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Something chewed the wires in my car's engine recently. What are some ways to trace which wires goto which components?

Backstory: a few months ago, my car started acting funny. One of the blinkers was faster than the other. The ABS and Tire Pressure lights came on even though I don't have those. My parking break light won't go off anymore. And both my passenger bright headlight and AC don't work. The car still runs well though, so I've been holding off until now so that I can do it myself if I'm capable. It's a 2006 Corolla if that helps.

Chewed wires

EDIT: Huzzah!!! Everything has been wired up properly again. I didn't think to really look at the wires when I first saw the damage, but upon further inspection of the wires, it turns out that only the ground wires were severed. After splicing them all together, things seem to be normal in my car again.

Thanks everyone.

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    Those wires should ALL be different colors. For a 2006 you're also at the perfect age to go to a Pick-n-Pull yard and get an entire wiring harness off a wreck, use an absolutely rigid "cut nothing" rule, and patience, and you'll get the entire harness off whole for a pro-quality repair that won't fail again.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Apr 8, 2021 at 23:47

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A blinker flashing faster is usually a short in the circuit (ie a bulb going,creating not enough resistance in the circuit casuing it to flash faster). I cannot help tracing the wires physically but someone may chime in with the use of a mutltimeter.
First thing I'd do is get the wiring diagram for your car. See what colour wire is what on the chewed up wires and work back from there.
Welcome to the community by the way!

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  • Thanks for the info, I'll try and look at that later.
    – Blerg
    Apr 4, 2021 at 3:05
  • Did you get any further, did you manage to find out what components the wires go too?
    – DamoC
    Apr 18, 2021 at 13:10
  • Thanks for checking up on me. I had something bad happen around the time I posted this, so I've been delayed at finding solutions. Things are getting better, so I'm hoping I'll have some time soon. The multimeter idea sounds pretty good so far. I may not get the tire and ABS sensor to go off, but I'm hoping at least for AC again. Texas heat is coming soon.
    – Blerg
    Apr 22, 2021 at 22:31

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