Hey there, about 2 weeks ago noticed some bits of debris appearing under the dash on both sides on my 93 Lt1 and a smell, upon further investigation, (pellets on top of
the intake manifold) i realized with horror that a mouse was chewing away on my baby, after a couple days and several traps and an exterminator call, Vengeance was mine, as i finally killed the sob on top of the manifold, with store bought traps, the exterminators was useless. also two more on the basement floor near the car, now my still new car smelling 93 has a horrible putrid smell so bad you can smell it with the top off, I wonder if there were babies that died after i got the mother, Im on a fixed income due to disability so cant afford to have somebody tear the dash out, after looking at it myself under i think the nest is either in the heating ducts or maybe on either side or maybe behind the dash center kind of on the transmission hump i would guess, My question is can the under dash panels be taken out from the bottom without tearing the whole dash out as i believe i will be able to reach the nest with those out. The amount of debri falling from there makes me think it is in or near the heater ducts, Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Continue with snap traps...rarely just 1 that is the problem.

I went through the same thing with my 96. If the 93 is like my 96 you can remove the bottom panel without remove the dash. Going off of memory, but I think you need to remove the panel covering the fuse box and then there is a bolt to remove holding part of the bottom panel. You might need to remove the vents too to get to some hidden screws behind them, although not sure that is necessary...been like 3-4 years since I removed mine.

Overall I do remember it's a pretty easy job to do.

Mice seem to love the passenger side so that is probably where you'll fine the mess.

I hate those damn things, my car lives outside during the summer so it's a constant battle...I have found that if I don't drive it for a week others will take up shop in the vette, so I usually put in snap traps if I'm not going to drive it for a few days.

 

Thanks so much, yeah im pretty sure my 93 is very similar to a 96, minor difference in angle of the divider betwen the two seats from dash to the center console and maybe passenger side airbag, I think 94s are the same as 96s and my folks have a 94 so i will check, yeah i have gotten three so far, one in my car and two in garage, mines in the garage, and only drove a couple times a month, so i was stupid to forget about em for a year and they are always trying to get in, what sucks is they are so small they would eat the bait and not trip the trap, went through several and find a couple of designs that worked, When i looked under in the heater air vent on the passenger side, i could see the lining inside had been chewed, but the material falling seemed heavier on the drivers side, I guess theres nothing left for me to do than to start un screwing everything around there i can, i will be setting all traps again, hopefully with those two off i can find it and stick a vaccum hose up there and get all the chewed and messed on lining that they did, Thanks so much for the advice, definitely helped.

 

When I had the problem I had to remove my dash, stupid nest was by my PKE module. It's not hard to remove it, but just a fair number of screws and need to pull things off without putting too much stress on parts as the plastic has aged from decades. And while most of the screws are the same, I found putting them in to ziploc bags with a label for the section I remove them from made it easier to reassemble with the right set of screws.

 

thanks so much for the reply, I am posting an update here in a second.

 

Alrighty, here's where i am so far, i took two front screws out of the front of the lower plastic part under dash but could find any more screws. I took the glovebox out and can see the nest (its down and to the left looking down into the glovebox whole) but cannot reach it due to plastic tubes in the way, if you look at the carpet under the glovebox part of the dash to the left where it connects to the center console the nest is right there, behind the center console on the right side ride next to where that carpet connects,, if i can remove that under plastic part i should be able to reach it.

position of the nest

looking down into the dash from the removed glovebox, circled is the nest ( be glad you cannot smell the second picture)

 

When I removed the center dash piece to install a new radio I found a huge nest made from the carpet insulation and some chewed wires. But no smell at all. Take yours off and take a look and maybe you will find your damage.

 

Been fighting the same problem for years. Mice are the most dedicated Corvette enthusiasts!

 

Good idea, I got it taken care of, im about to update, I have some squirrely climate control buttons and theres a great guy by the name of ozzstar on youtube that has an instructional on how to take the unit out, take it apart and clean the contacts, ( a common reason for bad buttons) im gonna do that and ill be sure to look around for anything more behind there.

 

Hey there, had a long update typed then this site blinked and i lost it all, so im just gonna shortly again update, lol
Couldn't find that last screw to the under dash so took it to the shop and the mechanic showed me where it is, found the nest, about softball sized,
he let me use the shops heavy duty air compressor and vac, ( i've reached a level with em where i can hang out in the work area and garage, its pretty fun,
i got it blew all apart and vacuumed up, then tried disinfectant sprays, air fresheners, leaving windows down, but nothing worked, smell wasnt going anywhere
then i remembered an article i read years ago in a magazine about how cleanup crews clean up murder scenes and get the smell out, an old industry trick
is to fill a pot with a bottle of alcohol mouthwash and let it evaporate, the alcohol permeates everything as it evaporates and kills and sanitizes the odor causing
bacteria. i wasn't sure i wanted a colored mouth wash evaporating in my light grey interior (if it would stain or not), so thought rubbing alcohol does the same, is not diluted and is clear, poured a whole bottle In a cup and closed it up in the vet, compared to mouth wash this was the nuclear strike option, lol
checked two days later, cup dropped not even a half inch and all you could smell was the alcohol, seems to have burned all the smell away, im going to let
the entire cup evaporate then watch it for a few days, nest smell theoretically should not return, I have to replace the foam around the back of the vents, and the foam on the plastic under dash then i can put it back together, Hopefully the new car smell
she still had before this will return eventually.