Magellan55

So it took a few days, but the dealer finally found the mouse nest in my HS, along with 4 dead mice. They were under the carpeting under my front seat. I've attached a pic if anyone is curious what the floor pan looks like in the HS (and the dash half torn apart). The nest was inside that red crossbeam at the bottom of the pic that supports the driver's seat. No idea why all 4 mice decided to die at once in my car - the dealer said based on the mess under the carpeting they have been hanging out there for a while, probably running around in my garage and just sleeping there. Final step was to fumigate the car today. So glad insurance covered this under "comprehensive".

corradoMR2

Craziness! Mice find the tightest spots to get in. Glad the ordeal is over!

TheAirman

Wow !! That's a big job !! Hopefully they didn't chew any wires you don't know about.

I hate those things. I have continuous poison on the floor in one garage, and a trap with peanut butter always set in the other.

Magellan55

I think part of the reason they pulled the dash apart was to look for damage like chewed wires. While doing internet searches on this, I came across some interesting stories about how mice like the fluids in certain cars, like Minis, and will chew through tubing to get to it. Yikes! Also something about pack rats in the Southwestern states that like to take up residence inside cars. There's all kinds of ultrasonic or strobe light based deterrence systems sold on line to try to stop these - no idea if any of them work though.

We've had occasional "visitors" in our garage for years, as we live in the woods, but we always just trapped them and relocated them (my kids and wife didn't like the idea of killing them). No more mr nice guy though - glue traps are out and I'll be spreading the poison this weekend. My only concern is the way poison works these days, it just dehydrates them so they crawl somewhere and die (maybe in my car again). I'd be happier knowing I have them in hand in a trap so I can remove them.

dicer

I can understand mice getting in an old 50's chevy or ford, I can't understand them getting into any year of lexus? I really thought that the designers of the cars had a bit more thought process going on. There is no excuse for it happening at all, and any year of Lexus should have a life time warranty against mouse intrusion. Some pursuit of perfection there. Sorry I've dealt with the crappy mouse thing in other cars and trucks before.
Does the tech have any idea how the mice got in?

Magellan55

I asked and the dealer said they get in all kinds of ways underneath, through vents and drainage holes and pass-throughs in the firewall and such. He said they see this at least once a month, and not just on the HS of course - last month they had an RX that had an infestation up in the headliner! That one cost about $2000.

TheAirman

I never figured that out either. How they get into a modern car. To this day I'll never understand how one got into my 2013 "other car", and built a nest on top of the cabin air filter. Lucky for me I found it early after noticing an odd odor in my new car. That one ate some killer and I found him later.

No more nice guy for me either, as I live in a rural area and have a problem with field mice in the cooler months. I never figured out how they get in, but they go out later at the end of a trap baited with peanut butter. Works way better than cheese.

toomeypj

This is kind of a sore point with me. I left my car at Lexus of Sea**** in August 2013 to have the water pump replaced under warranty. That afternoon they called me and said they noticed an odor in the car and found a rodent nest on the AC filter. I said "don't do anything, I'll come down and see what your talking about". The mechanic had the blower out of the car and a little bit of twigs and grass in a pile that he said he found on the top of the air conditioning (cabin) filter. I asked what odor they were referring to and he said they had cleaned and decontaminated the area so it was gone. My wife and I had never noticed an odor (and she is very sensitive to odors). To make a long story shorter, the bill was $256.30 - $66.30 for parts and $190.00 for labor. This was for something I could have easily fixed myself (they found nothing in the blower and there was no hole in the filter, just the "debris" on top. I guess I paid for the loaner car that day. The whole dealer story may be true but I doubt it.
Almost every car I have owned over the years has had dealers being crooked and devious. I once bought a new Porsche in the 1980's and the dealer said there would be a delay in the delivery because of a shipping transit problem, a car had been dented in the truck but it was not my car, so no problem. He called back 2 days later and said that it was ready to pick up that evening. I loved the new car but noticed that the red paint came off on a towel when I waxed it a few months later. After two years the car was hit by a drunk and had to be repaired. The shop asked who had repainted it because there were drips down low under the body and it would have never left the factory that way. Then I knew that mine was the damaged car. It's amazing what you miss when you are excited to have a new sports car.
When I have the fuel pump recall done I am going to write on the service form that they cannot touch or charge me for anything else without my approval. I also take pictures whenever I leave a car for service or rent a car to prove there was no damage on the car when I left it in their care. That is the result of another new car service problem a few years back.
Sorry for rambling, I imagine you all have stories like mine. Sometimes the mice aren't real.

dicer

If I bought a new car "NEW" and it had any sort of repaint even years later I'd find the best attorney I could and they would be refunding every cent. That is not a new car you bought. It should have been discounted by 80% just like any other rebuilt damaged junker.

Aron9000

That sucks, but at least those varmits are dead and didn't damage your car too bad. Surprised that they got in your car parked in the garage, hopefully you hired a good exterminator.

I know rodents can be super annoying. Buddy of mine has an older car that he's been parking outside for the past few years(an Avalon with 250k, said the dealer wouldn't give him jack for trade so he kept it lol). Anyways, he's had a squirrel take a ride on the serpentine belt, he thought the car threw a rod when he fired it up lol. Horrible bloody mess under the hood he had to clean up, broke the belt but that was it thank goodness. Then about a year later he had a chipmunk build a nest on top of the gas tank. Chipmunk decided the fuel lines were rather tasty. That one was weird because it would leak gas if he filled it up and parked on a hill, and sometimes you could smell gas inside the car, but not all the time.

TheAirman

Good one !!
While we are on the subject.......
The A/C in the house stopped working and I couldn't figure it out.
It cost me $190 to have the HVAC Tech tell me a stupid stink bug got jammed inside one of the relays, and it dead carcass was prevent the A/C compressor from coming on.

And I found a stink bug crawling out of my trunk rubber weather seal today.

If it's not mice, next it'll be stink bugs messing something up on my car.