Winter Storage Tip

[KTL]

This goes without saying but it's worth saying again, just for good measure and the laughs.

I now have a close friend's car, since he passed away late last year. I'm currently going thru various things to identify little fixes it needs. Mark was a minimalist and removed whatever he didn't want/need on the car. Like the air conditioning system. So point being here is that removal of things leaves some open holes that should be plugged, which Mark didn't bother with since his car was only driven in dry weather. Nonetheless the moral of this story is don't leave any openings into the car, especially if you occasionally have little unwanted friends visit your garage.

Just when you think you've seen it all.......... Mark's wife Trish mentioned earlier this year that in years past, one time they fired up her 993 for the first time of the season and found/smelled peanuts roasting on the engine. Darn mice.......... Luckily we didn't find that on her car this summer . When I started futzing around with Mark's '86 911, I didn't find any in the engine bay or behind the fan.

After taking the old 911 for a few rides now, I noticed the throttle pedal was a little bit stiff and the shifting was a little bit wonky. No big deal. I'll take a look in the center tunnel and see if the throttle rod is sticking (crusty old bushings?) and check the shifter coupler too. So after the kids go to bed last night, I gotta satisfy my curiosity and look in the tunnel to see what might be the fix. I take off the rear access cover, which is as easy as tying your shoes and......... I could hear Mark's voice clear as a bell- "HEYOOOOOOOO! WE GOT PEANUTS!!!!! @#$%IN' MICE!!!!"

The center tunnel was packed full from the shifter all the way to the back. FULL, and that ain't no exaggeration. I'm not talking a handful of peanuts. I'm talking packed tight ram jammed in there like the little bugger was stockpiling for a nuclear war. Along with a heavy sprinkling of thistle seed for extra flavor.

So then its go time. Out comes center console, shifter, then both the front seats to allow easy removal of parking brake & heater controls. Took me three hours face down on the floor looking in the tunnel from every angle to dig, push, pull, blow, poke, prod, smash, pry, vaccuum, etc. all the stuff from the tunnel. Three and a half heaping dust pan loads of peanuts!!!! Mark was up there laughing in tears for certain, watching me tackle this fiasco!

I can't believe the shifter actually moved smoothly and never did I hear any crunching, even when using the parking brake!

Rear access hole packed full to the top




Parking brake removed



Shifter removed



This picture of the pile doesn't do justice to how big the pile was.

[OldSpool87]

Great story and thanks for sharing. I am sorry to hear of your pal's passing but it sounds like you guys are still well connected!

I have to ask…where do you live that a mouse could possibly collect that many peanuts?

[ganun]

Ohh come on....what, it went to the supermarket to get nice clean nuts?

[Lapkritis]

This is nuts!

[Lapkritis]

BTW, I believe it's an Audi R8 that has pictures similar on the web but the entire car is filled. Semi-viral post...seen those?

[KTL]

I think they had a bag of peanuts in the garage for some reason, along with some bird seed. They live in a common residential suburban neighborhood and the car was always kept in a new (less than 15 yrs old) slab & wood/siding detached garage with overhead doors.

He didn't drive it that much. Bought it in '99 with 60K miles on it and it currently has 76,600. So it sat parked in the garage quite a bit and always sat all throughout the winter. He was afflicted with MS awhile back and that diminished his ability to drive it. Then he got brain cancer and that was that. So i'm guessing its not seen much use in at least the last 3 years, and that's a perfect scenario for a mouse to move in & take over. Last month I drained the gas tank (was full to the brim and checked out clean, thankfully), flushed the brakes, put a mL of Marvel Mystery oil in each cylinder & turned it over by hand, new spark plugs, fresh oil & filter and fired it up. Only recently did I drive it and figured i'd take a look in the tunnel on account of the slightly stiff throttle and not-so-good shifting.

So after I put all this tunnel & shifter stuff back together, i'll change the trans oil too. Hopefully that'll improve things as well, since the trans has actually been serviced (by Mark & I) since he's owned it. He did a pretty good job replacing dog teeth, synchro bits and so forth. But maybe he reused the slider rings and that's why it shifts a bit poorly.

[grizzfan]

Great story! But do you think the culprits might have been squirrels?

Tom

[KTL]

Could have been squirrel/chipmunk. I have seen how they stockpile stuff outside just like this mess in the center tunnel. Years ago I had an evergreen shrub just all of a sudden die. All others pale green like usual, but this one turned brown & completely dead. Hmmmm, that sucks. So I dig it up and what do I find but a huge pile of acorns nested beneath it. Darn chipmunk............

At that house I had a huge problem with those critters. Chirping all over the neighborhood, burrowing in things, living underneath wood deck, sneak into the garage if you've left the door up for a while (wifey did not like being greeted by a dead one laying by the interior door.....), huge nuisance. Nothing I tried would get rid of them. Traps, tainted food, spray/repellent, none of it worked. One day a pro landscaper says just get a 5 gal. bucket, fill it with water 2/3 full and throw sunflower seeds in it. They dive right in and can't resist the party. One morning I put out the bucket, came home from work at 5 pm and found I caught 8 of them "swimming" in there. Apparently they don't care if their buddy went in and didn't come out. They just kept hopping in there to feast.

[J-Mac]

Ok, gotta ask how did the mouse/squirrel/chipmunk get access to the gear shift tunnel? Thats the lesson right?

[KTL]

Years ago Mark removed the entire A/C system. That included the condensor motor/fan housing in the smuggler's box. He also removed the condensor/radiator thing that sits under the front bumper and never installed any sort of cover plate. So I think it'd get into the trunk via either of those holes in the floor. Once into the smuggler's box, the chipmunk can crawl thru a 3 inch size duct that leads right into the center tunnel. I'll shoot a few pictures to indicate where I think it got access into the car.

[sixbanger]

Never heard of mice stock piling

[Baby]

Originally Posted by J-Mac

Ok, gotta ask how did the mouse/squirrel/chipmunk get access to the gear shift tunnel? Thats the lesson right?

Must have had Wayne's book.

Nice story, and so great that youre taking care of your pal's car.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by sixbanger

Never heard of mice stock piling

They do. It's a function of what is available. A big surplus of shelled peanuts? Hell yes.

[Lapkritis]

I have a chipmunk army at the house we've been in for a year. We're on a hand-laid stone foundation and they poke holes in the mortar seemingly at will. I'm out there every other weekend with spray foam and fresh mortar but they're persistent. Time for the pool part idea I think!

I just have to pick up the 300lbs of chestnuts to tempt them with sunflower seeds.

[KTL]

Chipmunks/squirrels or mice, what's the difference. I still ended up with a big azz pile of peanuts in my tunnel!

Here's how I think it got into the car:

1. Here's the cover plate I put on the hole in the floor ahead of the gas tank. This is normally where the condensor fan mounts.



2. Here's a hose socket that's been missing from the air box hoses under the windshield/cowl. The hole in the trunk floor leads right into the smuggler's box. The smuggler's box lid was always closed



3. Here's the hose socket that is wide open to the tunnel, inside the smuggler's box



4. The smuggler's box bottom area is also open to the interior of the car due to the absence of the evaporator housing

[gomezoneill]

How do you intened to plug or cover that hole?

[KTL]

The hole in the wall of the smuggler's box will be covered with a plastic cover plate in the same way I made one in picture #1. The hole in the floor of the smuggler's box will be plugged with a plastic cap or a rubber plug.

I actually have the missing socket for the air hoses in picture #2, so that takes care of that point of entry. Hole #3 can be covered up with a plastic PVC plumbing cap from your typical home improvement store. 438 lbs gone in 5 days - My Build Story

[reachme]

I could offer you honey to go with your peanuts.

You've heard of trunk monkey, these are door bees. Someone who tries to force the door open too many times activates them, yet startup and coming home to a smoky garage makes them completely docile. Seriously this hive stretched from end to end.

[KTL]

Wow. No thanks on the honey. Your bee hive is way more PITA to get rid of than my peanut issue.

I got lucky my little buddy didn't decide to chew up anything. The chipmunks/squirrels are very destructive that way. I've seen them chew up foam rubber, fabric, electrical cords, in my own garage. They like all sorts of stuff to make their cozy pile of junk for nesting.

[wrxnofx]

Originally Posted by sixbanger

Never heard of mice stock piling

My father-in-law "feeds" the mice in his basement with the D-Con green poison pellets. One day he went down and noticed the whole tray of D-Con was gone. Good, he thought. He then went to put on his work boot, and there was something in the bottom. He tipped the boot upside-down, and the mouse/mice had literally stock piled the entire tray of D-Con tablets in his work boot. They moved it from the tray on one side of the basement to his boot on the other side of the basement. In one night.