. I also had a 3 day repair on a grain dryer for squirrel damage.

That was the first thing that came to my mind. I've seen squirrel damage that you would swear was caused by a wire cutter.

 

[Duner Wi]

I think you suffered more coincidentious than I am prepared to believe possible.

 

[ss55]

Two weeks ago I loaded up my 2017 Silverado 2500HD Duramax with tools and headed out to Colobraska to help my sister with an eviction. She was renting her property and commercial building to a body repairman/shade-tree mechanic, but he wasn't paying rent, refused to get insurance and had turned the property into a junkyard. Not to mention he had sub-let part of the building to another shade-tree without her permission. I won't go into details about the eviction, but at least her tenant/squatters are gone along with most of their junk.

So Saturday morning I packed up and started to head home. Immediately I saw the dreaded warning message on my dashboard saying the truck's speed would be limited to 65 mph in 100 miles. Oh, darn. 1200 miles from home in a truck about to go into limp mode and it's Saturday to boot. I knew the local mechanics (including the guys we'd just evicted) only knew how to delete diesel emissions systems, not how to fix them. So I searched for all the Chevy dealers within a hundred miles and found a big dealership 90 miles away. They were open Saturday morning and best of all, that town has a car rental agency. So I drove to the dealer, dropped off the truck, rented a car and headed back to help Sis some more.

Monday the dealer's service manager called and said the truck had a wiring issue and needed an EGT sensor. The sensor would come in the next day. Tuesday they had the truck running. They ended up not replacing the EGT sensor, but found a broken wire and fixed it. (The broken wire was between the particulate matter sensor and fuel pump control module.) Six hundred bucks later I was on my way! I did notice as I pulled out that the backup camera flashed blue, but I didn't think much about it; I was in a hurry to get some miles between me and Colobraska. I later realized that the camera was completely out of commission. I figured the tech had left something unplugged and I'd figure it out when I got home.

Once home I climbed under the truck and started looking. The wiring harness to the tailgate was cleanly cut in two! You can't buy just the harness; it's part of the camera. The conductors are really small so I didn't think splicing would be practical. I found a new OEM camera on Amazon for 125 bucks and ordered it. All the time I'm trying to figure out why the dealer tech would have cut that harness.

THEN yesterday I discovered another anomaly: The left rear tire's valve stem was damaged, even though there was no damage to the tire or wheel. It looked like, uh, well just like someone had taken a pair of dykes to it. Maybe the same dykes they used to cut the wiring harness. Maybe even the same pliers they used to cut a wire going to the particulate matter sensor. I showed my picture to a bunch of automotive engineer friends and they all agreed the damage looked deliberate.

So... my current theory is that one of my sister's evicted tenants identified my truck in the hotel parking lot (Michigan license plate is a dead giveaway) and took a pair of dykes to it sometime Friday night. And there may still be other damage I haven't found just yet. Does anybody have a different theory?

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Your multiple damages could be suspicious, but if you did not have personal contact with the evicted tenant it seems very odd that you would be targeted instead of the property owner. Is your sister also having any similar problems that could be vandalism? Were you hauling home any personal property that had belonged to the tenant and were in plain sight on your truck?

When you are home you could have your local dealer check over the truck, show them your receipts and ask for their opinion. If wire damage was caused by rodents there could posibly be more damage at other spots along the wire. Since you are now several states away I do not think you should worry about future vandalism.

Things like that do make a person uncomfortable and even a little paranoid for a while, BTDT.

 

[Hobo,NC]

That damage came from someone that walks upright on two legs.

 

[MarkB_MI]

That was the first thing that came to my mind. I've seen squirrel damage that you would swear was caused by a wire cutter.

Few if any squirrels around my sister's place or the hotel where I stayed. (Now packrats, on the other hand...)

The dozens of squirrels at our place in Michigan have had almost ten years to chew up my truck, but so far have left it alone.

 

[wh]

Check with your insurance. They may cover it under vandalism.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Your multiple damages could be suspicious, but if you did not have personal contact with the evicted tenant it seems very odd that you would be targeted instead of the property owner. Is your sister also having any similar problems that could be vandalism? Were you hauling home any personal property that had belonged to the tenant and were in plain sight on your truck?

I don't think the ex-tenants draw much of a distinction between me and my sister. For one thing, I inspected the property a couple of times last year and I'm sure they know I didn't give a positive report to my sister (who lives in Arizona).

My truck was easily identifiable due to the Michigan license plate. But if they found my sister's vehicle they would have realized it was a rental. (It had red Colorado fleet vehicle plates.) Not much sense in vandalizing a rental vehicle.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Check with your insurance. They may cover it under vandalism.

Hard to prove vandalism caused the limp mode problem. And I never filed a police report. I suppose the total repair cost will exceed my deductible, but not by much.

 

[wh]

Had a truck hood intentionally scratched in several places years ago. Went by insurance and they looked at it. Said because it was vandalized there would be no deductible. Then asked if I had any idea what happened or who did it. Said yes I did. MY HORSE had raked his teeth across hood while in barn. Adjuster laughed and said it was still vandalism. And they paid to have hood fixed.

 

[ss55]

I don't think the ex-tenants draw much of a distinction between me and my sister. For one thing, I inspected the property a couple of times last year and I'm sure they know I didn't give a positive report to my sister (who lives in Arizona).

My truck was easily identifiable due to the Michigan license plate. But if they found my sister's vehicle they would have realized it was a rental. (It had red Colorado fleet vehicle plates.) Not much sense in vandalizing a rental vehicle.

OK, I did not realize your sister was not local. Yeah, if that makes you the main physical contact with the ex-tenant, then vandalism to your sound more plausible.

 

[MarkB_MI]

UPDATE: I got a call from my sister last night. It seems her ex-lessee is IN JAIL. We don't know what the charges are, but the scuttlebutt around town was that he was under investigation for insurance fraud. He had a reputation for cashing insurance company checks without bothering to perform the repairs he was being paid for.

It's good my sister got him out when she did; if he was still on her place it might have been treated as a crime scene and been locked up for who knows how long.

I obtained this recording of a phone call the ex-tenant made: Hello Dad

 

[Mark-Ia]

Anybody else at the motel have damage?

 

[MarkB_MI]

Anybody else at the motel have damage?

Not to my knowledge, and I stayed there two more days.

 

[RedMF40]

Thinking outside the box: snip a few connections to try to drum up repair work?

 

[Tree-Farmer]

My speculation is: That's very minor damage to be vandalism. You would expect that someone who wanted to damage your truck would do something worse.

 

[MarkB_MI]

My speculation is: That's very minor damage to be vandalism. You would expect that someone who wanted to damage your truck would do something worse.

You think so? Let's do the math:

Emissions system repair: $630
Backup camera: $125 (This is buying it off Amazon and replacing it myself; list price is $186 and labor would be another hundred bucks or so.)
Valve stem replacement: $25
Car rental: $250
Three extra hotel nights: $400

Added up, that's 1430 bucks. Not counting my aggravation and other miscellaneous expenses such as extra meals and fuel.

He knew what he was doing; I'm sure one of his illegal activities is performing diesel emissions deletes on pickups and heavy-duty trucks (as evidenced by the discarded exhaust components and DEF tanks on the property). He also didn't want to be too obvious, since major vandalism would have almost certainly got him arrested. The only overt vandalism was the cut tailgate harness and he may not have realized that's what he cut; the harnesses for the tail lights and trailer are close by.

 

[Wdj]

You think so? Let's do the math:

Emissions system repair: $630
Backup camera: $125 (This is buying it off Amazon and replacing it myself; list price is $186 and labor would be another hundred bucks or so.)
Valve stem replacement: $25
Car rental: $250
Three extra hotel nights: $400

Added up, that's 1430 bucks. Not counting my aggravation and other miscellaneous expenses such as extra meals and fuel.

He knew what he was doing; I'm sure one of his illegal activities is performing diesel emissions deletes on pickups and heavy-duty trucks (as evidenced by the discarded exhaust components and DEF tanks on the property). He also didn't want to be too obvious, since major vandalism would have almost certainly got him arrested. The only overt vandalism was the cut tailgate harness and he may not have realized that's what he cut; the harnesses for the tail lights and trailer are close by.

Hmmm... Seems designed to have you 100 miles away before it's discovered.