Rodent activity in my engine bay, what to do? (1 Viewer)

[41togo]

Hello, just noticed my firewall insulation was all torn up with rodents droppings. The weather is cold here in So Cal at night but this is the first encounter although my LC 100 have always parked outside. Any suggestions ie traps, rat poison and is the isolation hard to replace? Thanks !

 

[nissanh]

Remove the beauty cover and toss it in trash! inspect the vally under the intake, you may find missing insulation there. Use an air blower to clean the area. It is extremely hard to eliminate the rodents invation, in the engine bay, unless you keep the engine bay area exposed to light. I use my cruiser once a month or so for family outings, but on weekends, I pop the hood and leave it open for the entire day.

 

[jLB]

A friendly barn/neighborhood cat?

I guess a snake would work too, but a cat seems more pleasant to me.

 

[turBRO]

I had a similar problem, except they tore into the main wiring harness. I used some rodent repellant pouches under the hood, in conjunction with an assortment of traps set all around the vehicle and garage. Never caught one, but haven't had a problem since.

https://www.amazon.com/Victor-M805-Scent-Away-Natural-Repeller/dp/B00SVHTDZM/ref=asc_df_B00SVHTDZM/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198081460782&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3585422290816258203&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1014257&hvtargid=pla-319048180254&mcid=fdfe135d91863e9f9271766ad233df2f&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsoeMgs_-gwMV3c7CBB1pWAZ7EAQYCCABEgIvwPD_BwE&th=1

 

[GerLC100]

I had good success with 50:50 vinegar:water in my shed
After blocking it off again and again they didn‘t try after I sprayed the mix. Would work on metal of course, but that textile stuff/ plastic parts…

 

[cbbr]

I had this problem with another car and now use this bait in one of these bait stations. Slide it under the LC at night. I also keep a bunch of the poison out in my shop.

 

[41togo]

Btw…Barn find guy on Hagerty says dryer sheets will keep them away.

 

[41togo]

Thanks guys! Will try out these ideas

 

[kevgentile]

Having delt with a few sizeable car collections avoid poisons. It was common to find that the mice had eaten the poison and made their way back to the vehicle that housed their nest and would die in a place that was often difficult to find. I've torn apart a few cars searching for the smell.

Snappers work well but if you have more than one mouse then you're going to need to monitor them frequently.

I found that a handful of mothballs in a sack or some other suitable container worked well.

We had a customers car from DC come in after sitting for 6 months. The next morning came to an office that was destroyed by a large family of mice. Caught several in snap traps within just a few hours.

 

[tahoejoe]

Thanks guys! Will try out these ideas

Great ideas on this thread. I was just researching today because had problems in the past.

A common search result was to try Peppermint Oil/Extract. Yes, it will keep your engine bay smelling minty. And the mice hate it.
Irish spring soap might work as well.
Or Pine Sol.

Not for you, since you park outside, but for others with a garage is to set traps to keep mice out of garage as a first line of defense, and try to plug any holes where they might be getting in.

 

[take123]

I had a mouse make nest under the engine plastic cover piece, and bury itself underneath a lot of the cabling. It gnawed the wiring and I had to buy a new cable (a smaller cable assembly, not the main engine harness) and caused engine light to come on. One of the connectors on the main engine harness was still intact but needed to be re-crimped so I had that done. Total cost around $880 .... They also had to take the intake manifold off to check if they made a nest in there. They had a lot of nuts and poop and pee marks lying inside the engine bay which I had to clean up. You want to clean it up and remove their odor.

The way I took preventative measure is by getting this very loud ultrasound speaker which I leave on in the garage squealing. I also keep the lights on in the garage.

I bought some mouse spray that has this peppermint smell that they don't like. I sprayed around the areas it was hiding in the garage like the walls, and around the entrance area, and around the water pipes. Try to cover up any openings, I'm going to add some wire mesh to a pipe as they might have walked through the pipe.

Bought a lot of poison traps, put one in the garage, and then 3 around the house outside. I think poison traps are okay if you are going to run your cars daily as then they can't just sit in there and die. In beginning run them daily and get them hot, the mouse can't live in there while it's running hot.

I cleaned up the garage, threw away a lot of boxes and moved stuff out. Keep the garage less cluttered, as more clutter the mouse likes it to hide around in.

Pick up any droppings or whatever you see in your garage or car, and clean it out with some soap to remove their smell.

When gone for period of time, I just leave the hood up with a bright light shining on the hood with the ultrasound speaker running, they seem to hate bright lights. And looks like that loud speaker is working. I recommend you just remove the plsatic engine hood cosmetic cover thing, that seems to help provide insulation and shade which they like to hide in.

I have the spring mouse traps, but haven't deployed those. As it seems the above has been effective so far. Will check if the poison bait traps have some of the bait taken up, if so then it shows they're working.

I also heard people use dryer sheets as they hate those smell. You can zip tie a few of those on your electrical wires, and that should keep them away. I haven't had to deploy those yet, as I had a lot of preventative steps above already, but will consider it as it's not too hard. The dryer sheets will have to be swapped out periodically though as they lose their odor so it's annoying.

 

[badlander]

I started my cruiser one cold morning and when I turned on the heater I got the vibration from hell in the blower motor. I immediately knew what it was since I had seen mouse droppings on the top of the radiator and battery. When I pulled out blower there he was, beaten to death, poor little guy. I then looked up into the housing with a mirror and saw a little tail moving around, bad news. While I was cleaning out the blower wheel evidently it, they, dropped down into the car interior and dissapeared. They showed up about a week later as a bad smell. Found 2 of them in a rear drawer, dead. The smell remains to this day, although fainter.
To prevent future invasions I pulled out the blower again and stuffed a wad of aluminum window screen up into the intake against the cowling opening to block it off. The air still flows fine through the screen but no more worries about mice or anything else getting into the blower.
I also always turn off the engine with the hvac set on recirculate. This closes the flapper for the outside air intake into the blower wheel as an additional obstruction for critters to get thru.

 

[76lcmike]

Hello, just noticed my firewall insulation was all torn up with rodents droppings. The weather is cold here in So Cal at night but this is the first encounter although my LC 100 have always parked outside. Any suggestions ie traps, rat poison and is the isolation hard to replace? Thanks ! View attachment 3543311

View attachment 3543314

View attachment 3543318

get rid of any food, in the car or garage, get some grandpa gus's products on amazon, good stuff have been using it for years in my travel trailer.

 

[Andrewzlc100]

Honda sells rodent tape-

4019-2317 - Genuine Honda Tape,Rodent 19MM 20M

HondaPartsNow.com offers the great deal for genuine Honda parts, 40192317. Tape,Rodent 19MM 20M for $40.72. All parts are backed by the Honda's warranty.

www.hondapartsnow.com

Its tape infused with spicy capsicum to deter those bastards from causing expensive damage. It'll be a project, but worth it.

 

[Rocket3004]

Honda sells rodent tape-

4019-2317 - Genuine Honda Tape,Rodent 19MM 20M

HondaPartsNow.com offers the great deal for genuine Honda parts, 40192317. Tape,Rodent 19MM 20M for $40.72. All parts are backed by the Honda's warranty.

www.hondapartsnow.com

Its tape infused with spicy capsicum to deter those bastards from causing expensive damage. It'll be a project, but worth it.

I was just about to post this up. The valley between the heads were the knock sensor and starter (and secondary air system if you have VVTI) is a common place for them to hide, nest in, and chew up the reportedly soy-bean based wiring loom that Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers use. If repairing any part of the harness (i.e. knock sensor) - wrap it up in this and/or another layer of heat protection sheathing (like DEI or another high quality one). The tape is relatively expensive but worth it if it prevents you from having to do the work again!

 

[ikellymo]

Sprinkle peppermint oil throughout the engine bay ... they don't like the smell.

And I just bought 4in wide black gaffers tape to fix-up the appearance of my insulation. Litterally just put in on today, have no idea how it will hold up.

 

[76lcmike]

I was just about to post this up. The valley between the heads were the knock sensor and starter (and secondary air system if you have VVTI) is a common place for them to hide, nest in, and chew up the reportedly soy-bean based wiring loom that Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers use. If repairing any part of the harness (i.e. knock sensor) - wrap it up in this and/or another layer of heat protection sheathing (like DEI or another high quality one). The tape is relatively expensive but worth it if it prevents you from having to do the work again!

sorry to tell you, the rodent tape does not work.

 

[rossagge]

Bounce dryer sheets or any dryer sheet works well. Used them in my RV. They tuck nicely into crevices. Also a mixture of cayenne pepper and water. Spray it on the frame and around it. Might be harsher than peppermint spray, but it works.

 

[76lcmike]

as i said before, on amazon, search grandpa gus rodent repell pruducts. it works great. i'm 30 year mechanic and 15 year owner of rvs. it works.

 

[Mauser]

I live in the mountains and we have problems with mice and packrats getting into vehicles and destroying things. Have heard all kinds of "fixes" (Irish Spring soap, Bazooka gum, peppermint, ultrasonic devices, flashing lights, etc) Most of the time that stuff just is used as nest building material. As much as I hate cats they are just about the only way I have found to keep rodents at bay.