So I pop the cover off and out comes a filter....and a whole bunch of dry dog food.... WTF? I don't even own a dog.

Observe:

 

Uh oh!! You disturbed the food stash of some small critter, probably mouse or rat that somehow got into the ventilation system. Not sure how but I'd start looking around for some entry point that may have been chewed into.

Maybe time to look for a dog so that food doesn't go to waste!!

Eric

 

you bought the car used?thats the only reason I can think of...lol

 

Holy crap! That's hilarious/strange!

 

Do you have an x-girlfriend???????

I've never seen it done with dog food before but some simular stunts have been pulled with Limburger cheese.

 

Eric's right, you've got a critter livin there, or using it for his stash...

I had a lovely nest made out of soft cotton or something, all shredded and fluffed up in mine. Never did figure out how it got in there, no evidence of chewing or anything.

I think mine was a chipmunk (groundsquirell) since the nest wasn't fouled with poop and urine like with mice. I got rid of mine by trapping it and taking it out to the country, then cleaned out the nest thoroughly and haven't seen anything in there since.

If your car is 2007 or newer you can look in thru the compartment where the battery is and clearly see the top side of the filter, I think that's how mine got in.

 

That's way too much food. And I doubt a critter would get in there. My bet is a previous owner put a bag of pet food on the dash and it broke and poured down the vents.

However, if you're the original owner, then either someone borrowed the car, did that and didn't tell you. Or maybe it is a critter.

 

Great pics! My mom lives in the mountains, and every other year or so I have to pull the interior fan and clear the nest from it. No obvious (chewed) entry points, but year after year, the nest gets built.
Bet you're getting better flow now - and without that Alpo smell.

 

Yep it is a critter, have see a mouse empty a whole bag of dog food and move it to its stash, look for chewed wires, you may stop a problem before it happens..

 

I would think that if it was a critter it must have happened when the previous owner had the car because I drive every day, usually 2-3 times a day. It's not like the car is sitting dormant.

Also if there was a critter wouldn't I have found droppings in there? I didn't find any at all.

A while back my dad's Goldwing motorcycle sat for a year and a mouse had made a nest in the airbox. It literally stuffed with birdseed, cotton, and mouse ****.

 

that sucks yet hilarious. hopefully the critter is no longer around to stash the food.

 

Someone has mice, seen it before.

 

Wow! That's like crazy.

 

Yep, mice or chipmunks. We were washing my wife's '03 MCS a few years ago and, while drying off the engine compartment, I noticed some birdseed down in the bottom of the air intake tray. Took off the CAI and, sure enough, a stash of birdseed from our sack we store in the garage. Vacuumed it out, no damage observed. We started setting mouse traps and, within a day, the culprit had met his maker. From then on, we've set traps all over the garage and have been on the alert for any signs of critturs. Another tip, don't leave your garage door open and unattended. Cats, mice, chipmunks, etc. can walk right in.

 

Yep, that filter needed changing.

 

Trust me ... they don't care if it is a daily driver or not.

 

Crazy!!! Just store a Cat inside your Mini when your not using it

 

I've been living out in the country for years now and all my cars and trucks have had critters living in them. Once, driving on an autoroute north of Montreal, I had a mouse pop up out of a defroster vent, run along my dash and disappeared down the other vent! Never did see it again!

 

I've seen that before on customer cars when I was at the dealership, usually a mouse made that his home. Haha. I remember one time a mouse died in the fan motor (the owner must have turn on the fan and killed the mouse, anyways to make the story short.) The pooor old lady left the mouse there until it rotted and started to smell. Took us about 2 weeks to finally control the smell. I remember the service manager parking the car waaay at the end of the lot because it was that bad.

 

One of the best posts i've seen yet!! Seen nasty filters with leaves and such but this is on another level

 

Set some traps, do NOT use poision. The last thing you want to do is have a dying mouse crawl way back in your dash.

 

This MINI must have come with the rare "Hiking" package... comes with nuts.