Don’t Forget to Season the Automobiles, Mechanics!

I guess after you watch the following video, you won’t need much commentary. I thought this was common knowledge, but as I’ll explain in a moment, I may be wrong.

I thought it necessary because a good friend at an independent repair facility recently bemoaned the fact that he was repeating a rodent damage repair on a vehicle he’s already repaired in the past. I mentioned using the pepper tape (though I like A-to-B’s “spicy tape” better now after having found that video for this piece), and he didn’t know this stuff existed. When I told him about it, he got pretty interested, and then I realized what was common knowledge to me might be new to some other folks in this fix-’em-up-and-make-’em-go industry.

Photo: Image generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, 5/11/2026.

Rodent damage is real. And real expensive. And tracking down electrical gremlins caused by mouse bites is a special type of hell for some mechanics. So grab some capsaicin-infused Honda tape and tuck it in your box for situations where it’s appropriate; we’ve all seen chewed-up wires, and having a roll on the shelf is an easy upsell and beats waiting for it. (Let’s be honest, if it’s not in the shop, you’ll just button it up and send it.)

The OE Honda number is 4019-2317, but this is make-agnostic, obviously. At the time of this writing, the street price seems to be about $40, so it’s spicy in more ways than one.

If this tape interests you even slightly, I invite you to read a review on it from this blogger who had the moxie to try it out. (And probably got more comments than I will on this story, if I’m being honest.) Apparently, the taste is sublime. A Bloody Mary rim strip is genius.