Re: Yet another warning: Watch for rodents! Stopped in at a dealership today...

while taking long way to work and in the a service area spotted not one but two cars in for rodent damage.

One of the cars had sat unused for 6 months. The other car sat for just a few days. In the case of this second car I got to see up close some of the damage. (I took some pics but posting pics from this PC is restricted.)

Briefly, the service manager told me the main wiring harness came this >< close to needing replacement. Had it needed replacing estimated cost is $3800 parts and aprox. $3000 labor. (Oh the car is a Cayman. I did not ask what year.)

Some coolant hoses were damaged. I smelled antifreeze walking by the car and suspected a bad radiator but I then learned it was in for rodent damage. The animals even gnawed the radiator duct housings both sides, and nearly in the same place.

The cabin air filter box was eaten away. Holes were eaten into the carpet the cabin. The back of the seats were chewed. Rodent droppings in the cabin air vents and probably holes gnawed into these too. And the extent of the damage is not yet fully known.

I do not know what damage the other car that sat for 6 months sustained but I suspect it is even worse.

It doesn't take long for rodents (in this case rats but mice too) to set up house keeping in a car. And it doesn't require you live in or even near a garbage dump either. These creatures are everywhere man is and when they move into a car the damage they can do is quite severe and expensive to put right.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

If you have a neighbor who is doing considerable construction--new addition, even a tear down of an old house--then chances are, these critters will be looking for new/quiter places to live. Your garage may just be the ticket. Also, now that it's winter, they may be looking for warmer places. I've got bait in my garage. I live in an older area where houses are being torn down for urban infill. Seen lots of mouse droppings by the bait. Luckily, no mice have died in the garage cuz the oder is killer.

We live in the country and have lots of mice, chipmunks etc.......I put high frequency rodent devices right in the trunk and one in the interior when I put the Boxster to bed in the garage.......they really work good, never had a problem yet. About 30 bucks at Canadian Tire.

The animals had chewed through the radiator ducting material to the point the insurance agreed to replace both of them.

Oh, the owner initially wasn't going to file a claim but after he got the estimate... He filed a claim under his home owners insurance. I do not know what the estimate amount was but as I mentioned in an eralier post the main harness is shot and this costs $3800 in parts and around $3000 in labor to replace and there's interior/cabin carpet, seat damage, A/C vent damage, and so on.

The tech told me the owner brought the car in because the CEL was on and this pointed to a tank ventilation system leak.

The tech had removed the underbody panels that exposes the small tunnel that runs down the center of the car through which the coolant pipes run. On top of one of thise pipes is a plastic tank vent line and the tech showed me where the line had been gnawed enough to cause a leak. The rodent probably stopped when it smelled gasoline or heard/felt the air air flowing through the hole it had created.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

fixing what the rodents damaged did prompt the owner of the car to file a claim with his insurance company.

Sorry for the mistake. Speeding typing without speed thinking.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

same thing, cars would have thousands of dollars worth of damage done by these guys.

--
MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

Minus 40 degrees... Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?