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guess what i found in my air filter box

5K views 15 replies 15 participants last post by  noodlerooney 
#1 ·
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chipmunk nest anyone??? this is my daily driver - the most it ever sits is maybe a day on the weekend. i know this wasnt here during the fall when i replaced the air filter. sorry, ive never had an animal make its home in my car before.
 
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#2 ·
Yeah it's common. My mechanic has mice problems in his Camry. I also had some critter eat some of my filter. My daily driver as well. All it takes is an overnight sit.

You can remedy this by putting moth balls in your engine bay. Rat traps work too but that can get get gross.
 
#3 ·
Wait until one gets in your A/C heater fan. If you dont run the fan very much you may not notice it very much. But if you turn it on a high enough speed the nest will throw it all out of balance and you will think the dash is about to fall out of the car. It is bad enough that it feels like the entire car is shaking. I have even seen it where the animal, normally mice, die in there and stink to high heaven. Those are the really funs one. You normally jsut replace hte blower motor.

This is one reason it is a good idea to leave your recirculate/fresh air switch on recirculate. That way the critters cant get in through the cowl opening.
 
#7 ·
:lol:

oh my gawd, it's almost unbelievable!!! it's like impossible to have a chipmunk nest in the air intake box. hmm......all these posts reminds me of something. i have a gen5 at 52k miles, and a lot of times when i just turn the fan on, the air stinks, but when i turn on the a/c, the smell goes away. i've changed my air filter, found nothing in there other than a cigarette butt, and i changed my a/c filter as well. i've tried some odor spray from autozone and sprayed into the air duct as instructed, for a while i kept smelling the spray. after like 1 month or so, the smell of the spray went away, and the original nasty smell came back. anybody have a clue what could be the problem? i am confused. :confused:

thanks.
 
#8 ·
worked at a car dealership a few summers ago as a porter....one day i was cleaning up a traded in minivan and noted feathers all over the engine and commented about it being "like a bird exploded" to which the other porter replied "yea, the rest is right there" pointing to the body...looks like it hit at highway speeds and caught on the bottom of the AC condenser to roast for who knows how long. it was practically mummified.

http://www.thermactor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8605&highlight=bird
 
#9 ·
im just glad the critter didnt use my air filter as a snack or try to get past it. i dont think there are instructions in the manual of how to get a chipmunk out from being sucked into a motor.
 
#10 ·
Many years ago, my uncle worked at a Ford dealer and a mechanic found a snake around the carburator inside the air filter. All the men were afraid to go near it. A woman who worked at an insurance agency next door grabbed the snake and put it in a sack.
No, the car wasn't a Ford Cobra.:)
 
#13 ·
I had a mice nest in the airbox and the blower.

when I took off my resonator, I realized it was a resonator/ food storage place... the nanimals deposited their food in it, I also had a whole famly of mice get ginsued inside my radiator fan...

when the car was my grandmothers she and my grandfather left it stored in wisconson for the winter while they took his mercades to FL...

guess what kind of warm place anials like to build their winter nests...

next to a warm radiator, sitting ontop of a radiator fan blade.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Common problem for all my cars. I just install a metal screen in front of the air intake duct. Keeps the little critters out. Also like to metal screen the HVAC intake, involves removing the exterior cowl, but will keep the vermin out of the cabin/fan. The little suckers will chew the s**t out of you padding,foam,wires,etc. to use as nesting material, not to mention the feces and urine they will deposit into you HVAC system which you will be breathing in, yummy.
 
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