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Rodents Under the Hood????

2K views 20 replies 19 participants last post by  mohooba93 
#1 ·
Well I learned a new (and $400+) lesson. Mice like the insulation on the injector wires! My 9-3 suddenly threw a CEL and would barely run. After a visit to the dealer, and spending for repairs as above, I was told that it appeared mice had gnawed away the wiring!!!!
Anybody ever hear of this before> Any thoughts on preventing it from happening again??

Thanks guys,

Dom
 
#2 ·
SoftTop said:
Well I learned a new (and $400+) lesson. Mice like the insulation on the injector wires! My 9-3 suddenly threw a CEL and would barely run. After a visit to the dealer, and spending for repairs as above, I was told that it appeared mice had gnawed away the wiring!!!!
Anybody ever hear of this before> Any thoughts on preventing it from happening again??

Thanks guys,

Dom
Same thing happened to my bmx X3 last spring. Sucked! It's now never stored out of the closed garage.
 
#3 ·
I guess you can mount an owl in the engine compartment:lol: Mice are hard to keep way. I'm not sure anything will solve your problem. Parking it inside might help, but I've also found mice in my gargage in the past. I now park my cars inside and put out one of those poison mice traps in the garage was well.
 
#5 ·
took the 9-3 up to PEI where it sat for a week. When we started it back up it was blowing all kinds of debris through the vents. Turns out that a small woodland creature had made a nest out of the cabin air filter on top of the cabin fan.
Luckily it had moved out before we started the car!

Apparently trolls arent the only creature that like Saabs
 
#7 ·
Talking about critters under the hood. A friend had a reticulated python under the hood of his 9-5. When his cat started behaving strangely near the car he wondered what was wrong until he checked the car and opened the hood. On top of the engine was a python coiled neatly around the engine. Luckily he didn't start the engine or it would have mashed up the snake on the belts.
 
#8 ·
I just recently discovered a rat's nest built under the hood of my car. I noticed my cone air filter was really dirty, then I saw that the mice had used the insulation mat on the underside of the hood to make a nest. Chewed a nice big hole in it. F***** rodents.
 
#10 ·
Yuk

My wife has an '00 Accord, and one day we started to notice a "smell", assumed it was some nearby roadkill or something. The smell got worse, until we took it to the dealer. We got a report that a mouse had evidently crawled up the snorkel leading to the cabin fan (no cover on the opening in the engine compartment), and evidently Mickey stuck his head into the fan area just about the time my wife turned on the blower, decapitating the critter. Needless to say, he wasn't backing out on his own volition, and proceeded to decompose.

Yuk.

The dealer said they were fighting about who had to do the clean-out, it stunk so bad. Damn thing cost me $100.:cry:
 
#11 ·
epsilon93 said:
Talking about critters under the hood. A friend had a reticulated python under the hood of his 9-5. When his cat started behaving strangely near the car he wondered what was wrong until he checked the car and opened the hood. On top of the engine was a python coiled neatly around the engine. Luckily he didn't start the engine or it would have mashed up the snake on the belts.
If you weren't in the tropics, I'd think this was an urban legend :D
 
#14 ·
Seems like I hit a nerve with this rodent business! Thanks to all for the advice. I also thought of some kind of wire mesh barrier, but now I realize a small rodent could get by that pretty easily. So, we will see...
 
#15 ·
another option is to start the car while the rodent is in the engine bay.

Bad news: 176 dollars to get the serpentine belt put back on.

Good News: Got the little bugger

Happened in my driveway. starting my audi and lost power steering etc.
after removing the engine cover, found the dead rat with the belt off its tensioner, etc.

now I keep traps outside and so far so good. (along with my cats).
 
#17 ·
Anybody ever hear of this before> Any thoughts on preventing it from happening again??
I bought my convertible used, and found a couple of holes in the hood insulation. Didn't think much of it, until a few months later I checked the cabin air filter. The mouse or mice had pulled the insulation from the hood and stuffed it all against the filter! :evil: Lucky I hadn't been sucking the crud into the car for more than a couple months. :suprised;

Now whenever I store my car (it stays in the barn over winter) I set several mouse traps under the hood. What I've found is that early winter/fall you find they come in from the cold and I need to check them every week. By Jan/Feb I don't need to check them often.

Yes, I have cats, but they don't seem to like car mice, only the ones in the fields (it's same species, but the cats don't know that!).

I hope I didn't offend anyone with my cruel elimination methods, but tough luck. They can be pretty cruel to my poor car, and their droppings can harbor virus harmful to humans. Not to mention the stench of a hot mouse nest! :(
 
#19 ·
Bud calls and wants a full set of wires. Something chewed them up. I go over and we are changing and timing his Pinto but there is nothing left of the wiring.

His wife comes home and parks. Few moments later a fat furry woodchuck comes up the drive and disappears under the car. I hear chewing. Pinto Wagon.

Up in New Hampshire, the Toyota J comes out for winter and the Mercedes 280 goes in the barn. Spring and the beast will not start. Start to check the engine compartment and find that the mice have nested .... and .... have used the air cleaner as a store room. Dog food! They packed the whole air cleaner with dog food.
 
#20 ·
Had to buy a truck for work, so Saab had to sit through the winter (not a bad thing at all). But went to drive it in spring and noticed a weird stink inside. Smelled like pee. What!!!??? Found some "black rice" all over the back seats and in trunk....uh oh... followed the trail of rice behind the trim panels on the drivers side trunk. Found big tufts of insulation and and fuzz way back up inside there. Darn mice made a winter home in my Saab!

Cleaned all the stuff out, but now I have this nasty pee smell. I've tried "odor xit" and various other odor removal products without any success.

Any Ideas?
 
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