I was lifted the hood on our Prius, parked next to the CM4, and found a pile of debris on top of the engine. I thought a worker might have left some gloves there and they disintegrated over time. I cleaned up the mess, finished up, and closed things up.

Today I took my CM4 in to get the last of the trim strips replaced. The SA asked me to come look at the car. The hood was open and there was a pile of debris on top of the engine, just like in the Prius. The insulation under the hood was also torn up. There were little foot prints on some engine components. One wiring cable was missing part of the protective cover.

Apparently some mice have taken up residence in both our cars. Very discriminating mice, since they carried the insulation from the MINI to the Prius to build a nest there! Now we're working on getting rid of the mice. Ideas?

 

I had that problem awhile back. I ended up setting glue traps in the garage and caught all the mice living in the garage. I also put an electronic device that keeps rodents out. I bought it at Ace Hardware. I haven't had any problems since.

The mice was eating the insulation on my a/c hoses on a couple of cars I used to own.

 

I am dealing with that in 2 of my cars right now. Lay out trays of Cayanne Pepper and black pepper. That seems to keep them away. Then glue traps with a dab of peanut butter. Just check frequently, because when trapped they will eat the trap if they can to free themselves.

 

My only mice problem is that my cats bring them to me...I recommend a cat or two.

 

I've got glue traps, snap traps, and even the old 5 gal bucket of water trap in my garage and basement, so far this winter I haven't caught any! But the evidence has been there that they've been in in the past, fortuantely I haven't seen any damage on my cars.

I found a large nest of cottony wadding on top of the cabin filter of my Clubby - that was from chipmonks rather than mice tho (no droppings) and those are all in hibernation right now, till the spring. But the mice will nest in there to, and go running thru all the defrost ducts and such, so check your cabin filter too!

In fact, the chipmonks had filled one of the exhaust pipes on my Jag up with debris and packed it so tight I had to take the resonator off and use a long screwdriver to chip it all out!

 

Take care of those critters ASAP! Many years back I parked my Porsche Boxster S one cold winter night about 10pm outside in my car port at the ranch house. Drove the 65 IH Travelall for the next several days because I was moving things...

Anyway, when I finally got back into the Porsche and fired it up all the lights on the dash were messed up; some lights on and some not, readouts were just plain crazy. Nothing made sense.

Took it right to the dealer that day. Turned out some critters must not have liked the cold weather and decided to take up residence inside all the smooth underpanels. Once they were warm and toasty and the house was built, they got hungry and started chewing on the wiring!

I got lucky. It was repairable, but it could have been very expensive if they kept going at the rate they were eating... Still cost me several hundred $$$.

 

I just took the lower dash panels off of my Vette so they didn't have nice sleep quarters under my dash. I took my 87 Monte SS out for the first time in a year and while it was running, I started smelling roasted nuts like what you smell in NYC during the winter. I look, and the heat riser tube that is connected to my tubular headers was full of acorns and they were being roasted while the car idled. Its going to be a long winter. I also have a 65 Malibu SS that is sitting under a cover. If I have mice in that car, I'm going to have to punish the wild cats that are sleeping on the hood!

 

try the electronic device to keep them away first before you trap and kill them - they're just trying to live a smaller version of "The Dream" then we are.

 

I'd respectfully suggest that you temporarily remove the air filter, and ensure that the intake duct is free of all blockages.

If the mice enter that passage, the next engine start might draw them down into the combustion chambers.

The result would be a bit of incremental power.

The more mouse power, the better!



Here's another thought - http://catadoptionteam.org/ .

Cheers,

Charlie

 

My sister has that problem with her Subaru as she has no garage. When she had $2,000 of repair done at our local Nissan dealer (used to be the Subaru dealer and good mechanics) they said keeping the hood open with a mechanic's light under it keeps the mice out. Not so warm and they don't like the light. However, she found some granules at True Value that repel the beasties. She bought an inexpensive rug at Walmart and spread the granules on it. Also set up glue traps. We'll see what happens.

 

I went out a few weeks ago to start my second car (that never gets used due to needing a new clutch) and it wouldn't start. while trying to give it a jump start I noticed a lot of fur everywhere. I assumed that the month before when I went out for its monthly start, that a animal had somehow got caught in the belts or something. The jump start didn't work, so I investigated a little further. It took me a few minutes. . .to realize my spark plug wires were completely gone! Rabbits! Rabbits had crawled up on top of the motor, and somehow, in the 3" gap between hood and motor, ate about 4.5' of spark plug wire!
So now my daily driver has to be stored outside (Jeep:high ground clearance) and my beater get to live in the garage until I can figure out how to keep the little ****'s out of the engine bay!!

 

I did a little research after my car was invaded. If the car is stored for an extended period of time, make a perimeter of 2x4s the make a 6inch wall of flashing that runs seemlessly around the perimeter. Mice cannot climb the flashing. I have yet to do this, but what I read it works well.

 

Got a mouse nest on top of my garaged R53's engine a few years ago; it chewed on my spark plug wires. I got it with a trap, and now I try to remember to leave the bonnet up when leaving the car unused for a few days. They don't like making a nest in the open.

 

I have heard that urinal cakes repel most rodents. Just set one under the hood when you park your car for the night, our German neighbors swore by it. I've never tried it but it seems much nicer than glue traps.