How do the mice get in?

I just picked up on this topic... Are the mice generally getting into cars parked outside or inside?

If it's inside, I would suggest that if you think you might have the little suckers around, a good "preventive measure" would be to fire up an un-catalyzed lawn-mower, etc, and let it run in the enclosed space for, oh, a full tank.

Eldo wrote:

I just picked up on this topic... Are the mice generally getting into cars parked outside or inside?

If it's inside, I would suggest that if you think you might have the little suckers around, a good "preventive measure" would be to fire up an un-catalyzed lawn-mower, etc, and let it run in the enclosed space for, oh, a full tank.

Both, but more mice in the garage.

The garage isn't closed off enough yet to keep the carbon monoxide in or the outside mice out.

Jack the R wrote:

Both, but more mice in the garage.

The garage isn't closed off enough yet to keep the carbon monoxide in or the outside mice out.

I thought all your efforts this summer were to get the garage sealed up. I thought you were close at the beginning of the season.
Must have misunderstood. Ah, we did have an unusually HOT summer. That would have slowed me down on the garage work. Hell, I didn't accomplish shit this summer myself.
I hope you eventually get the best of those bastards. I hate mice with a passion.
I also hate cats, but if I had that problem, I would have one hungry cat living in the garage.
I'd feed it breakfast only and then let it fend for itself for any snacks it might find.
Might let it in on special occasions, but that would depend on how nasty the cat turned out to be. I certainly couldn't live with a cat in the house full time. Not Me.
Good luck JR and thanks for the pic's of the various ventilation doors or whatever they are called on the Riv. Would never have known thay were there if weren't for your dogged attention to get the damn mice.
Just like Bill Murray in CaddyShack. Change the Golfers for mice and get some sensitive detonation devices. Kill All The Golfers. No Gophers, Golfers, whatever - they are all useless.

To condense what Rick said: I didn't know about the trunk-type vent in the RF wheel well either...

And I'm so anal retentive that ExLax has me on their Christmas list!
(Though to be fair, I lost my lift/alignment rack 8 years ago, during the Eldorado years...)

Rick - I did work on the garage to seal it up in early spring, but once it warmed up enough for finishes to dry I switched over to the doors for the house, and have been on them ever since.

The garage uses rough finished oak siding and it will take a ton of work to get it sealed. I've made great progress, but there's still so, so far to go to keep mice out.

Eldo - There's also a vent in the driver's side front wheel well.

Hell, maybe we'd better check the driver's side rear well too because GM put mouse doors in ALL the others.

Rickw wrote:

albertj wrote:

Jack the R wrote:

Congrats to AlbertJ! GM put another set of mouse doors in the cowl area. Just in case someone got clever and shut the mice out of the trunk, GM wanted the sweet little mice to have a couple more ways in

The flap on this passenger side door had gotten caught inside the drain hole, making an even bigger opening than what you see in this pic. Now the rubber is remembering that shape and not lying flat like it should be.

Unless there are better suggestions, I'll JB weld more of the heavy wire mesh over these drain openings. The rubber doors won't be able to seal as flat though, and that's a "no-going-back" mod.

Not so fast with the JB Weld. The leaves and seeds and other crap that falls into the cowl vent won't get out. The rotting vegetation could well make you at least queasy while driving.



There should be a way to make a wire or plastic guard that you can pop out if you need to.

Again, I think first thing to do is disinfect the drains. Hot tap water with an enzyme-containing detergent or a disinfectant such as liquid Lysol or Odo-Ban would do the trick. Mix up a gallon of the stuff and dump it in (if you have not already)

I would use pliers to bend a wire cage kind of like a box lid shape that would have tabs that snap into the cowl drain opening. That way when you need to pull them out to get leaves and stuff out you can just pinch the sixes and remove them. Mice are not big or ornery enough to get them out. Maybe make up a spare one or 2 to use in case you lose one on the road.

Other thoughts?

What happens to the cabin stink when you close off one or two of them inside the car.
Never had one die in the car yet, but I hear it's not pleasant. What do you do to get rid of that smell.? Still, just curios. I'm sure you have a plan.

That's another reason why you flush it with a few gallons of water. Rodents typically head for the exits when you flood their nests.

Albertj

Jack the R wrote:

Rick - I did work on the garage to seal it up in early spring, but once it warmed up enough for finishes to dry I switched over to the doors for the house, and have been on them ever since.

The garage uses rough finished oak siding and it will take a ton of work to get it sealed. I've made great progress, but there's still so, so far to go to keep mice out.

Eldo - There's also a vent in the driver's side front wheel well.

Hell, maybe we'd better check the driver's side rear well too because GM put mouse doors in ALL the others.

For your own peace of mind you should check but I think when you pull up the carpet on drivers side trunk you will find a plastic plug swaged or cemented in place where the corresponding vent is on the passenger side.

Albertj

The plug idea is a bust The inside of the plenum isn't flush with the opening, so the plug falls inside.

edit ------------------

I wired a bigger piece of mesh to the plug, so it can't fall in. This works, but I'm not sure one of our stout country mouses can't dislodge it. There's not much for the plug to grab on. I'll try another plug design. What's really needed is a piece of mesh bigger than the opening on the inside and outside, wired together.

There's not much room to work in there with the strut in place. This sure would be a good job to do when changing struts.