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OT: Preventing mice from getting in your car!

wrustle

Titanium
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Location
Massachusetts
Ok....my wife just got back from having the oil changed in her car, and also to check on why she keeps getting an intermittent "Check Engine" light. Somdays it's on, some days it's off.

In any event come to find out, mice had somehow got into the air filter, (Kia Sorento) chewed it all to shreds and built a huge nest in there practically blocking the air flow, thus the "Check Engine" light for the oxygen sensor keep coming on.

Went through this about a year ago, same thing. It was suggested to park the car elsewhere in the driveway, (can't put it in the 3 car garage.....full of Cnc machines :D) so we did move it to a different place away from the woods, and now the futhermuckers have moved back in! :angry:

What the hell can I do, to get rid of them and keep them out of her car? :confused:

Don't suggest cats either....can't stand them!! :toetap:

I mean, I'm sure everyone loves a little pussy ;)......but I hate it when they leave footprints all over your car!

Later,
Russ
 
OK, no cats. So that leaves ferrets, weasels and snakes. Having had all four (or lived with someone who did) I would take the footprints on my car over the other three any day.

A simpler solution might be to put a wire screen over the entrance to the air cleaner. That would keep them out of the air cleaner.

Then the mice would look for other comfortable spots.

Is this vehicle driven so infrequently that the mice have a chance to get comfortable between engine starts?

-DU-
 
I had the wires chewed up on my outboard motor twice. I now keep mothballs under the cover and haven't had a problem for the last four years. Kenny
 
There nothing quite like cranking up just to suck a rat nest down into your intake. Try steel screen wire over your cold air intake. Then wage war on your mice before they eat your car's wiring. If you have mice in your driveway then I bet you have them indoors among your CNCs.
Good luck!
Mike
 
The car is driven everyday, all year long, and sometimes two or three times a day!

I can try the mothballs I suppose, but at this point I'm out for revenge, and want BLOOD! :nutter: :D
 
Stick some glue traps in the engine compartment and bait them with a dab of peanut butter. They will visit the traps first before trying to make a nest somewhere. I caught a whole family Inside my 71 Challenger after they chewed a hole in my brand new headliner!
 
Mice can do a lot more damage than that, a Honda RC45 motorcycle that was part of a very old friends collection was sold with only a few hundred miles on the clock.
The purchaser could not get the engine running & on investigation was of course horrified to find a mouse nest in the air box, constructed from chewed up air filter. Further investigation found that the little buggers had been peeing merrily in their cosy nest which had corroded through part of the throttle body & the front cylinder head to the extent that one of the valve seats was loose.

The parts bill amounted to quite a few thousand pounds, yet the bike had been kept in a museum like environment along with maybe a hundred other fairly exotic classics none of which, as far as I am aware, have suffered similarly.

regards

Brian
 
Lol killing them wont achive much good im affraid. Located near woods, your well screwed. They can multiply faster than anything short of thermonuclear warfare! Personaly i have had a customer have a multi thousand pound bill due to damage caused by the critters. They had eaten through a wireing loom, which shorted taking most of the machine with it. Aparently when the operator switched it on there was "propper" banging and sparks! Followed by the magic smoke cloud.

There solution was to make the place critter proof and reduce avaliable meals. All you can realy do is a wire screen. Moth balls i dont think would make much diffrence.
 
I've been using Victor brand ultrasonic pest deterrent gizmos in my shed with success. They plug into line voltage and emit ultrasonic noise the pests don't like. Don't know how you would arrange them in an engine compartment without the wife driving away with them still plugged in though :eek:

Maybe a couple of them mounted on the garage door frame aimed at the engine compartment would help, if the car is close to them.

+1 on the wire mesh ideas as a more direct solution.

You might also try an oiled foam aftermarket air filter. If the folks making the paper air filters would lace them with something bitter or repellent to mice, it wouldn't be as big a problem as it is.

Watt
 
I knew a girl with an early nineties Mustang that burned under the dash from mice. She drove the car everyday, but she never saw any signs of them.

I guess she should have bought a CAT-illac.:o


JAckal
 
Ok....my wife just got back from having the oil changed in her car, and also to check on why she keeps getting an intermittent "Check Engine" light. Somdays it's on, some days it's off.

In any event come to find out, mice had somehow got into the air filter, (Kia Sorento) chewed it all to shreds and built a huge nest in there practically blocking the air flow, thus the "Check Engine" light for the oxygen sensor keep coming on.

Went through this about a year ago, same thing. It was suggested to park the car elsewhere in the driveway, (can't put it in the 3 car garage.....full of Cnc machines :D) so we did move it to a different place away from the woods, and now the futhermuckers have moved back in! :angry:

What the hell can I do, to get rid of them and keep them out of her car? :confused:

Don't suggest cats either....can't stand them!! :toetap:

I mean, I'm sure everyone loves a little pussy ;)......but I hate it when they leave footprints all over your car!

Later,
Russ

I had exactly the same problem with my Nissan patrol, I put a snorkel on, this stopped the mice gaining access to the air filter, I dont know if snorkels are available for your kia tho'.
 
Death to mice

! Mouse trap, ball baring model recommended.
2 Cat-a-Litic converter
3 Develop a method to backfire through the air cleaner on starting.
Seriously, the presence of the right cat will keep the mice away, at least
the smart ones. The not so smart mice soon become fast food.
 
Sounds like her Rice mobile must be 2-stroke eh? (Mice LOVE 2 strokes it seems)

I have some of those plug in critter thingys. Not sure how well they werk at enything other than lightening the wallet. How would you ever know? I doo have some mice out here, and the poisen keeps them cleaned out nearly as fast as they come in. But who knows? Could be that w/o those electric things - the issue could be 3x as bad?

If you really wanted to go the electric route - you could git a tiny AC invertor to power the little thing and leave it perminently under the hood. ???

I learned the mothball trick a few yrs back when I seen folks dumping them all around their campers when they would put them in the barn for the winter. ??? Said it kept the mice out. So I started dooing it around the sleds in the summer! I hafta say that I aint had near the mouce issue since!

Maybe you could git away with mothballs in the intake track? I doubt they would last long with the air movement tho. No idea what that would doo to the motor?

Kant believe they would bother a daily driver like that!

Trade for a Ford? You know those mice are Yankees! ;)



I had exactly the same problem with my Nissan patrol, I put a snorkel on, this stopped the mice gaining access to the air filter, I dont know if snorkels are available for your kia tho'.


Watch... Next thing yunno - there will be a Unimog in Wrustles driveway!



-----------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
My driveway backs onto woods and a marsh. Had the mouse problem for 17 years in cars and boats.

The nest in the air filter compartment, in the insulation under the hood, on top of the engine block, and under the rear deck of the station wagon.

They eat the insulation on the firewall.

They crawl in the battery case of the boat.

Nothing works for long. Resign yourself to it. Sometimes nature wins.
 
Had mice get under hood of 2002 GMC pickup and eat through some wires, $700 later fixed. Put moth balls in engine compartment and on top of intake and engine and never had any more problems with mice. I also scatter moth balls in storage shed and mice have not nested or destroyed any thing in shed.
 
Another vote for mothballs, they keep my garage/shop rodent free. Just scatter a half box or so around where you park..... & put the other half in your shop so they don't move in there...
 
To quote an old cartoon, "I hate Mieces to pieces" We have had the same issue. It seems to vary year to year some worse than others. Wife's car driven every day, they got into the air intake about mid-way. She would get half way to work and it would stall out. Repeat on the way home. Took us about two weeks to find it. A few years later, they were in the heater duct of the van. nothing like the smell of cooked pups and pee in the cold morning air. got my mothers car one year and she had only stopped by for a few hours t owatch the girls for us. Every summer for the last 2 years, I spend at least 30 to 45 minutes each week de-nesting the garden tractor prior to cutting the yard. If I don't, half way through I have a grass fire inthe engine compartment. It has gotten so I have all of the heat shields off and they still find places to nest. We have cats, up until last year 4 of them. Makes no difference to the little buggers. We routinely play mouse hunt with the cats every winter. As for the shop. Stewart Little nests everywere traps be damned. They seem to especially like the drawers of the parts bins. Caused me to break a toe one year. Spun around to see were it ran and knocked the bottle jack down onto my foot from the bench I had just put it on. Last year was not so bad had at least 2 black snakes hanging around. hope they come back this year. Not only keeps the mice down, also keeps the wife from finding things for me to do as she sees one and is gone inside for the rest of the day.
 
MothBalls----not only will it help control the mice--other little furry creatures like skunks will avoid the area where they are.
 








 
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