Cars and rodents .... ?

[stevebez]

First of all this is off topic.... and concerns my Landrover D3. Well, I have just been told by the Service advisor that a rodent has managed to chew a hole in a pipe off the diesel tank. Not only has it chewed a hole in one of the tanks feeder pipes but apparently is a "common" problem in the UK. Not only is it the same pipe all the time, but only landrover. Also my car is always garaged and is my wifes DD, and has never been offroad. I claimed I am off to inspect the damaged parts tomorrow. I know some animals can get to brake lines etc but this I have to see.... needless to say they claim since its rodent damage its not covered under my warranty which expires in a week. Any stories like this stateside?

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[shardul]

i have heard about rats eating wire looms and belts. so a rubber tube would not be out of the ordinary

[ktwosteve2]

About one month ago I took the E55 out for a quick spin, had it in the garage for a few weeks because the weather has been poor. No sooner than I gave it a couple of wot a cel popped up. Pulled over and opened the hood and tucked in at the back of the supercharger was a large mass of pink insulation. It appeared that a family of mice took the insulation out of a wall cavity in my heated garage and made a nest right on top of the motor. After cleaning it out and checking all the filters I cleared the cel and everything has been fine other than some chew marks on the hood liner. Why they didn't go after my truck or wife's suv I haven't a clue. I guess they just have good taste in cars.

[LZH]

Good trick to keep rodents away is use Bounce dryer sheets...they hate the smell and wont go near them. I stuff them all over the place in my boat when its in winter storage and it works great.

[lowphat]

Originally Posted by LZH

Good trick to keep rodents away is use Bounce dryer sheets...they hate the smell and wont go near them. I stuff them all over the place in my boat when its in winter storage and it works great.

Didn't know about that - thanks for sharing what seems like a simple solution.

[gonzales25]

In Germany the weasels eat/chew the spark plug wires, I had a hedgehog make a nest in my Hummer H3 while we were on leave in the states for a month.

[220S]

Sorry to hear, but it's not b.s. See my thread from a few months back about my BMW getting attacked.

It's not unusual at all. We live on the ocean in an area with dense oak trees. Last spring there was a bumper crop of acorns. Where there's food, there's rodents.

Bounce sheets don't work, sorry. Neither does coyote pee powder or cayenne pepper. We called in a rat expert. The only way to get rid of them is to get rid of THEM. Baiting and trapping. Also if you aren't parking outside (my BMW was not in the garage), and still have rats then you have to seal the garage first before you do anything.

The problem with things like Bounce and powders is that rats pee constantly and mark their territory. The pheromones in their pee is how they communicate. It overwhelms anything else and attracts more rats.

Rat's teeth are 'open rooted' and don't ever stop growing. So they'll chew through anything to keep them from growing too big. They spend their ENTIRE life gnawing and wearing their teeth down. They can destroy a car overnight.

I became a rat expert after my ordeal with them.

[jpohl402]

Originally Posted by 220S

Sorry to hear, but it's not b.s. See my thread from a few months back about my BMW getting attacked.

It's not unusual at all. We live on the ocean in an area with dense oak trees. Last spring there was a bumper crop of acorns. Where there's food, there's rodents.

Bounce sheets don't work, sorry. Neither does coyote pee powder or cayenne pepper. We called in a rat expert. The only way to get rid of them is to get rid of THEM. Baiting and trapping. Also if you aren't parking outside (my BMW was not in the garage), and still have rats then you have to seal the garage first before you do anything.

The problem with things like Bounce and powders is that rats pee constantly and mark their territory. The pheromones in their pee is how they communicate. It overwhelms anything else and attracts more rats.

Rat's teeth are 'open rooted' and don't ever stop growing. So they'll chew through anything to keep them from growing too big. They spend their ENTIRE life gnawing and wearing their teeth down. They can destroy a car overnight.

I became a rat expert after my ordeal with them.

wow !!

[Nstar]

Originally Posted by 220S

Sorry to hear, but it's not b.s. See my thread from a few months back about my BMW getting attacked.

It's not unusual at all. We live on the ocean in an area with dense oak trees. Last spring there was a bumper crop of acorns. Where there's food, there's rodents.

Bounce sheets don't work, sorry. Neither does coyote pee powder or cayenne pepper. We called in a rat expert. The only way to get rid of them is to get rid of THEM. Baiting and trapping. Also if you aren't parking outside (my BMW was not in the garage), and still have rats then you have to seal the garage first before you do anything.

The problem with things like Bounce and powders is that rats pee constantly and mark their territory. The pheromones in their pee is how they communicate. It overwhelms anything else and attracts more rats.

Rat's teeth are 'open rooted' and don't ever stop growing. So they'll chew through anything to keep them from growing too big. They spend their ENTIRE life gnawing and wearing their teeth down. They can destroy a car overnight.

I became a rat expert after my ordeal with them.

Good post. Yes, had to do the same thing. They'd had a go at my other half's then LX470 but hadn't got very far. Used traps and caught a dozen over two month period. There was a gap they'd chewed in the rubber sealing to the 3 car garage. I didn't have it fixed as I wanted pay back.

Word of warning with using bait is if you have dogs (I have two big ones) and they find a poisoned rat and eat it they could likely be killed also.

[220S]

Originally Posted by Nstar

Word of warning with using bait is if you have dogs (I have two big ones) and they find a poisoned rat and eat it they could likely be killed also.

Yeah, that's a good reminder. We have a lot of blue herons around here and they sometimes eat mice, gophers, and small rats. Our rat man put out bait traps instead of bait stations. The rats would go in, eat the poison and weren't able to back out. He had to come out every other day and check (we hired him on a 3 month plan; they're pretty tenacious once they decide to hang out.)

[Hyperlite]

The next thing you'll be hearing is a rat must have chewed apart your drive shaft.

[X2Board]

Might as well have some fun while you're at it. NVGs and a suppressed Ruger Mk II

[KLR CLS]

I knew a rat ate my motor mounts....couldn't have been the 700lb/ft of torque!

[suicidal4life]

Originally Posted by stevebez

Any stories like this stateside?

Years ago when I was a child a mouse chewed through some vacuum lines and wiring under the hood of my moms car.

[napaAl]

Get a cat.

[stevebez]

Saw the tank on Saturday and it must be an area of 1sqcm of tank breather pipe elbow that been chewed off. Cannot be anything else, but a farking rodent. It must have happened when parking the car at the Airport long term car parks I guess, none of the other cars at him have been had.

£800 for a new tank (incl re-re).. I dont think so. I am collecting the tank today to repair it tonight.

[220S]

Originally Posted by stevebez

Saw the tank on Saturday and it must be an area of 1sqcm of tank breather pipe elbow that been chewed off. Cannot be anything else, but a farking rodent. It must have happened when parking the car at the Airport long term car parks I guess, none of the other cars at him have been had.

£800 for a new tank (incl re-re).. I dont think so. I am collecting the tank today to repair it tonight.

Not sure about the UK, but here in the States insurance will cover it through the comprehensive coverage. Should be the same there(?) My BMW was covered 100% when the rats ate their fill of wiring and insulation.

[Mslaughter]

A few years ago I had a diesel truck that was too large for the garage, so I let it sit outside. One morning, I was cleaning it out and I noticed the driver side turn signal wasn't working. I drove it to Autozone to get a new bulb and I noticed the truck was really low on power and smoking black out the tail pipe. I pulled over and popped the hood and saw that my hood insulation had been ripped up, I thought that was odd but upon inspecting the airbox I quickly found out why. A squirrel or chipmunk packed my lower airbox full of leaves, hood insulation, and butternuts. I mean it was packed in there tight; thank god for the air filter or I would've trashed my turbo, intercooler, and probably the motor. I learned my lesson and now only park in the garage, but yes they can be destructive little *******s. Oh btw, the turn signal wasn't working because the rodent had chewed through the signal ground wire

[OK55]

Had a similar problem on my BMW 535i and MB 560 SEL when both were parked for a few months. Solved the problem on the 560 by washing it and moving it to a different part of my compound. Beemer's parked in same general area so the running battle continues. Rather like the post on 'pay-back' so I'm off to get some traps...!
Brgds

[motorkas]

Just got back from an oil change and my guys say "you park inside or outside" - me incredulous "always inside". "Well you have mice in your garage". Me "bull*****". Him "care to explain the mice **** on your supercharger. . . you're actually lucky, they haven't gone after the insulation yet. . ."

[shardul]

Originally Posted by motorkas

Just got back from an oil change and my guys say "you park inside or outside" - me incredulous "always inside". "Well you have mice in your garage". Me "bull*****". Him "care to explain the mice **** on your supercharger. . . you're actually lucky, they haven't gone after the insulation yet. . ."

what damage did the mice do?

[motorkas]

no damage - just used the supercharger as a toilet (I guess they prefer the waffling as a de facto outhouse)