Okay, I posted this story on my site a few weeks back, but for some reason never posted it here . So here it is...

Okay, I know what you are thinking, what does a rodent and MINI have in common? Well nothing, unless this happens to you...

So a few weeks ago I am making my 5 mile commute home from work, when I begin to get this horrific burning scent in my MINI. At the time I didn't think much of it as I was following a real beater, and I figured I was getting the fumes off that car. Well, by the time I got home, the stench was aweful and it smelled as thought something was burning. My first thought was oil, but this was not the smell of burning oil...I had never smelled this, which made my worry. In investigating where the smell was coming from, I could come up with nothing. So I called the service manager at my MINI dealer and asked if I could bring the car in, explaining the situation.

So fast forward about 20 minutes, and I am on the highway heading over to my dealer. I still have this stench in the cabin, so I have the windows open, sunroof open, vents going full blast to try to combat this. So a few minutes on the highway and I look in my rear view mirror and all of the sudden their is thick white smoke pouring from the back of the car. NOT GOOD!! So I pull off the side of the highway to investigate. When I walked around to the boot, there is smoke pouring out of the twin tailpipes...again, NOT GOOD! My first thought, again, oil...but it still does not smell like oil. At this point in time I am freaking, as I have no idea what is burning. So, I call MINI Roadside Assistance and get a tow scheduled. After getting a tow scheduled, the smoke seemed to haev subsided, so again I walked around to the boot to have a look.

In the bottom of the tailpipes I see a pool of dark liquid...VERY NOT GOOD. Well, I need to know, so I feel around to see if the pipes are hot to the touch...they aren't, so I stick my finger in the liquid to find out what it is. Well, the good news was that it wasn't oil. No, it was a dark red...and there was fur mixed in with it. At this point in time I realized what happened and about puked on the side of the highway. A rodent of some sort had managed to crawl into my exhaust, and I had managed to BBQ him in there. So I figured I can limp the car over the the dealer, so I cancel the tow truck.

At this point in time, a pair of Illinois State Troopers pull up behind me lights flashing to see if everything is alright. I tell them what I think happened, and they proceed to get a good laugh (at least someone was laughing). At least they helped me slowly ease back into traffic and kept traffic around me pretty clear so I had an easier drive to the dealer.

Making a long story short, I drop the car off at the dealer and they give it a few looks over, and could find nothing...at least they could smell it...but found nothing. They offered to replace the muffler, but since I don't think rodents crawling into your exhaust is covered under warranty it would have cost me. And if I have to replace the muffler, I am not doing an OEM job, I'll do a full aftermarket exhaust.

So several weeks later the stench is gone, and the dealer never could find anything. Everything appears to be functioning completely normal...I guess I turned that rodent(s) into some crispy critters...yuck...

 

Do you have an MC or MCS? If the critter plugged up the single exhaust MC you might have more trouble.

The exhaust is mucho hot so maybe you just vaporized the beast. I'd figure it was something smaller like a big mouse but how did he manage to crawl into a pipe off the ground?

Maybe the pipe was warm enough to make a good place to nap. Maybe when all the noise commenced he got disoriented and went in the wrong direction. Not too pretty.
I guess you can keep the exhaust if it is now working oK or you can bury the evidence and go aftermarket.

This is a case of reverse critter trouble. Not your fault. Next time stick a potato in that tailpipe to keep out the critters. Just don't forget to remove it before driving.

 

Yeah, luckily it's an MCS, so the critter could only plug up one pipe. I just cannot figure out how he got in there... Just happy nothing was damaged