Cabin air filter - rodent nest heaven!!!

[alia176]

Any of you guys battling rodents nest on top of the cabin air filter? They chew threw mine and all kinds of crap dumps into the blower housing, causing it to go out of balance. I'm thinking of going to the hardware store and grabbing a small piece of expanded alum to act as a grate over the filter so that the little bastards can't chew through it.

If anyone got a cool solution for this, post up.

 

[jfry008]

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-g...d-my-cabin-air-filter-u-gotta-kidding-me.html

 

[theMayor]

Use hardware cloth... But you really need to kill the mice. Also, make sure there isn't any dog/cat food or seeds in your garage.

Also, mice hate anything that "smells". You can spray lysol, or place moth balls or dryer sheets around the filter and they will avoid it.

..but they might find another place to nest...

 

[alia176]

Use hardware cloth... But you really need to kill the mice. Also, make sure there isn't any dog/cat food or seeds in your garage.

Also, mice hate anything that "smells". You can spray lysol, or place moth balls or dryer sheets around the filter and they will avoid it.

..but they might find another place to nest...

This is SO true! All of my vehicles now have cotton balls dripped with Spearmint oil. The moth ball smells is nasty but Spearmint is liveable. I have bird seeds in a 5 gallon pail inside the garage. If I leave it outside then the bears start to bother us.

The pack rats at my place bring in Cacti, dog poop and various other things into the engine bays. The shit I find when I break up their nests, it's like a treasure trove of stuff I've lost over the years around the property. They even took all the sea shells that my daughter put around the coi pond.

 

[BackOff]

The little buggers don't like vanilla either.

I had a mom and 2 kids (packrats) in the glovebox!
No filter on mine when I got it.

I cant leave my runner outside over night.

Like someone said in that other thread, check wires and vacuum lines, some of mine have teeth marks.
They seem to like rubber, one ate the rubber protector cap over the positive battery terminal, on an old car in my driveway, bet that tasted good.

Something else.
The big Victor style rat traps work good.
Drill a hole in the middle of the trap so you can secure it with a nail or screw.
Works better less energy loss if the trap is not moving around when activated.
Wedge half a peanut into the trigger so they have to work at it, they just lick peanut butter off for a nice snack around here.

 

[GoPats]

No Critters, but ...

This was mine shortly after purchase last year. Apparently, no one had ever checked it before. :doh:

I'm sure glad there wasn't anything worse in there!

 

[Joemce]

Late response, but I just pulled my cabin air filter out, and it had a big woolly nest above it and some fell into the fan. So I'm thinking that hardware cloth above the filter might not help much unless there's a way to attach it above the filter so you could vacuum it out after the filter is removed.

 

[wsgoat]

You need to install a cabin air intake screen. The critters are getting into the filter area via the air inlet on the passenger side. Remove your wipers and the black plastic cowl at the base of the windshield and you'll plainly see the air intake. Good Luck!

 

[rwh963]

check it out

 

[Fern]

check it out

That's nuts!

 

[BackOff]

check it out

:wow2:

To bad its not a Manchineel tree.
Manchineel - Wikipedia

Looks like its even roasting a couple nuts on the manifold.

 

[jabloomf1230]

Timely thread. My 05 V8 SR5 wouldn't start and I had it flatbedded to my local mechanic. To make a long story short he got a serious infection and was hospitalized for almost a month. The truck sat outside at his shop and I finally had it flatbedded to the dealer who replaced the ECM. It runs great now but when I got it back and turned on the fan I got hit with a shower of stench and fuzz. I pulled the glovebox and on top of the cabin filter was a wad of chewed hood insulation the size of a soccer ball. There were also about 20 acorns bouncing around the fan. All's good now until Minnie needs a new bungalow.

 

[TechWrench]

Any of you guys battling rodents nest on top of the cabin air filter? They chew threw mine and all kinds of crap dumps into the blower housing, causing it to go out of balance. I'm thinking of going to the hardware store and grabbing a small piece of expanded alum to act as a grate over the filter so that the little bastards can't chew through it.

If anyone got a cool solution for this, post up.

The little beggars get into the cabin through the fresh air intake, under the wiper cowl on the passenger side. It is fairly simple to remove the cowl, and fashion a screen cover out of mechanics cloth (1/4" square stainless screening). I made my first one over 30 years ago to solve this problem in Honda's. I call it my chipmunk mod. It works well. No more nests on top of the cabin air filter since.

 

[TechWrench]

You need to install a cabin air intake screen. The critters are getting into the filter area via the air inlet on the passenger side. Remove your wipers and the black plastic cowl at the base of the windshield and you'll plainly see the air intake. Good Luck!

You beat me to it by one day. ;-)

 

[ScooterMD]

This is a classic southwest problem. Just leave the hood up when the truck is parked in your garage or driveway and the packrats will seek shelter elsewhere.

 

[V8Man]

Check inside the engine air filter as well. They get into it and make a nice home. Had them also nest inside the frame!

 

[Swipter]

Holy cow. Reading this thread makes me glad I have feral cats outside. One, who sleeps by our front door, has killed two rats and one mouse in less than one year. One feral in back killed a rat two years ago.

 

[nkrust24]

Had mice in my engine bay... or atleast a bunch of nesting material. Blew out the nest with am air compressor and haven't had any other issues.

 

[Formidable]

Wow... speechless.

 

[Swipter]

Is the screen used just fencing you can buy from lowes or home depot?