My SC almost went up in flames this w/e...because of mice!!!

[2porscheguy]

Long story....last week I did notice that a bag of birdseed that was stored in our garage had been ripped open probably by mice, as we live on an acreage out of town.

I hadn't driven the SC in about 3 weeks and so, before storing it away for winter, I did the usual...oil and filter change and gave it a good wash. Sunday was a beautiful November day here in southern Alberta so it was fitting to take it for it's final drive. Well, about 10 minutes in to the drive I smell something burning...not the typical oil smell or burnt plastic but, man, it smells like weed!.....like a grass fire that we usually experience in spring! I immediately pull over, turn off the engine, and grab the fire extinguisher! Smoke is now billowing from under the left rear wheel well and from under the engine lid! I get down on my knees to peak under the car and I see flames coming from the corner of the left heat exchanger! I grab my coat and reach under to try and snuff out the fire. Luckily I was able to snuff it out with just my coat. With the engine off and cooling down, the smoke gradually dissipates after about 10 minutes.

Although I'm only about 15 Km from home I decide to play it safe. I call AMA for a flatbed tow truck:



I get the SC safely home and later that afternoon I load it onto my lift. As I'm hoisting the car up I notice a pile of burnt seeds on the ground.....faken mice! They must have climbed up to the heater duct which is open most of the time:



..deposited their seeds inside where they piled up in the back corner of the left heat exchanger!




Fak me!

Anybody else ever experience something like this?

[Otter74]

I have never had a mouse problem in my garage, but I just wrote a note to myself to park the car for the winter with the heater levers up. Glad nothing worse happened to your car.

[intakexhaust]

Whew but a nice save! Regardless of the birdseed, I've read mice are attracted to specific kinds of wire / loom coatings. Something about a natural ingredient used in production of it.

Twice have had mice issues in the 911. Both times they nested in the main heater blower aptly named 'squirrel cage'. Turned it on and it was seized, popped the fuse. After the first time, failed to deodorize. Suggest you need to do a thorough cleaning of the duct work, otherwise they'll smell and return.

And somewhat related, years ago for a '72, I purchased a pair of like new heat exchangers from an 'expert' P-911 'guru'. This dufus was so good, his long nose conversion to a 930 turbo was a feature in Porsche / VW mag. When I picked them up, I see this special white greyish coating on them. He tells me its a heat paint and prevents any corrosion. I buy into his story and install them. First time out and after an hour drive, pull in the drive, smoke and small flames are under the car! A few quick zaps with an extinguisher and then I see this coating was burning! I was one P.O. man.

[vash]

YIKES!!

i spend a fair amount of cash on food storage. i buy those food bins for dog food, cat food and bird seed. if i spill anything, i sweep it up, but i do most of the loading outside the garage. most of my bins have nibbled corners where the vermin tried to get in..no success.

and my cat is a raptor.

[sugarwood]

So, to avoid this, we just need to push our center console heater knobs DOWN (off), right?

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

So, to avoid this, we just need to push our center console heater knobs DOWN (off), right?

No - the opposite. UP for Heat to be on - this closes the heater box flaps to keep heat circulating from the exchangers and into the passenger compartment (via the engine compartment heater blower for cars so equipped.)

[widgeon13]

I set mouse traps in my hangar for the plane and the car. Kill those little bastards!

[Bugsinrugs]

When I noticed dropping soon in the garage I immediately went out and got two female rescue cats. They spend their nights in the garage and kill anything that moves. My garage is rodent free. The cars I have outside are another story. Rats are storing berries and acorns on the manifolds of two of my cars that I don't drive too much. I put traps under the cars at night. So far so good.

[GWN7]

I put sticky traps along the walls in my garage. Dab of peanut butter in the middle. Place them where pets can't get to them.

[Bill Douglas]

3 weeks. The little bastards didn't cut you much slack.

I'm pleased the gorgeous SC is OK.

[bri450sl]

I have mice all the time in the garage. This is the main reason I store my vehicle in the CarCapsule from Nov to May. My brother had a 1970 Vette that was mint. Stored it for the winter and it was destroyed by mice. He had to part it out.

[dave 911]

Originally Posted by bri450sl

I have mice all the time in the garage. This is the main reason I store my vehicle in the CarCapsule from Nov to May. My brother had a 1970 Vette that was mint. Stored it for the winter and it was destroyed by mice. He had to part it out.

Geez!! What exactly did they do to cause so much damage?

[wdfifteen]

Nice car! I'm glad you caught the fire before it caused damage!

I have problems with chipmunks. The ate through a vacuum hose on my Dodge van, ate the main engine wiring harness on my Tundra, stuffed my lawn vacuum engine so full of nuts that it wouldn't turn over, and just this week when I took the housing off of my 911 engine I found roasted hickory nuts on the cylinders, courtesy of the little buggers. There were nuts on the oil cooler too.

[SCadaddle]

Plenty of places where mice will enter your 911. Through the fan on their way to build a nest under the engine shroud and atop your oil cooler is a favorite. Other places like the factory hole in the inner fender on the passenger side under the front hood is a great entry point as well. When I had my car down for several months to build the engine we used steel wool inside plastic shopping bags as "stuffing" in all the likely entry points.

As the photo above illustrates, the mice will chew up acorns and pecans into very fine pieces that will get lodged between the cooling fins of your oil cooler. I got most of it out by tapping the cooler on the concrete garage floor. Plan B was to cap off the inside of the cooler then soak in a sugar water mixture to candy the bits of shell and then pitch it atop a fire ant bed for a few days.

[aigel]

During rainy season the "fruit rats" that live in the yards in SoCal come inside. I once had such a rat move in the garage and promptly went to catch it in a traditional trap. When checking, I had the trap triggered, but no rat! From the crime scene analysis, it looked it got hit in the head hard, passed out and bled in front of the trap for significant time. Then it picked itself up and "left".

After a couple weeks of me not finding it, the garage started to smell foul. My dog was put out to search for it and was pinpointing the smell to the rear underside of the 993. After taking the under-pans off, I finally found the thing dead wedged on top of the transmission where it had crawled to die. I had to pull it off with a coat hanger. Worms came out of it's orifices and it disintegrated in the process into a pile of slime and worms and the smell was horrible. I remember needing a shot of hard liquor just to wash down the smell. With everything scraped off as good as I could, the 993 seemed to still smell a little funny in hot weather until I got to rebuild the transmission and the case was solvent cleaned!

Ever since that experience I made it a point keeping the garage doors open frequently to avoid a "nest" type cave and having zero food / edible stuff in the garage. I now live in a house that is a lot less prone to rodents as my dogs can get to the garage from all sides but the front door.

G

[KNS]

Originally Posted by GWN7

I put sticky traps along the walls in my garage. Dab of peanut butter in the middle. Place them where pets can't get to them.

I have a car in storage and do the same thing though I use unscented glue traps. I purchased them from a supply house and a guy there said the scented kind (or any food used in traps for that matter) can actually attract rodents. I've used them for a few years now and have only found one mouse trapped. That was a couple of years ago and none since.

[2porscheguy]

Originally Posted by Otter74

I have never had a mouse problem in my garage, but I just wrote a note to myself to park the car for the winter with the heater levers up. Glad nothing worse happened to your car.

Check!

Heater levers are left up when the car is in storage!

[2porscheguy]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

No - the opposite. UP for Heat to be on - this closes the heater box flaps to keep heat circulating from the exchangers and into the passenger compartment (via the engine compartment heater blower for cars so equipped.)

Check again!

Heater levers UP guys!

[2porscheguy]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

3 weeks. The little bastards didn't cut you much slack.

I'm pleased the gorgeous SC is OK.

Bill, I've had her for close to 25 years now so I wasn't going to witness her demise, especially under these circumstances! Fkn mice!

[manbridge 74]

I spent 26 hours cleaning 7 nests plus many dead rats/mice out of a GT2RS. They were trapped in the rockers and unibody cavities. I almost sent it to the body shop to have them cut it open.

Guy had it stored next to several old couches. They came in through the pollen filter. I'm glad they didn't gnaw on all the alcantara. The after drive made it all worth it. Car had less than 5K miles.