JimV8

I think its rats. I hadn't driven the car for a month or so and it didn't want to start whch is unusual. I had checked the fluids as per usual but that it. So I drove for a bit to warm it up before changing oil and it stalled a couple of times at lights. Back home on close inspection i noticed a chunk of a dogs rawhide chew stick on the front shock tower. Now my Jack Russels are small but Nah. So I pulled the air box apart and found the problem. A whole bunch of pizza crusts lying on top of the air filter. What are these critters thinking. Next i should expect to see a couple of six packs?

Chris_924s

Buy 'em a little Icehouse beer. They'll figger it's Nascar and move onto a Dodge.

I heard rodents cant burp. They used to put Coca-Cola behind the bar in Chicago and the rats all died- too much Co2 in thier system..

Techno Duck

This reminds me of something that happened to my ex-g/f's Volvo 850 Turbo. The car sat for about a month outside of her house. Squirrles somehow got into the engine bay and chewed teh **** out of the electrical wires and just about everything rubber. Whats more funny is that the underhood insulation is still eaten up to hell. Everytime i saw it i just couldnt help but laugh.

Macfreak007

yeah, happened on the reliant, i park it outside, for months at a time, decided to get it out when i was doing my engine swap, so I changed the air filter, found a HUGE birds nest in there, still amazes me how they can fit into such tight places, I think the mice in our garage have found a home in my old engine, found some seeds...

inactiveuser92616

perhaps a ferret should become a standard garage accesory?

Jakerx

haha i think paragon should start offering engine mounted mice traps

Yabo

On the range rover I got this spring, that is almost ready to drive, i drove it home from NH, got home opened the hood, and there was a foot round mouse nest on top of the engine smoldering!

The old volvo 740 wagon I had, a racoon got in an open window at night.. and lets just say the headliner wasn't too pretty the next morning...

Baron009

I found some broken nutshells on my strut tower after last winter. I guess it was a squirrel or something. Luckily it started and ran fine all year.

That reminds me I've already put my car away, but I ought to set up some mouse traps and stuff.

fastman

Rats have gotten to our trucks at work and done a lot of damage munching on wires and hoses. Fortunately no damage to our pov's. I have been told that fabric softener sheets for the clothes dryer will keep mice away, but have not tryed it.

jjjr944

I've had problems with mice as recnt as a month ago (but no rats) in my garage. Nested in the engine and made a nest out of the black open cell hood foam. BASTIDS!
Look for droppings around the area and under the car. (little 1/8" poop mice, bigger 1/2" to 1" poop-rat) Close up any access holes if it is a garage or building. Bounce® fabric softener sheets are awesome at repelling critters. They can't take the strong perfume smell. Also set out poison and traps as they do work very well.

If you want to go the "croc hunter" route ( and this really works for mice and chipmunks--maybe even rats--trust me), get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it 2/3 of the way full with water. Place bucket along wall of garage or next to car if outside. Take a 6' long piece of 2x6, 1x6 or even 2x4 and make a ramp up to the bucket top from the floor, extending the lumber near center of the bucket. Place sunflower seeds and a few peanuts up the lumber ramp. Get a bag of regular sunflower seeds and pour into bucket full of water. The seeds will float, and make sure you have enuff seeds to hide water. Result: Critter takes bait up ramp, sees and smells additional seeds in bucket thinking it is dry land with seeds on top. YUM---jump. Critter drowns. Dispose of critter properly.
BTW, if baiting traps, peanut butter works GREAT!
Sorry for the long post. Good luck.

jjjr944

Betcha it was a mouse. Squirrels like living high above the ground to avoid predators.
Have a VW that sits out that is going to Chris_924s soon. Last year it sat some time or at least enuff for some mice to nest in the engine bay. Guess they made a nest in the power steering pump pulley/belt area . Fired up the car and heard a loud WHAP!. Guess the startup had caught this poor mouse offguard and the belt had enuff force to shoot him face first into an access hole in the plastic wheel well housing. Mouse butt was on engine bay side and face was sticking out of the tire side of the shroud. Definetaly DOA.

faithless

Sorry but there is something too funny about this.
Did you figure out whether or not there are any gremlins lurkling inside there? If so take me a snapshot I'd love to see one!

faithless

My dad has this wierd contraption that is called a "tooley bug." Its basically a direct chain 4wd buggy powered by a 12 horse briggs and stratton pull start engine. Good for climing up practically anything with the locked 4wd, plus two transmissions connected back to back, giving you a double low and a double high gear. Anyway... it had been sitting out in our sideyard for years. One day we go out there... The ENTIRE thing was filled with a rats nest. The entire seating bucket, which about 3-4 people can ride in, FILLED like a bathtub with all this nasty ****. We had to literally shovel it out, then we took our shop vac and got all the small little rat pellet droppings that they like to **** out all over the place. It still needed to be sprayed out with a hose because I guess they don't bother with indoor plumbing and just **** whereever and whenever... My Dad said he saw the rat itself, it was about a foot long. Nasty...

AznDrgn

when I was working at Midas we had a Honda that came in for a check up that just reaked. I couldn't figure out if it was because of the guy who drove it or what until I popped the hood and laying on top of the exhaust manifold heat shield was a small pile of what looked like goose poop. Needless to say I inspected that car VERY quickly and took it back outside. Odd thing is the owner never mentioned anything about a smell even though you could smell it a few feet away from the car.

jjjr944

Any verdict on your critters yet Jim?