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??
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??
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.
That happened to my friend last year. On a cold day a squirrel got under his hood and chewed through some of the wires. When he got to his car and it would not start he opened the hood and the squirrel was still there.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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).
Last year I had a run of mice based repairs. They got to 3 of my vehicles. Thre real kicker was my dump truck. One day, the thing wouldn't even start. Opened the hood and they had chewed through a few wires and run off with the wire from the coil to the distributor!
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!
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.
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.
happened to my dad's cadillac when we bought it new, as in less than a week after bringing it home. cadillac was nice enough to fix it for free.
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