Paul Ryan's Suburban was eaten by woodchucks. According to a Chevy mechanic I was talking with a while ago, this is an increasingly common occurrence. The reason (he said) is that the EPA has instituted regulations that require a certain number of car parts to be made out of organic materials rather than plastics. These smell like food to rodents because, in fact, they are food for rodents.
His recommendation to me was to make cheesecloth baggies full of mothballs, and attach them around your engine compartment with wire twist-ties where they won't cause problems with engine function. I don't know if this actually works, but it sounded plausible at the time he said it. You might give it a try.
5 comments:
Yea, this isn't pre Apocalypse any more.
Living Up Nort' in an area where there are a lot of "snowbirds," the auto dealership for which I work makes a small fortune every Spring as the snowbirds return from Florida and attempt to start their (garaged) cars.
If it isn't chewed wires, it will be air filters stuffed with nesting materials resulting in near-zero air intake to the engine; or it will be a small fire as a result of heated engine parts igniting leftover nut-shells.
Mice, chipmunks, squirrels, and now woodchucks! I'm a little surprised because woodchucks are fairly large...but....
Our neighbor's fancy Camaro was entirely by squirrels or something.
I have a friend in South Texas who has had to install wiring harnesses in his Mercedes not once, but twice because of this insulation issue. Not because varmints are eating it, but because it's simply flaking off, leaving the wires bare and shorting out. I think I would be telling the dealership to 'flake off' once it happened the first time! Of all the hare-brained schemes....
This got one of mine, too. My mechanic suggested a block of rat poison on the battery. I don't know if it worked or the rodents just moved on, but I haven't had the problem again.
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