Reply With QuoteSeen it hundreds of times over the years, there's certain plastics that they find irresistible.
The breather vent on top of the fuel tank of a Defender was a favourite.
My wife was at Audi yesterday for the cars first oil service at 5000 miles (11 months old)
The Audi bloke asked my wife, do we live in the country,,, Why she asked. Well mice are eating your ‘wires’ (WTF)
Well we don’t live in the country and our back garden is a killing field for anything that moves, thanks to a few cats that frequent our garden, and parking area.
I think their at it, but how do you disprove this? No photographs to prove this as yet.
Seen it hundreds of times over the years, there's certain plastics that they find irresistible.
The breather vent on top of the fuel tank of a Defender was a favourite.
Mice will certainly chew at wiring (and many other things) to create nest bedding in a vehicle.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I too have seen it many times over the years normally in area around bulk head under screen as Franky says there is a type of wire sheath / coating that gives off a smell or taste they like and they chew through which can cause havoc
I bought a lovely R107 that kept dropping hazelnuts in passenger footwell after I dismantled the dash I found an old squirrel nest.
Rodents and cars don’t mix, don’t be too hasty to think it’s a dealer lifting your leg.
Had our cars pretty savaged by rats and mice over the last 6 or 8 years , I put bait stations out on a regular basis to try and keep the numbers down. I also use peppermint oil on the battery cover of my Skoda to try and keep them out
Honda so a insulation tape (Honda 4019-2317 Rodent Tape) which is said to help if you can find the wires that they especially like
So yes its very common but the dealer should be able to show you the chewed wires
A good friend stored his carrera 4 over the winter...
Meeces ate the engine compartment wiring loom
Cost 4 Grand, but they presented him with a handful of fruit stones with characteristic rodent tooth marks
Ouch
This happened to my Porsche when it was garaged last year (I had broken my ankle and unable to drive). I'm looking at having to replace the instrument cluster at some point
Was surprised how common it is and am now obsessed with making sure they don't get in again!
stone-martens are a big problem where I live (next to a large park, old and large mansions surrounding the park). Martens are endangered species here and you're not allowed to exterminate them! Sadly, they love nearly everything inside a car. Especially VAG products as far as I know. (Content of the rubber, I suppose). You can scare them with ultra-sound etc.
In short: be sure that you're certain that mice ate your car. Fair chance that it was a marten.
Menno
Allegedly some car manufacturers are using soya based bio plastics which is like caviar to mice...
But no mouse droppings to be seen
Then start looking for marten droppings when there're no mouse droppings to be seen. Lots of info and pics for recognition on the internet (together with all sorts of info to figure out if you have a marten around the house).
Menno
Cheers Menno.Originally Posted by thieuster
They ate all the foam insulation around the air con and intercooler pipes on my Integrale. Couldn't get a period replacement.
Wouldn't mind so much if they actual ate it, but just seem to enjoy nibbling away.
Mice, bats and rabbits are the bane of my life
Lots of traps. Glue with bait in middle works well, they used to produce a product commercially but seems to have been withdrawn
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I could have had added a 'fouine' clause when taking out our car insurance policy when we lived in Switzerland. Not knowing what it was and being too lazy to look it up I didn't tick the box. I soon found out when the turbo packed in on the way to Berne one day.
You need one of these.
Cat form a sanctuary: win - win: your Audi safe and a cat saved!
M
Have you checked the exhaust?
It might have had its cats removed!
(I’ll get my coat...)
Critters tucked into the wiring on my neighbour’s Carrera S last winter. Cost him CAD$6k. I’m worried they’ll turn their attention to my garage next. It’s easy access. This thread is a timely reminder to take preventive action before next winter.
This is incredibly informative- never given any of this much thought and, touch wood, never had an issue.
But we do live in the country, there are mice around, and it isn’t possible to rodent proof any building, let alone a garage.
My garage is detached from the house and has two separate bays - one is used as a workshop and store, the second for my weekend car. We have had mice in the former, but I’ve not seen any evidence of them in the car bay. As a result of this thread I will keep a very close eye out from now on though!
Thanks chaps!
I used an ultrasonic mouse repeller in my garage when my summer toy is tucked up for winter.
Especially as the tumble drier is there too, so makes it a very warm, tempting option for rodents.
No idea if they work, but no sign of mice in there, so am guessing so. To be fair only ever had 1 mouse in the house and that was brought in by the cat, before letting it go.
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many years ago my brother who runs the family farm rang me and said his Volvo 240[yes that long ago] woudnt start.put my toolbox in the truck and went over to sort it.came to the conclusion that the valve timing was out.i looked at the timing belt and belt cover and timing pulleys for signs of the cause.i found the remains of a very squashed mouse,little innards and a tail were around the camshaft pulley.the poor little sod was in the wrong place at the wrong time,got caught up in the toothed belt as it went around the camshaft pulley causing the belt to jump a few teeth.luckily for my brother[not the mouse] the volvo fitted with a new belt correctly timed was fine.i left the timing cover off just in case.......if that happened to some of the modern vehicles today it could cost mega bucks..
Last edited by greasemonkey; 8th May 2019 at 09:00. Reason: sspelin
Currently in the workshop discussing this thread. Common opinion is: marten, not a mouse
mice eat rubber hoses too - they gnaw on them to strengthen their teeth ... an old renault van we had succumbed to this even with plenty of cats in the area
they aslo like certain types of brake fluid
be very careful with rodent poison as this will kill the cats or make them very sick - use traps best
Don’t know where OP is but not common in UK and very rare in England.
A friend of mine had mice problems with her Honda Jazz, this was quite a few years ago. Took it in many times as it would randomly cutout or not start and Honda eventually diagnosed that mice had been eating through the wires and that the bulk of the loom would need to be replaced. They wanted her to pay for it until she pointed out that the problems were there within a few weeks of her buying the car new. Her husband eventually found out that their car before being sold was stored in a field and with that, the first occurrence and the threat of legal action Honda eventually replaced the loom under warranty.
Mice have been around for ages and are widely spread. The OP says that mice are not around thanks to a few cats living in the neighbourhood. What are the chances of a mouse, having escaped the minefield that's called cat territory, ends up under the bonnet of your car? Added to that: the OP didn't find mouse droppings under the bonnet. A cat will step away from a marten on the hunt.
The OP lives in Aberdeen according to his signature. From Wikipedia:
So, not impossible that it's a marten. A suggestion? Get a wildlife specialist to exam your grounds for tales like scats.In Great Britain, the species was for many years common only in northwestern Scotland.[5] A study in 2012 found that martens have spread from their Scottish Highlands stronghold, north into Sutherland and Caithness and southeastwards from the Great Glen into Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, Tayside, and Stirlingshire, with some in the Central Belt, on the Kintyre and Cowal peninsulas and on Skye and Mull. The expansion in the Galloway Forest has been limited compared with that in the core marten range. Martens were reintroduced to the Glen Trool Forest in the early 1980s and only restricted spread has occurred from there.[6] This may be due to ongoing persecution and trapping by local gamekeepers.
Last edited by thieuster; 8th May 2019 at 12:21.
The little blighters hate quite a bit around the engine bay of my RS4 one winter ……..luckily spotted it in time .
I stuck a mouse trap at the front wheel and another inside the engine bay & caught a pair of them in the first night.
Routinely kept the trap in the engine bay for the rest of the winter & caught one additional mouse & then never had any further bother...……..Audi had warned me it was gonna be an insurance job if they hadn't spotted it when they did
Unlike other European species, UK pine martens tend to avoid human contact so unlikely IMO.
I'd be more stringent with your recruitment processes, otherwise you'll end up like this
Caught six mice in my garage last winter, so always have traps set. Haven't been any this winter, oddly and all I've changed is that I've lagged some pipes that run down one corner at the back. Might be significant, might not.
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Something similar happened to my mate Touareg back in the winter of 2004, he bought it in Germany and brought it back to the UK when the jeep started powering down. Luckily he was near a garage, they found a dead rodent which had chewed through some cables, the last cable must off given it a electric shock.
He told us (about 10 mates) when we in the pub when one of us started singing to him.....
There's a rat in me VW what am I gonna do?
There's a rat in me VW what am I gonna go?
I'm gonna fix that rat that's what I'm gonna do,
I'm gonna fix that rat.
Well, if folks will de-cat their cars! I'll get my coat!
You may have to get a painless ro-dent removal specialist!
:)
One of my guilty pleasures is watching Mouse Trap Monday, an excellent YouTube Channel where the host tests literally hundreds of different mouse and rat traps. The ultrasonic deterrents were not much use.
If anyone has a persistent mouse problem, the Goodnature A24 mouse trap is the most effective one he's seen. It's not cheap but is non-toxic, automatically resets and is humane. A friend of mine set two of these in his wooden highland home and cleaned up the problem in a couple of weeks.
Please note this video shows rats being humanely killed. Don't click if that may offend.
I'v had a visit of a 'beech marter'? severel times. Really expensive. :(
this....
My sollution is placing a fence that I made under the car every time I parket it.
Last edited by Time Cat; 22nd May 2019 at 17:08.
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