Rat in the Engine Compartment
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 316
Likes: 10
From: Orange County
C450
Rat in the Engine Compartment
File this under fun fact. My wife complained of a horrific smell from the garage. Sniffed around until I put my nose near the grille of my car. Awful stench. Opened hood, stench even worse. Rodent footprints and droppings on the engine cover and ECU. Looked around with a flash light couldn't find the body. Took it to the dealer. They had to drop the engine panels from the bottom, found a gigantic maggot filled rat carcass. They power washed the engine bay and returned it to me nice and clean. Thankfully didn't get into any air system but what are the odds on a rat wanting to take up living in my engine compartment? This ever happen to anyone else?
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,255
Likes: 154
From: Massachusetts USA
2017 C43 sedan
Rats and snakes love the heat from the engine after you park... Actually it's very common.. Some restaurants that I used to service and clean would always find rats or snakes under the fryers or grills in the morning cause they stayed warm long after the restaurant was closed..
Super Member
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 789
Likes: 47
From: Eastern Massachusetts
2021 E450, 2020 C43, 2015 C300, 2007 C280
A squirrel is just another kind of rat
For 2-3 years the assigned parking space for my W203 (see below) in our elderly housing facility was nose-in against a narrow sidewalk. On the other side of the walk were pine woods. The squirrels would hold picnics on top of my engine. They would bring in food! The V6 engine had a broad, flat air cleaner with cast heat exchanger grooves on top. The grooves would hold the nut shells they left behind, so I could tell when they had had their picnics. What really bothered me was that they carried about 1/3 of the insulation on the underside of the hood back to their nests. That cost me $150 to get fixed. They must not have liked the taste of the new insulation, because they then carried off a lot of the insulation on the fire wall. To fix that, the engine would have had to be pulled. So that damage remained unfixed until I traded the car.
Eventually I moved up in seniority in the facility. Then I got a space a couple spaces closer to the door to the facility and that much farther away from the woods. The squirrels didn't want to cross that small strip of grass, so then they left my car alone.
Eventually I moved up in seniority in the facility. Then I got a space a couple spaces closer to the door to the facility and that much farther away from the woods. The squirrels didn't want to cross that small strip of grass, so then they left my car alone.
Member
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 111
Likes: 6
From: Chicago, IL USA
2015 Mercedes C300 Sport
I use to work for large agricultural/heavy machinery equipment manufacturers some 10 years ago and remember that wiring harnesses, hoses, switches, sensors and insulation were rodent-proof 
...meaning that they added something to the plastic/composite to make it not attractive to those creatures.
...meaning that they added something to the plastic/composite to make it not attractive to those creatures.
