Quote:
Originally Posted by 4RnR Grl
Tell me more about this "rodent screen". While I park in the garage, I know at some point, my truck will be too tall to fit in there.
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Usually get some chicken wire, the kind you'd use for like rabbit cages that has maybe 8mm square holes. Then pull the windshield wiper cowling out, pilot drill, and use self-tapping screw to secure the mesh over the HVAC opening. Some vehicles you have to pull the dash to do it from the inside (I usually do it this way when replacing the HVAC assembly as it's easy that way).
If I get around to installing a rodent screen on my 4th gen this weekend I'll post pictures in my build thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1engineer
OP, change the cabin filter. Sometimes I run without one for a few hours just to make sure everything is clean and dry as wind velocities will be higher without the filter.
As far as rodent screens? Those are just petty challenges to mice and rats. They have a map of your vehicle and like any good first person shooter game will explore all options if they want in.
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9/10 they get in via the giant gaping hole in the firewall for the HVAC assembly. Sometimes there's a pathetic plastic mesh there, but they chew through that crap or just slip through the giant gaps. I have yet to see rodents get in through the one-way flap at the back of the vehicle for positive pressure, but it is possible. The other times it seems they get in when windows or doors are open (a co-worker told me about a couple that went hiking and didn't realize they trapped raccoon in their car all day, he was not amused and the vehicle was torn to shreds). There aren't really any other ways for them to get in otherwise as the other openings such as body plugs are out of the way enough that they'd have to float to chew through them. I haven't really seen them go into door panels usually either, again probably because to do so they'd have to eat through the plastic door panel as there's no real way to get in there otherwise.
Also so far all my rodent screens have held up and I haven't had any comebacks. That being said, a determined enough rodent will chew right through that flimsy steel mesh, but it seems they follow a path of least resistance and don't really bother trying to eat through it so far.
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So found my pictures! This is the single biggest animal I have pulled out of a vehicle so far (unless you count the two 2~3ft snakes I pulled from a Prius), about 9-10inches long from head to toe. He was dead a while and good lord did he smell, after this job I just bought a respirator and use it on all rodent jobs. Couldn't be in the car for more than 3 seconds without my body reflexively gagging at the stench. Rigamortis had set in so I was lucky to pull the blower motor out and gently coax his corpse out without him popping (I swear with how rancid that guy smelled I would not have been surprised if he was filled with maggots). I had never actually seen a pack rat before this, so I almost assumed the family had lost their pet chinchilla in the car and it died. Poor guy got into the blower housing but he couldn't get back out and died there, it was probably the cleaner of the rodent deaths I have had to clean.