So back in February...my engine light came on and I checked the code with my tuner and it was "Cam position sensor". So I went to the dealer and got the part and put it in. It was on the side of the engine block, so I didn't need to take the beauty cover off. That didn't fix the problem so I took it to the dealer.

The dealer called towards the end of the day and his first words were " Do you have insurance?". Long story short...they found a rats nest in the engine and had to replace the main wire harness, the cost of the part and a ka-jillion hours of labor would cost $3800! Insurance did cover everything but my $500 deductible...so it was a hit but it could have been worse.

Here's a pic of my baby that's being violated:



Fast forward to last weekend...It's time to change the spark plugs (all 16 of them!) so I pop off the engine cover and there's a ton of acorn mess on the same side the nest was found...and some rat poop. I vacuum up the mess, change the plugs and my wife proceeds to trim the little bit of Ivy I park next to and clean up the acorns around the area. Parking is very limited on my street so I have no choice to park in that spot and it's under an Oak tree that has a ton of acorns.

Anyway...I've been checking under the hood every morning...and this morning I find this:



The little #%&*$# is back!

He even chewed himself a little hole on the underside of my engine cover insulation for more room:



I'm going to try and set some rat traps tonight...not the "humane" live traps...oh no...I'm getting the old fashioned snap traps with hope of breaking his friggin neck!

Happened to me with my old 2013 Ford Escape. Dealership said it is very common now. New green tech standards for cars have them making the wiring out of things rodents love to eat. Insurance isn't helping either. Got to love the greenies.


http://www.synlube.com/IncredibleEdibleCar1.htm



http://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/ho...lawsuit-n504746

I will have to show this to my brother. If that were to happen to his Boss 302 Mustang he would be in the driveway with flashlight and a gun every night.

Nice car. A shame it has to be left out. That was a big reason that I was as much garage hunting as house hunting this time when I bought a house.

Wow what a pain.

Do you drive the car regularly? Are the rats hiding in there for the warm engine?

Reminds me to check my motorcycle I've had parked in the driveway under a cover for the last couple of years, hopefully since it's never warm, it didn't attract any guests.

I bought this to take out squirrels who broke my bird feeder... Might need a bigger one for a rat..

I was gonna say... just park it in a garage?

I've seen this with motorcycles too.Wiring looms chewed,nests in the airbox.Never know what you're going to find.

.177 is fine for rats,unless you have some sort of super-breed over there?

Parking it in a garage is not an option...otherwise I would.

It's my daily driver and I put 60 miles on it a day for the last 4 years...so sitting idle isn't the problem. I come home about 6 o'clock...so when it gets dark around 9, the engine probably has just the right amount of warmth to it to make the little guy all warm and snuggly in there. When he here's me open the door in the morning or start the motor...he scoots.

It's a more common problem then you would think...talk to any mechanic and chances are he's seen it happen.

Just to be clear, I pretty much love all animals...I even had a pet store rat when I was a kid. But when you cost me $3800 and are on the verge of costing me another $3800...that's when we part ways.

LB4LB,

I moved your original post to this thread so the links would work. I can't get it to move to the bottom of the thread though...it now appears after my first post.

If anyone wants to check out the links...look at the second post in the thread.

Bleedin rats still come into the garage here, my spare bodyshell for my MG was full of gnawed walnut shells, lucky there is no plastics or wiring in the shell. My take down swimming pool had holes chewed through it a couple of years ago too.

I only got the rats coming into the garage when I shut over all the holes into the garage, now I have a small open door at one end, and since then no more rats as it allows the cat to get into the garage.

Rubber Snake in the Engine Compartment?!?

Ultrasonic Car Engine Compartment Rat Remover

If you are going to use "traps", get the GLUE kind. OMG! they are awesome. You have to deal with a live rat but he won't me moving much.

My buddy caught a big rat in one, and a large snake in the other part of the glue strip. Hahaha.

Hmmm. Can't blame a rat for wanting to warm his nuts....

Sorry double post. Thanks Force10. Got chemo brain today.

Wow! and I thought I had a headache at work. Similar thing happened but with a work computer. We had the user complaining about the computer not working well and rebooting unexpectedly. Ran various diagnostics and was not finding that it was software related so then I decided to look "under the hood" and found almost 60% of all electrical cables from the power supply bare. My first thought that there was a short and the plastic melted until I looked closer. I found pellet feces, hair, dried up urine and on closer inspection I could see the teeth marks left over on the remaining electrical cables! It did not make sense until I saw a PCI slot cover missing on the computer. Seems that another tech. removed an accessory card and did not cover the slot, through that very narrow slot a mouse got in and found it to be his/her new home! Called for replacement wiring and parts but the tech support did not believe the story until I sent them pictures.

If you wish to hunt them take notes from this guy at the other side of the pond. He takes his extermination job seriously (word of caution to animal lovers (even vermin) do not watch):

https://youtu.be/cq2c7lD49T4

If he keeps going back to the same spot you might as well just put some poison in there, cats and dogs won't be going into your engine bay to eat your wiring.

Put some rat poison in a piece of rotting food and the little #%&*$# will die. More effective than trying to shoot them IMO.

I hate wild rats and mice, no shame in admitting it. They once destroyed hundreds of dollars worth of food.. That's how I learned to throw knives and shoot pellets with pinpoint accuracy. But eventually I just decided to poison them.

I worked on Automated Teller Machine networks 20 some years ago. It was not uncommon for rodents to give us big headaches. Soon there will be laws that say the whole car will have to be made out of edible green material.

I have been told mothballs are a good rodent repellent.

Tree rats (squirrels) and chipmunks besides the rats and mice.