Thread: Mice

If you live in an area where field mice live, you might find mice getting into your car as I have. I found that in my 1999's body style, there are provisions for a cabin air filter (in the windshield wiper trough), but none was ever installed from the factory, and the auto parts stores claim there's no part number for one. This area leads directly into the car under the dashboard. Since there was evidence of a mouse right at that spot, I looked to block the hole, and found that the 2004 Grand Prixs came with that filter. I bought one for a 2004, and it fit perfectly, blocking the gaping hole into the car.

Years later, I got another mouse in the car and coincidentally found the paper filter had a hole chewed in it. This time, I bought a K & N (washable) cabin filter that has a metal screen on both sides. Hopefully, this will deter them.

So if you are getting mice in your car, and are confident you have no rust holes underneath, you may want to consider this.

I prefer traps, otherwise you have dead mice god knows where.

That's good info to know though. If mice get into the airbox i know from experience what a nightmare that can be.

Yep, dealt with that last year. Little bastards got into the glovebox and chewed up the cord for my GPS. Stuck a trap with some peanut butter in there and done. Same thing if they get into the house. I always get a smile out of hearing SNAP! in the middle of the night when I kill one of those stupid little f'er's. Poison just makes them run off and hide and die, then they stink like hell until you find them. I prefer the direct approach, lol.

May just try the cabin filter idea this year since it's harvest time and they'll be trying to move in soon. Good to know.

Does it work on squirrels too? Those tree rats chewed up an injector wire last year while it was sitting outside waiting on some parts. Fired it up and was running on 5 cylinders until I figured it out. Cut clean through 1 wire.

I don't want to spend my time dealing with traps and carcasses, perpetually; so I'm a "fix the hole" kind of guy.

I've heard the 'poison makes them thirsty so they die outside' all my life - I think it's a wives' tale. What's to keep a sick mouse from going outside to get water and then coming right back in to the warmth and dying inside somewhere? It doesn't seem like something the manufacturers would/could test, and I've never seen it advertised that way.

Further, I had one mouse who got lost in the car and couldn't find the rust hole where it apparently entered (bottom of car, welded channel under the right door's threshold). It died in the welded channel under the left door's threshold where there was no rust hole to escape. The stench was terrible and I had to gut the inside of the car (only the seat and shifter remained so I could drive it), spending days to find it, as the only way to get to it was from the back seat, through a side hole (using a mirror and flashlight), with a 3'-long flexible grabbing tool. And the smell only abated after scrubbing the channel with the flexible tool holding a sponge soaked in bleach! Poison, no thanks.

To those with issues of critters chewing on underhood wiring, I heard there was a liquid one could put on the wires that would repel rodents.

Good point. I sure don't want to kill off the 2 great horned owls that frequent my house. I'm sure they do plenty to keep the mice under wraps.

Oh, and I was able to lift the wiper windshield wiper trough cover enough to install the filter without having to remove the wiper arms, which was nice. Two passenger-side plastic screws are all I removed to access the area. And there was a black plastic "bracket" in there that needs to slide up and out before installing the filter; then I slid it back into place afterward.