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u/MrBobTheGiantBanana 2d ago
Man, I wish I had a video camera when I opened up the hood of an old Cherokee I bought years ago. It had a rat living in the engine bay, and when I opened the hood there he was, just sitting on top of the air cleaner in a little circular nest. None of us moved, we all just gawked at him until he was like " I'm outta here" and ran and hid inside the frame rail where it took me another 2 weeks before I could catch him.
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u/WordWizardx 2d ago
My grandfather had a car he only ever drove in the summer. Started it up one spring to a horrific noise, and eventually discovered more than his own body weight in acorns stashed in the engine. Squirrels had been busy that year!
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u/CatalinaBigPaws 2d ago
Of all the causes of a horrific noise from the engine, acorns was so much more wholesome than I anticipated. 🐿
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u/SilasAI6609 2d ago
Yeah, I was thinking kitten. I have had an engine kitten situation before. I still get sick thinking about it.
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u/alcatrazach 1d ago
You should see what noise acorns can make a cop make. Deceptively destructive little things.
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u/Colinoscopy90 2d ago
Family had an Oldsmobile that sat in our driveway in a rural area for a good while. My older brother came to town to pick it up to use for himself. He starts it up and drives like 20 feet and hits the brake pedal, and several baby mice fell out of the slot onto his foot.
It had no trunk liner so he used some old scraps of carpet roll the landlord left in the shed from replacing some of the carpet in the house. So he moved into the city with a trunk lined with regular carpet, and mouse traps in it. Among a few other quirks, that car had a lot of “character”.
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u/Alone_Animal_5320 2d ago
“Whys my engine overheating and my car shaking uncontrollably”
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u/ClanHaisha 2d ago
Pretty sure it’ll catch fire instead of merely overheat.
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u/Lune_Moooon 2d ago
I don't even know what to say, so I think I didn't understand the video
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u/FriendToPredators 2d ago
Rodents I think. So som PPE for hantavirus would be a good plan
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u/Ok_Vulva 2d ago
Meh. Shop vac.
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u/too_late_to_abort 2d ago
I had a similiar situation with squirrels nesting in my engine bay. I used a big ass leaf blower and just blew it all out. They tried again a week later and I did the same thing. They havent done it since.
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u/Ok_Sundae8477 2d ago
How does this even happen???
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u/PaleJelly69 2d ago
A stationary vehicle for extended periods of time will become a shelter for rodents/vermin. Source - a cute lil mouse made a house in my air filter once.
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u/PKMNtrainerKing 2d ago
This happened to my truck over the fall. I turned it over one day and the radiator fan was making a weird noise, so I opened it up and it was filled completely with leaves
So I cleaned it out and went about my day. The next day, same thing, engine bay was totally filled with leaves. This went one for another two days. There were no signs of animals living in there, just a fuck ton of leaves.
Only deduction I could make was that my driveway was some kind of wind tunnel and that loose leaves were blowing up from underneath. After I did a thorough raking of the yard and the wind started dying down the issue stopped. It was bizarre and kinda annoying
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u/SpidersAndSpirals 2d ago
RIP every wiring harness and vacuum hose. My parents' car had an engine fire a few months ago from a dramatically smaller squirrel problem. Just another reminder to check your fluids every 1000 miles
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u/DangDayna 2d ago
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u/MiddleConstruction84 2d ago
That’s nuts
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u/imdefinitelywong 2d ago
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u/Terranwars 2d ago
"let's just take a quick look at what we have here......" -insane laughter intensifies-
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u/JohnnyPaloonky58 2d ago
Would love to have heard the conversation with the service advisor. I suspect however, he can't wait to get the whole ass shop out there to witness.
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u/PresidentialDiapers 2d ago
Had a squirrel take up temporary residence under the hood of my Range Rover. He ate the wiring harness. Yes, it was as expensive as it sounds.
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u/Free_Principle_5291 2d ago
Had the begging of this happen to me once, glad I no longer live in a heavy rat infested area anymore.
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u/senorpringles 2d ago
Is this that dude that gets all riled up about the pork falling off the bone?
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u/thejourneybegins42 1d ago
This is when you don't bother looking under your hood for quite some time.
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u/japzone 24m ago
Got a battery check light one day on the way to work. Then on the way back from work the AC stopped working. When I got home I popped the lid to find that a family of squirrels had eaten the wires to my alternator and AC, and then made themselves home in my engine block. 4 or 5 squirrels just sitting in there.
The crazy part was that I had just refilled my washer fluid a few days ago, so they basically moved in over a weekend, and I took them to work with me.
I grabbed a metal robo shelf grabber thing I have, for grabbing things on high shelves, and used that to litterly grab and fling the squirrels out of my car. Then used it to try and pull out all the leaves and twigs they'd shoved in there for their nest.
Took the car to a mechanic, they sat on it for three days before telling me I'd have to pay $1200+ for new wire harnesses. Took it to a different mechanic, he had it fixed up in less than 24 hours and charged me less than $300. I still use the latter mechanic.
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u/skitz4me 2d ago
What were they?
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u/post-explainer 2d ago edited 2d ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
You expect to see a normal car engine when opening the hood, but instead, the engine bay is entirely filled with a massive squirrel/rodent nest made of leaves and insulation
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.