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Posted: 2/17/2018 11:23:13 PM EDT
[#1]
I’ve seen it a few times.
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Posted: 2/17/2018 11:37:12 PM EDT
[#2]
Yes, especially if you live in an area with lots of pack rats. I've even had a gray squirrel chew the ignition wires in two on one of my trucks.
When I opened the hood because the truck wouldn't start, the spare battery compartment was full of mesquite bean hulls and a good part of my harness was destroyed. I have no idea how long it took for that to happen. Shot the little bastard about a month later. If you live in such an area, leaving the hood slightly open and putting a small light in the engine compartment helps. My son put one of those RV rope light under his truck and hasn't had any more issues. They like the dark. |
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Posted: 2/17/2018 11:54:09 PM EDT
[#3]
I’ve had neighbors in Phoenix that have had roof rats chew the wires and relatives in Payson that have had pack rats do the same. From what I’ve read, the insulation on wires, nowadays is vegetable oil bases instead of petroleum based, like it used to be. It attracts them to chew on it.
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Posted: 2/18/2018 12:11:35 AM EDT
[#4]
If you live where there are citrus trees, there will be rats. Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, high income, low income matters not.
I was changing motor mounts on my wife's minivan last year and I noticed that the hood insulation looked a little ragged. I didn't give it much thought until I noticed the label from a radiator hose sticking out of an inner fender, and some burned-looking hair on the catalytic converter shroud and some sort of stain on the serpentine belt. Wearing nitrile gloves, I started pulling gobs and gobs of the hood insulation out of the right fender, but no rat. My wife commented that the car had smelled like hamburgers cooking about a week earlier. She had checked under the hood and checked the fluids, but everything looked OK and the car ran fine. The smell went away after a while. It seems that the rat got flung toward the back after getting snagged in the serpentine belt and got cooked by the emission control device. The wiring was OK also. |
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Posted: 2/18/2018 12:13:52 AM EDT
[#5]
My 600 dollar repair bill for a new blower motor and intake would say yes.
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Posted: 2/18/2018 12:28:06 AM EDT
[#6]
F'n pack rats will destroy in one night an engine compartment of its wiring. I use powdered cayenne pepper in the engine compartment to keep them away. YMMV
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Posted: 2/18/2018 8:46:36 AM EDT
[#7]
When we lived in downtown Phoenix I heard a lot about fruit rats and people having problems.
But in the 40 years I lived there I only saw one live fruit rat. What probably helped was I do not like citrus trees, so I had cut them all down. Now we have a place on the edge of the Tonto National Forest and there are a lot of packrats. Leaving the hood open is very common. Some people place lights under and around their vehicles. But I don't like that idea since it attracts insects, which in turn attracts scorpions. (Which is a different set of issues.) I tried putting down rat poison, but bigger animals such as javelina, raccoons and foxes eat it like candy. So I now use strategically placed rat traps and catch several every week during the warmer months. As a side note the traps need to be tied down or anchored so they don't disappear since the rats are not necessarily killed right away. |
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Posted: 2/18/2018 8:57:15 AM EDT
[#8]
Got a buddy with a new Tundra near Williams. He puts traps in his engine compartment. Caught 8 rats already.
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Posted: 2/18/2018 9:02:39 AM EDT
[#9]
This is crazy . I have never heard of this
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Posted: 2/18/2018 10:43:18 AM EDT
[#10]
These work well
Ultrasonic rat repeller |
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Posted: 2/18/2018 11:15:21 AM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
This is crazy . I have never heard of this |
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Posted: 2/18/2018 12:10:37 PM EDT
[#12]
Yes - very real up here in the out laying areas in Prescott.
I have several friends that have experienced several multi-thousand dollar repair costs. |
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Posted: 2/18/2018 3:25:07 PM EDT
[#13]
Left a Mustang GT parked in my yard a few days...dogs went crazy around the engine compartment. Opened it and saw mice shit and bundling in the shelf to cold air induction...the bundling was insulation from the battery wrap
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Posted: 2/18/2018 7:31:25 PM EDT
[#14]
The insulation for the wiring is made of soy-byproduct, and they love it. Daily I sell repair pigtails to repair their midnight snack damage.
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Posted: 2/18/2018 9:31:23 PM EDT
[#15]
Rabbits....friggin rabbits...........
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Posted: 2/19/2018 1:04:17 AM EDT
[#16]
Yes. Rats, mice, and squirrels. I have had rats get in to an ATV and a car. Squirrels got in to the wiring in my RV.
Mothballs helps. Parking in a garage is best. |
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Posted: 2/19/2018 9:39:00 AM EDT
[#17]
Yup, I make good money repairing rat damage as a mechanic. They love to burrow under the intake manifold, and chew up wiring. Seems to be mostly on cars/trucks that sit for a while.
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Posted: 2/19/2018 4:19:13 PM EDT
[#18]
Not just Arizona! Before I moved here had the same problems with extensive damage to wiring in a car stored over the winter in a garage in the frozen snowy northeast.
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Posted: 2/21/2018 5:33:40 AM EDT
[#19]
Oh yea.
When my mom passed away I let her new caddy sit before selling it. A few months later I decided it was time to sell so I went to take it for a detail and It didnt start. Opened hood, turned out battery was under back seat any way, but what I found was a bunch of pack rat poop, cactus parts, fire retadant stuff and chewed up wiring harness. That was a $1200.00 lesson. Dont leave a vehicle sitting to long. Some people leave the hoods open. My buddy has a led light the goes on in the engine compartment at night. Its a real issue in my area of Oro Valley, NW of Tucson. |
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Posted: 2/21/2018 10:02:08 AM EDT
[#20]
Parents had a few issues with them doing the same. If you have roof rats then yes.
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Posted: 2/21/2018 10:11:52 AM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Rabbits....friggin rabbits........... |
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Posted: 2/21/2018 1:04:09 PM EDT
[#22]
so they leave the lights under the hood when they use the vehicle or take it and out?
if you let the vehicle sit outside a while its definitely an issue. |
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Posted: 2/21/2018 10:08:49 PM EDT
[#23]
I was working on my dad's C1 'Vette today.
Rat scheisse and hair in the air box. Rat skeleton and green rat poison chunk next to it in the front valence. A bunch of hair and old chunks of fruit as well. No chewed wiring or hoses from what I can tell. Eta: The SO always said that my dad's 'Vette smelled like dead vermin. I told her that it was old car smell. 
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Posted: 2/22/2018 10:43:07 AM EDT
[#24]
Get these lights for pack rats. I use them on my truck and they work so far. Cheap and easy to install under the hood, really bright. Comes with a remote.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4in1-12V-Hawkeye-LED-Car-Emergency-Strobe-Lights-DRL-Wireless-Remote-Control-Kit/351795411354?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 |
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Posted: 2/25/2018 1:47:23 AM EDT
[#25]
Yes.
Wife comes home and says she smells smoke from our Expedition. I open the hood and find prickly pear husks and other shit piled so high on the engine I couldn't see the throttle body. I spent 30 minutes with a leaf blower and a stick. Then the shop took 3 loads out of a shop vac to get all the shit. And several hundred dollars worth of wiring that got chewed up. They think the hood is a cave. We stopped them by opening the hood every night. |
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Posted: 2/26/2018 5:37:27 PM EDT
[#26]
Fuck, this sounds awful. Is this a major problem in Prescott or further north?
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Posted: 2/26/2018 7:25:18 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Fuck, this sounds awful. Is this a major problem in Prescott or further north? |
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Posted: 2/26/2018 9:30:05 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: In most/all rural areas here if you leave your vehicle outside long enough rats will try to make it their home. |
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Posted: 3/3/2018 11:26:51 AM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yup, I make good money repairing rat damage as a mechanic. They love to burrow under the intake manifold, and chew up wiring. Seems to be mostly on cars/trucks that sit for a while.
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Posted: 3/3/2018 12:52:20 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Rabbits....friggin rabbits........... |
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Posted: 3/3/2018 3:21:45 PM EDT
[#31]
Neighbor had his late model Volvo ransacked by pack rats. It's been in the shop for several weeks for upholstery and wiring repairs. This is middle Scottsdale (Shea Blvd). The car was parked outside all of the time.
On a lighter note, the neighborhood has historically been the winter home of roof rats. Not this year which might be related to the influx of bobcats over the past year. My Lab got into it with a bobcat a couple of weeks ago. The dog didn't have a mark on him. Don't know about the cat as he didn't stick around |
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Posted: 3/4/2018 3:26:15 PM EDT
[#32]
I found a bunch of olive pits on top of my daughter's engine. Also a lot of rat footprints. I just put a block of rat poison in there.
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Posted: 3/20/2018 2:05:55 AM EDT
[#33]
Yes destroyed the wiring in a 74 Nova and in a 2005 Tahoe. That was a pricey repair for the tahoe, they got into the fuse box under the hood and chewed thru half of the wires, rendering most of the vehicles functions inop. Had to have it towed to a garage so they could fix it.
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Posted: 3/20/2018 8:14:33 PM EDT
[#34]
I grew up here and had no idea this was such a problem. Even at the family place up north, we never had problems with vehicles we left parked up there for years.
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Posted: 3/27/2018 10:11:02 PM EDT
[#35]
Yes, I had a mini van that was parked for less than a week and the pack rats totalled it (almost 9k worth of damage to the electrical system).
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