Mice!!

[Alan Croft]

so not VW related but my wife came in last night and said the rear light pod on her A5 wasn’t working at all. My immediate thought was a fuse had gone but on checking they were all ok. Had a look this morning in daylight and on taking the light out it was obvious why it didn’t work. A mouse has eaten through the wiring to the light! Little bugger. Fortunately I was able to cut the wires back and add joins so all is working again. Joys of living in the countryside I guess! Hate the little buggers though! They do cause some damage

 

[Phil_G]

Indeed they can do a lot of damage so dont fall into the "aren't they cute" trap... one nibbled wire could cost a fortune in diagnostics!
Shortly after I bought my car I had an electrical failure and under a badly fitted plastic cover found a mouse nest, chopped wires, and this 'wireless' plug:

Resoldering the green & brown meant digging deep into the moulding to get a good repair, but had it gone to a dealer who knows what they would have charged

Cheers
Phil

 

[superflyguy]

My work mate had his fuel line Chewed twice in the same year on his car at the same site in the lakes !! Honda fixed it first time under warranty but not the second. They had told him that some of the plastics in new vehicles is recycled and may contain vegetable oils ? could have been complete Bull !!.

 

[Carlos Vandango]

My work mate had his fuel line Chewed twice in the same year on his car at the same site in the lakes !! Honda fixed it first time under warranty but not the second. They had told him that some of the plastics in new vehicles is recycled and may contain vegetable oils ? could have been complete Bull !!.

No bull just vegetable oil and plant fibres in the plastic. VW use a lot of this of this material. I had fuel breather pipes, various hoses, engine and part covers chewed in my T5. So far been lucky in the T6. When the engine is warm the plastic must give off a scent that attracts rodents.

 

[Alan Croft]

Yep. They are a pain. Had the hood on my elise rolled up in the boot and found a nest in it and a corner chewed through! Then had an old motorhome before the T6 and when I came to get the cover out for it there was a nest in there. About 10 of the little buggers shot off in all directions. Been worse this year as this is our forst winter without a cat! Our last one was 22 when she passed and the replacement was hit by a car. Decided to leave it for a bit. Might have to get another one though !

 

[DaveyB]

How on earth do they get in the vehicle?

 

[Fish]

How on earth do they get in the vehicle?

Up exhaust pipes.

 

[DaveyB]

Up exhaust pipes.

They’d never get past the cat!

 

[Phil_G]

Couple of years back when I serviced my Firestorm (the one in the avatar) I found the airbox was stuffed full of mouse nest, chewed up cardboard, mouse droppings and random bits of crap they'd taken from the garage floor, had to remove the alarm as it was chewed beyond repair and the Autocom intercom was also wrecked. Cute aren't they?

 

[Carlos Vandango]

If you can stick a pencil through a hole its big enough for a mouse.

To catch a mouse you've got to think like a mouse.

 

[Ed Webb]

I didn't know mouse attack was so common. Surely not in a vehicle used daily?....
I shall avoid parking in a barn to prevent this

 

[Alan Croft]

Yep can happen in a daily one easily. The wife uses hers all the time. We are going to set a trap in the boot to see if it got in or was spooked and ran off. Hateful little things. We get quite a few and the damage they cause is a real pain. Poison doesn’t always work and the traps get a few. We need a new outdoor mouser cat lol

 

[Phil_G]

Surely not in a vehicle used daily?....

Me & the Storm did an 80 mile round-trip commute every day, rain or shine, and it lives in an ordinary but obviously not mouseproof garage!
Whether the mice came with me every day from Ponty to Sheffield I dont know, but a 1000 V-twin creates an awful lot of suction, cant imagine it being very pleasant living in that airbox!

We've found a poison that works very well, its called 'Jaguar' but I think its only available from agricultural suppliers, fortunately we have a John Deere tractor shop nearby at Darrington.
BTW, only buy pellets, not bait blocks. So many pets have been lost through taking blocks.

Electronic traps didnt work for us, they never went near them. Maybe they can hear the inverter whine.

 

[andythom188]

I had a rat decide to take a fancy to my front passenger leather recaro in the escort cosworth over the winter months, the rear hatch glass and spoiler was broken when bought it made a right mess of it and craped everywhere, bloody vermin

 

[Vinci]

An elderly neighbour in the 1970s was very proud of his Wolsely 1800.One day he asked my dad to use the dog to seek out a rat in his garage. Tich (a Jack Russell terrorist)ignored the garage and was jumping on the car...”rats in the car” says Dad. “ Can’t be, been to Shepton twice today “
“Open the door” ...dog went in and out and went mental on the front of the car. “Lift the bonnet”........and there was this massive rat wrapped around the air filter. Needless to say, the rat made a run for it and Tich earnt his dinner.
For the pc brigade no animals were harmed in this tale, apart from the rat that is.