Imagine what I just found in my engine bay . . .

[climberjohn]

It's been a few days since I drove the van. I went out a few minutes ago to check something in the engine bay.

Imagine my shock and surprise when I lifted the lid and found this sitting front and center on top of my Subaru 2.5 engine:

It was about a softball sized mound of fluffy and, as they say, "tinder dry" plant husks, seed pods, etc. No rodents were home. The dryness of this is a little mysterious, as it's been dumping rain here in Portland last few days.

I tossed it out, and blew out with an air compressor all the remaining fluff that I could find.

Gee, you think THIS might start a fire!?!?

I was pretty freaked out when I saw it, and still am. It was just blind luck that I happened to go lift the lid. Any other time, I would've gone off for a drive, and the engine and exhaust manifold would heat up, and then . . . I can imagine that fluff ball catching fire and causing all sorts of mayhem.

I heard a sad story recently about a beautiful van catching fire after being stored for the winter and driven for the first time. A mouse nest in the engine bay seems a totally plausible way for this to happen.

Anyway, this post is for me to vent a little bit, and perhaps caution people to be sure and check this if there vans are in storage for a while. (Of course, mine was not even in storage, just sitting in my driveway for a few days.)

-CJ
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[tam_shops]

Isn't that a mouse butt in the picture in the lower left side? Either way, that is both scary and lucky!

tam
_________________
1987 Vanagon Westfalia GL Automatic

Making it special:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=545885

[climberjohn]

No, those two dark things in the middle of the fluff ball are actually some shreds of black foam. The little bugger chewed them off the insulation on the bottom side of the deck lid!
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[juanb]

Yet another reason to run an unreliable waterboxer that requires you to open the lid every couple of days, instead of those Japanese things that never break down.

(I'm kidding)
_________________
1989 Westy AT, 2.2 GoWesty.
We drove it to Argentina: http://www.vanenvan.com

[djkeev]

You will think me crazy but........ Mint extract is your friend!

Make a mixture, put it in a Spray bottle and periodically spray your vulnerable areas..... No more mice...... EVER!

Dave
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[danfromsyr]

while I cetainly find it disturbing the rapid resourcefulness of the home maker
I don't believe it would have caught fire there, stank sure maybe. but the intake manifold doesn't get hot enough to light 'tinder' again just my not always humble opinion..

does do good conscience to check under there though.
_________________

[Ahwahnee]

Mine came with a 'friend'.

I was pulling the stuff out of the area where she had made her home -- even though I thought I was ready for it, when my hand came out with this I screamed like a little girl.

[Zeitgeist 13]

My cats keep such rodent flare-ups at bay...well that and the generally greasy unpleasantness that is my engine environment
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[tencentlife]

Welcome to our world!
_________________
Shop for unique Vanagon accessories at the Vanistan shop:
https://intrepidoverland.com/vanistan/

Please don't PM here, I will not reply.

Experience is kryptonite to doctrine.

[debbiej]

Pack rat, or nicer name, kangaroo rat, ate many,many wires on a parked BMW. The whole engine bay was full to the top, of seeds, wire, twigs, etc, etc. my husband parked it for a couple of weeks, and so much of the wiring was destroyed, it is still parked a couple of years later. We check all our cars almost daily. They are SO destructive!

Have to try the mint.

[Vango Conversions]

I see stuff like this all the time. They do seem to like clean engines that aren't all greasy but they don't care too much about the make. Clean flat and V engines seem to be the worst though as they have the most area to make their nests, but most engines I work on (especially Subaru) have at least a few nuts and seeds scattered about.

The cars and trucks with the softer under hood insulation really suffer, as the critters like to use that stuff for nesting material. For some reason on the Subarus, it seems like every one I've worked on, has at least a few chew marks on the little red boot that covers the alternator post. Must be something that they like in the rubber. Like mentioned before, plenty of cars have had a $hit load of $$ dammage done by critters chewing on wires. I wonder if some makes are more vulnerable than others. Maybe some have more of whatever is tasty like in the Subaru alternator post.

Shouldn't be much of a fire hazard though unless the nest is on the exhaust or they chew through the wiring insulation.

[Wildthings]

Mice are one of the main vectors for Lyme Disease. It pays to keep the number of those critters low for multiple reasons.

[jackbombay]

[vanagonjr]

[Ahwahnee]

[FNGRUVN]

[Royb]

To be really pedantic, any woodrat is a packrat, but I agree- kangaroo rats probably aren't interested in vanagons. In the Sierra we typically have deer mice building nests in engines, especially in air cleaner boxes, but what's worse are ground squirrels, which have done hundreds of dollars worth of damage to many our work trucks by nibbling on wiring. They also leave acorns behind.
_________________
1991 Westy

[svenakela]

This is what I found after a trip from Portugal to Sweden. I don't know it's native language but I suspect it talked with a Spanish accent.
More than a pound for sure.

[Steve Arndt]

In my younger years I was carrying a dead pack rat that we trapped to bury. The skin on the tail pulled off in my hand and I could feel each tail bone slide past my fingers before I could let go. Like a zipper feeling Very nasty. I only move them with a shovel or reaching wand now, not with my bare hands.

[NC Dude]

Are you SURE that ain't a dead mouse under your black junction box in the upper left hand of the pic? I see what looks like a tail and rear legs