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Hemmings Motor News Blog

Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

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Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

Posted September 21, 2016 9:00 AM by dstrohl
Pathfinder Tags: classic auto Discussion pest

Last week, I decided that the two-year-old cabin air filter in my truck had served out its useful life and was due for replacement. Swapping it out was an easy job, one that required no tools and just five minutes of my time to complete. After emptying out the glove box, I removed the plastic shroud, snaked my hands in to compress the tabs on the cover, and pulled the filter out.

It was dirty, but that’s not what caught my eye; instead, it was the large hole gnawed in the center of the filter, where a mouse had opted to remove the filter material for bedding. I vacuumed out the filter compartment, fan and vents to the best of my ability, then went down to the local parts store for a replacement. Afterward, I checked the engine compartment for other signs of infestation (or points of entry), but came up empty; near as I could tell, the critters were getting in though the vent intakes in the cowl.

A few days later, I jumped in my wife’s truck to back it out of the garage, when I was met with the sound of scurrying in the headliner. A quick check of her cabin air filter revealed that, while intact, it was covered with sound-deadening insulation liberated from the headliner itself. Furious pounding on the headliner, and a thorough vacuuming of the vent system around the filter, ensued.

Automobiles, especially classics, make great homes for rodents.

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#1

Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/21/2016 6:37 PM

Call Del. He'll take care of that for you.

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#2

Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/21/2016 9:26 PM

I don't have mice issues but if I leave a door or window open I get a severe kitty infestation in a matter of hours.

I don't know what it is about my vehicles but the kitties seem to really enjoy sitting in them. I was cleaning my pickup out the other weekend I even with the spray cans of cleaner and air hose going I couldn't keep them away.

"Hey the boss has everything nice and clean! let's go in and shred the paper towel roll like we're pulling feathers off a bird! That'll help him!"

I can have 10 paper rolls of paper towels in the house, shed and shop they can get to anytime and they won't touch them but clean a vehicle out and leave a roll behind and it's 'go time!'.

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#4
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Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 12:49 AM

Think about it. You have a serious mice infection in your vehicle and that's why the kitty love it!

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#6
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Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 10:42 AM

They're just trying to get away form the tire fire smoke and using the shredded towels to stuff their nostrils to filter it! Or there is a bunch of kitty litter on your garage floor and they need the paper towels to wipe!

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#3

Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/21/2016 10:31 PM

My brother lives in the woods in Ark.

Has too many vehicles and parks some outside. Tried to start one that hadn't been run in 3-4 weeks and it wouldn't.

After much head scratching, he discovered that squirrels had filled the air cleaner full of acorns and cut off the air flow.

My sister lives in rural Mo. and has had squirrels chew through the wiring under the hood of her cars, when left outside too long.

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#5

Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 5:39 AM

We live in a woods/wooded lot. Moved here 15 years ago. Lots of animals. First 9 years, no problem with vehicles. Then we got a 2009 RAV4 and few years later, a used 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Within a few months on the RAV, the wiring on the engine got chewed up. Check engine light on. Not covered by warranty. Whatever it was (mice squirrels, chipmunks) got down inside the FI manifold and chewed off a couple injector wires. I work on my own cars, but I'm self employed more than full time, and can't take that on. So in to the shop for repairs. $900. Happened again. This time it shorted out the main computer, and that had to be replaced. $1400 at the dealership. Then we got the Jeep, and it happened with that. Red squirrel. Same thing. Down under the FI manifold. $100 for the parts but $900 for the labor to take the FI manifold off, fix the wiring, and replace it.

We did some simple research online, and found out that around 2008, a lot of the car mfgrs switched from vinyl wiring insulation to soy based polymer because it's "better for the environment." Turns out rodents love to eat it. Honda even sells a capsacin (hot pepper) loaded tape for you to wrap your wiring in to prevent it. The dirtbags at the Toyota dealership just lie to us though ... "no, we've never seen this before or heard of it." Yeah right you lying POS. A goog search on a few words will produce pages of results.

As of start of 2015, it has cost us $6000 in repairs to our vehicles. I'm getting sick of these people shoving their green crap down our throats with all these unintended consequences, and lots of times, worse performance. I'm not a big litigation fan, but if there is ever a class action suit on this, I will join it, even knowing that we will probably collect $10 after the lawyers take their cut. We've had real damages.

But since early 2015, no damages. Why? For starters, those big plastic engine covers have been removed, so no main "house" roof on the engines. Our underhood areas are laced with rat poison everywhere. Every flat surface had a mouse or rat trap glued to it and baited, and there are also glue traps zip tied to both engines. Once every month or so, we catch a mouse or red squirrel under there, and save ourselves $1000.

Effen greenies with their soy based wiring and other dumba$$ "solutions that save my life. Thanks a lot you $#$#%$s.

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#7
In reply to #5

Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 10:58 AM

Well, at least you're not bitter about it.

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Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 12:36 PM
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Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 1:02 PM

Thanks for the link, that's a new one. That guy's experience with Toyota is exactly the same as ours. I would join the class but it looks like it only goes back to 2012.

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#8

Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 12:25 PM

Read an article the other day that mentioned ,in the effort to go "green", electrical wire casings have been made with organic compounds that are attractive to mice and other rodent--Unintended consequences, I suppose. My neighbor, a few years ago, lost two complete wiring harnesses in both his and his wife's Lexuses.. The cars were filled with rat droppings and a couple of bodies, maybe after getting a few too many volts......Insurance company was not happy about those claims. My boat propeller guy is now replacing most of the ceilings, and some floors, in his house, due to rats eating the PEX plastic piping material that supplied all of the water runs in his house, subsequently flooding it. . Insulation also provided a nice comfy nesting area. Back to good old copper...

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Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/22/2016 7:12 PM

That's why I exclusively use the cheap non environmentally friendly plastics. Nothing wants to chew on them!

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Re: Open Diff: Of Mice and Men

09/23/2016 1:08 PM

PVC..??

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