this spring I had an bad oder in car and found mice living in my heater fan. on my way home from carlisle,turned on air and fan was screeming. today I pulled the heater fan down and there they were,momma mouse and her young,about 1 inch long(several).I guess this is the price of admission i pay for living in a wooded area. now my question is can I seal off the entrance to fan from the cowl area?

 

Wow, where they still alive? I hear that drier sheets work but I don't know about down there. Time to pick up a mouser.

 

ttt

 

I'm not sure how you can seal the area off, but I put several bars of Irish Spring soap in my car and in the engine compartment when I store it. I also put a couple of bars by the cowl below the windshield to deter mice from getting into that area. I've used soap for about 6 years and have never had a mouse problem. Good luck.

 

It's time to go to the pound and pick up a couple of cats.

 

I have had this happen to a couple of my C5s and even my C4! The last instance was just a few months ago!

I had the fan set on the HIGH SPEED setting when I shut the car off a few days before ,,,,,,,,,,,,,so,,, when I restarted it a few days later,, it was still on the HIGH SPEED setting.

When the car engine started, I thought I had blown the engine! !! OH CRAP!!!!!!!!!!

The entire DASH started to shake and vibrate!. As I was freaking out and turning the key to the OFF position, I saw some nasty brown dust come out of the ducts and realized what was happening! Phew!!!!!!! Man did it stink too!! As the HVAC fan was coasting to a stop, I kept hearing a clicking noise that stopped when the fan stopped! What the heck?

Well,,,,upon disassembly of the fan motor, I found the fan rotor FULL of nest material and nuts. The nasty little F%&^$* shredded the insulation from around the metal AC lines!

Guess what??? When the fan spun on HIGH SPEED, the little bastard was still in the nest!!!!!! It spun him sooooo hard that the centrifugal force killed him. The clicking noise was his little boney legs sticking out between the fan blades!

I have pictures that I will post later tonight! You will S#@& your pants!

To answer your question, YES you can add some coarse metal screen to the HVAC air inlet to keep them out!

 

Looks like you need to drive it more.....

You got a garage? I'd start by sealing every nook & cranny of the garage and keep them smelly nasty rodents out of the garage!!!

Cat?

Mouse traps?

 

Cats work for free.

 

 

WOW...that is NOT a good way to start your day, looks like you need a furry friend to come to the rescue!!

 

Drive it more???????????? Who me???? Hell, it hardly rests! I got 50K miles on it now. It only sat three days when it was invaded . The little bastards are everywhere. Ive been setting traps and caught seven of them.

Cat,,,we had one! I think the mice abducted him. Hes GONE!

BC

 

There are penalties.....

Outdoor cats like to give their owners *gifts* in the form of dead or barely living mice, moles, rabbbits, snakes, and anything else they can catch (fleas too). They drop these gifts everywhere inside your house.

 

I'm getting a bad smell and some dust/fuzz and clicking when I turn on the heater. I know it is a mouse nest because I've had this happen before. I took the car to a shop, but would prefer to fix this myself this time.

However, I don't work on my C5 much, haven't really needed to, so could someone tell me where to start as far as cleaning out the heater box/fan? Like, uh, I don't even know where it is. Is there a schematic on the net? Or could someone take and post some pictures?

Also, what is best for cleaning the area out and getting rid of the odor?

Many thanks from a newbie.

 

 

 

That sucks! I would figure out how they are getiting inside the garage....well are you putting it in a garage?..........

 

Just look in the passengers foot well. Remove the toe board and the passengers side close out panel above:



The fan motor is the thing that looks like this and its held in with three screws:



Once you remove the rubber tube connected to the fan, three screws you will see this mess!





I used a vacuum and compressed air to get it all out. You will alco need a mirror and a good flexable hand!!

BC

 

Heres what happens to a mouse at 1000 rpm:





Here is all the crap that he gathered in THREE DAYS!



Bastard chewed off my AC line insulation!



This is the area under the windshield cowl where the HVAC system get air and they GET IN!!!



I plan on making a metal screen for mine!

BC

 

 

Bill, you are a life saver. Thanks for posting your pix - they were a huge help. I got off a lot easier than you - my mouse must have died before it really got going on destroying my car.

Could this have caused a bad smell?


Here's a better look since I know you guys aren't squeamish:


And so as to contribute something useful to the thread, I had to make a brush that would clean out the bottom of the squirrel (or mouse) cage, so I just heated up a toothbrush with a match, bent it, and let it cool. Worked great.


Also, I used a 5.5mm nut driver to remove the fan screws. When did Corvettes go metric? Anyway, it's the only thing I had that fit, and it fit perfectly.

Here's a website on removing odors once the mice are extracted:
http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Odors-from-Your-Car

One other thing. Since I disconnected the battery so as not to have the fan short out and hurt me, I discovered that the previous owner put a code on the CD player, so now I'm locked out of it! I know the dealer has the secret reset code. Is that the only way - taking my car into a dealer? Contacting the previous owner is not possible.