Fuel leak in 2010 Focus, mice suspected

[George7]

The other day, my Mum noticed a strong smell of diesel and a huge drop in economy when driving her car, we dropped it into a garage and they found this:









We strongly suspect mice, and the car is actually going back to the garage again today, as it's still leaking I hope they haven't chewed through too much. This happened after the car was sitting inactive in the garage for about a week; apart from driving it more often, is there anything we can do to keep these little furry bds out of the car?

[ModernAndy]

Get a cat (not one named Thomas though, this might actually make the problem worse. Particularly if you already have a dog called Spike.)

[Monkeylegend]

Do you have a cat?

[Gav182]

Put cheese in the engine bay ???

[Condi]

Haha, we see them from time to time on the tractors, forklifts etc. Usually electrics though, never seen a fuel pipe be eaten before.

Bait in the engine bay is quite common, but really there isnt a great deal you can do.

[George7]

We don't have a cat, although the neighbor is a bit of a crazy cat lady, so there's usually one or two on our property at any one time; however, this seems to have happened in the garage, which would've been closed and therefore outside of the cats' domain

[911Ads]

Hey some of those sticky pad taps and place then under the engine bay..

[quiraing]

Leave out a saucer of diesel for them. And some very heavy cheese-nan-bread with extra chillies and jilipanos.

They probably won't be interested in eating car after that.

[George7]

Yeah, it's a bit of an unusual thing for a mouse to eat; we've taken it back to the garage and thankfully, it's not still leaking (there's a sponge-like material somewhere around the bottom of the engine which soaked up a lot of diesel and slowly deposited it on the ground overnight). I think we'll lay a few traps around the garage, and see if we catch anything. Needless to say, no one wants to put their car in the garage now

[blearyeyedboy]

George7 said:

We don't have a cat, although the neighbor is a bit of a crazy cat lady, so there's usually one or two on our property at any one time; however, this seems to have happened in the garage, which would've been closed and therefore outside of the cats' domain

Get a cat flap in the garage door? Cheaper than getting your own cat.

I had a mouse problem in a student flat and borrowed an ultrasonic transmitter that plugged into a wall socket, designed to annoy mice at a frequency humans can't hear. I was sceptical but we no longer had mouse droppings all over our kitchen after a week.

[George7]

911Ads said:

Hey some of those sticky pad taps and place then under the engine bay..

Might try this! Thing is, they'll probably be forgotten about until the smell of rotting mouse permeates the cabin

blearyeyedboy said:

Get a cat flap in the garage door? Cheaper than getting your own cat.

I had a mouse problem in a student flat and borrowed an ultrasonic transmitter that plugged into a wall socket, designed to annoy mice at a frequency humans can't hear. I was sceptical but we no longer had mouse droppings all over our kitchen after a week.

Might pick up one of those ultrasonic things in that case. We have electricity in the garage, so I reckon it's worth trying.

[quiraing]

Without stating the obvious - don't leave crisps, peanuts, chocolate, sandwiches, etc in the car.

Years ago my dad bought a box of chocs for my aunt for her birthday. It was in the van for a few hours. At 5pm after work it's "Hello sis, happy birthday x x".

She opened bag to find the box packaging eaten and mouse still in the bag. Fat b*st**d mouse even scoffed most of the strawberry creams. The nibbled bits still tasted ok tho

Put down some traps bud, mice can cause mega damage to a car's wiring.

[bd02]

Definitely mice - I had exact same - chewed through fuel pipe on a Mini Cooper. Regarding electrical deterrents, I use an electro magnetic one rather than an ultra sonic one and I have never seen or heard a mouse in the 5 years its been plugged in.