my entry for "weirdest fault of the year"
Discussion
2 years ago, around this time of the year, I took my 993 from Plymouth to Looe to show a friend who was thinking of buying a similar model. When he was poking about in the engine bay he remarked that he had never seen an air filter such as the one in my car.
I asked him what he meant and he told me to look for myself.
I was staggered. The air filter was about 2 inches deep in peanuts.(My wife had a bag of nuts in the garage to feed the wild birds.)
Yes you've guessed it MICE !
Worse still the little ba*****s had started to gnaw away at the sound insultaion between the engine bay and the rear of the interior cabin.
Strange because i had smelled what can best be described as pasties cooking on the way down to Looe.
I reckon that was the meeces roasting in the heat exchangers/exhaust where they had set up house.
6 traps and 23 mice later in the garage ( I was infested as my house backs onto a wood) I think I cured the problem.
Since then copious quantities of mice poison seem to have controlled them .
On a serious note can you imagine the consequences if the loom had been gnawed through ? Doesn't bear thinking about !
TC
I asked him what he meant and he told me to look for myself.
I was staggered. The air filter was about 2 inches deep in peanuts.(My wife had a bag of nuts in the garage to feed the wild birds.)
Yes you've guessed it MICE !
Worse still the little ba*****s had started to gnaw away at the sound insultaion between the engine bay and the rear of the interior cabin.
Strange because i had smelled what can best be described as pasties cooking on the way down to Looe.
I reckon that was the meeces roasting in the heat exchangers/exhaust where they had set up house.
6 traps and 23 mice later in the garage ( I was infested as my house backs onto a wood) I think I cured the problem.
Since then copious quantities of mice poison seem to have controlled them .
On a serious note can you imagine the consequences if the loom had been gnawed through ? Doesn't bear thinking about !
TC
runner911 said:
2 years ago, around this time of the year, I took my 993 from Plymouth to Looe to show a friend who was thinking of buying a similar model. When he was poking about in the engine bay he remarked that he had never seen an air filter such as the one in my car.
I asked him what he meant and he told me to look for myself.
I was staggered. The air filter was about 2 inches deep in peanuts.(My wife had a bag of nuts in the garage to feed the wild birds.)
Yes you've guessed it MICE !
Worse still the little ba*****s had started to gnaw away at the sound insultaion between the engine bay and the rear of the interior cabin.
Strange because i had smelled what can best be described as pasties cooking on the way down to Looe.
I reckon that was the meeces roasting in the heat exchangers/exhaust where they had set up house.
6 traps and 23 mice later in the garage ( I was infested as my house backs onto a wood) I think I cured the problem.
Since then copious quantities of mice poison seem to have controlled them .
On a serious note can you imagine the consequences if the loom had been gnawed through ? Doesn't bear thinking about !
TC
you see? and they say that removing the cats only harms the environment.
stards are still in there i reckon 6.5k rpm will crisp them up nicely softinthehead said:
it is. i showed my wife and my sister the pictures and she says she cant believe it.
um...is your wife and your sister the same one person?
well you did say you lived in Norfolk
that was what i was going for, yes. *tsk* golden rule of comedy number 1, broken.
nervous said:
it is. i showed my wife and my sister the pictures and she says she cant believe it.
um...is your wife and your sister the same one person?
well you did say you lived in Norfolk
that was what i was going for, yes. *tsk* golden rule of comedy number 1, broken.
doh! sorry, slow on the uptake there. too many dog biscuits, makes me sleepy. now, where to find somewhere warm to snuggle in for the night....
Squirrels. Has to be.
This was a story I was told, but I'm assured it was absolutely true:
Having left his car garaged for the winter and most of the spring, our hero finds that a squirrel has taken up residence inside the front wing. Needless to say, the squirrel doesn't hang around for long once the car starts being driven around.
Where this starts to get good is a little over a week later when the most god-awful smell begins to pervade the cabin.
The car is fully valetted. No help.
The car is taken into the garage to have the ventilation system checked out. No help.
The smell gets worse by the day and before long our hero and the mechanics can be sure that the smell is coming from the front wing/engine bay area.
At this point, the insurance company is called in. It's decided that the squirrel has had a litter in the vehicle (somewhere) and that the litter has died. The smell is the result of half a dozen lil decomposing bodies.
The wing (inner and outer) is removed and replaced. No help.
The engine is dropped. The engine bay cleaned out. Every nook and crannie is stripped, checked, reassembled .... nothing helps. The smell is now so bad that no-one can bear to be in the car.
The insurers simply turn around and write the vehicle off.
Be thankful all you got were biscuits. But if you do hear any strange squeaks .....
This was a story I was told, but I'm assured it was absolutely true:
Having left his car garaged for the winter and most of the spring, our hero finds that a squirrel has taken up residence inside the front wing. Needless to say, the squirrel doesn't hang around for long once the car starts being driven around.
Where this starts to get good is a little over a week later when the most god-awful smell begins to pervade the cabin.
The car is fully valetted. No help.
The car is taken into the garage to have the ventilation system checked out. No help.
The smell gets worse by the day and before long our hero and the mechanics can be sure that the smell is coming from the front wing/engine bay area.
At this point, the insurance company is called in. It's decided that the squirrel has had a litter in the vehicle (somewhere) and that the litter has died. The smell is the result of half a dozen lil decomposing bodies.
The wing (inner and outer) is removed and replaced. No help.
The engine is dropped. The engine bay cleaned out. Every nook and crannie is stripped, checked, reassembled .... nothing helps. The smell is now so bad that no-one can bear to be in the car.
The insurers simply turn around and write the vehicle off.
Be thankful all you got were biscuits. But if you do hear any strange squeaks .....
los angeles said:
Squirrels. Has to be...
you may be right. we do have a few rats around the place, cos we have lots of chickens, and the droppings in the biscuit mix were too big for mice, but then they didnt look like rat poo either. rather than being the usual rat-poo shiny black they were grey and very very dessicated (or was that simply the heat of the engine?). is this consistent with squirrel poo? (oh boy, is this thread getting strange)
in any event I am tempted to change my name from softinthehead to timmytiptoes in honour of this remarkable event
softinthehead said:
I would go for mice too, my housemates cars engine bay was full of apples and bread after a few weeks without being driven!
i think youre on the right track, though from the size of the droppings mixed in with the biscuits i think they were a little larger than mice.....
the really odd thing is that the car is driven every single day and this must have taken several nights to do!
In doggie world you are known as the "kebab delivery guy"!!
very funny mate
los angeles said:
We need a critter expert to check out the poo. Squirrels tend to bury food in various places in the earth and, contrary to popular belief, often forget where they put it. This store is very methodical, built up over a period of time. It's a mystery that needs a hidden camera.
Yeah but how the fek are you going to catch the squirrel??? let alone teach it to use a camera???
softinthehead said:
I am reliably informed the pics are here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.har
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.har
cheers paul
>> Edited by softinthehead on Monday 20th February 19:39
FPMSL!
I did i few years working with our furry breatheren, working for a famous 'Rentothrill' company.
you need to get the droppings looked at / check out their website, but i would plump for rats, although they are shy creatures when they become used to humans they get pretty cheeky.
They are also capable of a higher work rate than squirrels, any funny sweet ratty smell under the bonnet? (dont say i dont know it smells of dog biscuits!)
OR if it were mice you should be able to spot them as about now a pair of them will be beating hell out of next doors dog!
you need to get the droppings looked at / check out their website, but i would plump for rats, although they are shy creatures when they become used to humans they get pretty cheeky.
They are also capable of a higher work rate than squirrels, any funny sweet ratty smell under the bonnet? (dont say i dont know it smells of dog biscuits!)
OR if it were mice you should be able to spot them as about now a pair of them will be beating hell out of next doors dog!
an update!
just picked up the wife's jeep from the garage after the ABS warning light came on. apparently the n/s/f wheel ABS sensor had been "chewed through". the mechanic also noted that there were a "large number of dog nuts in the engine bay".
this is no longer funny. this is war....
just picked up the wife's jeep from the garage after the ABS warning light came on. apparently the n/s/f wheel ABS sensor had been "chewed through". the mechanic also noted that there were a "large number of dog nuts in the engine bay".
this is no longer funny. this is war....
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