Rodent damage.

[wtd]

Yesterday my fiancé's mom brought her 2021 Subaru Forrester with 41,000 miles on it over because the CEL had come on. There were many codes stored and in many different systems. Because of this and the fact that something had gotten up into their 2017 F350 last year and had chewed on wires sent me under the hood.

The first thing I see is the wiring for the connector for one of the AC pressure switches chewed completely off as well as the cap for the windshield washer fluid bottle and they had chewed all around the top of the bottle where the cap sits. I could not see any other chewed wires, but I knew that there had to be considering all of the codes that were stored.

She took the vehicle to Subaru today and the entire wiring harness from the bulkhead forward has to be replaced to the tune of 5K.

My question is has anyone used a good method that worked to keep rodents out of a vehicle? They have a ton of squirrels at their house and looking at some of the teeth marks on the washer fluid bottle and the lower bumper where they also chewed, I'm thinking it might be a squirrel that did it.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[The Critic]

Selontra.

 

[Oillover]

https://www.pthomeandgarden.com/product/riddex-mouse-block-kit-reusable/
One box was enough to clear out an entire barn for at least two winters of auto storage.

 

[BillyHW]

Why can't they make car wires that mice won't eat?

 

[Oillover]

Why can't they make car wires that mice won't eat?

Most wire insulation these days are soy based, so they are more appealing to rodents.
Old wiring lasted longer, but wasn't biodegradable.

 

[I<3oil]

I put a bunch of cayenne pepper in my engine bay after it got chewed.

 

[oldcodger]

Peppermint spray, available from Amazon.

 

[dguzzi]

Oldcodger has it, I've used Lysol (the concentrated version). This year it's a store version of VicsVapoRub. All that stuff that smells strong seems to work.
Here its red squirrels, if you find something that works let us know!
No moth balls, dryer sheets please.

 

[AZjeff]

Most wire insulation these days is soy based, so they are more appealing to rodents.
Old wiring lasted longer, but wasn't biodegradable.

FIFY

Peppermint spray, available from Amazon.

You have to be careful with peppermint oil, it will damage different plastics. Found out the hard way. I wouldn't just spray it around. We use peppermint oil soaked cottonballs in little tupperware type containers in our travel trailer. Seems to be working.

Do you have pack rats in SW MO.?

 

[4WD]

Peppermint spray, available from Amazon.

I think that helped me with spiders too …

 

[tbm5690]

I'm assuming parking in the garage (the easiest solution) isn't an option?

 

[jkasch]

I'm giving this a try this year. So far so good.

Amazon.com

 

[wtd]

I'm assuming parking in the garage (the easiest solution) isn't an option?

She does park it in the garage at night but yesterday they used the car to run errands and left it on the driveway between those and it happened during that time. She found the remanent of the washer cap and bottle on the driveway where the car was parked.

 

[wtd]

FIFY

You have to be careful with peppermint oil, it will damage different plastics. Found out the hard way. I wouldn't just spray it around. We use peppermint oil soaked cottonballs in little tupperware type containers in our travel trailer. Seems to be working.

Do you have pack rats in SW MO.?

Yes we do. Her mom lives out in the country and so do we. We just had some type of rodents get up into our ATV's that are parked in the shop. They luckily didn't chew any wires but made a nest on top of the battery of one and chewed the red cover for the positive side cable and they chewed up a rag that was kept in the storage compartment of my ATV.

 

[wtd]

Oldcodger has it, I've used Lysol (the concentrated version). This year it's a store version of VicsVapoRub. All that stuff that smells strong seems to work.
Here its red squirrels, if you find something that works let us know!
No moth balls, dryer sheets please.

I'm pretty sure that its squirrels that did this damage because the washer bottle is made of some very strong plastic and so is the lower bumper where it was chewed and the marks left on both were a lot larger than a mouse or IMO, even a rat.

 

[wtd]

Selontra.

Just did some reading on this stuff and it seems like it is some good stuff. I will let them know about it. Thanks.

 

[wtd]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions so far.

 

[wwillson]

My problem and solution:

Keeping rodents away from your RV

Last winter we had an unfortunate event, which was lots of chewed wires in our truck. https://rvthe.us/community/threads/pack-rat-chew-damage-on-truck-wiring-harnesses-and-more.469/ I did a lot of reading out how to prevent this from happening again. There seem to be all sorts of remedies...

rvthe.us

 

[ctechbob]

Rodent tape. Problem is you'll have a lot of work involved to cover everything under the hood. It isn't especially cheap either, but then again, neither are engine harnesses:

 

[doitmyself]

Maybe helpful? My co-worker's "new" (3 yr.) pickup truck somehow had the brake fluid get contaminated and he had to have the whole brake system rebuilt for $3,000 +/-. On a lark, he called his car insurance company about it and they agreed to pay for the repairs!

Maybe an option??

Based on my workplace zero turn getting chewed on the one time I stored it in our pole barn (gas caps, big parts chewed), I agree that it might be squirrels, chipmunks, and maybe even possum or raccoon.