AIR FILTER?

    
      The picture above is what I found on a car towed to the shop. The picture is  small but you will see the box housing the air filter was just full of creature bedding.  Whether it was mice, chipmunks or small rats I really don't know but let's say they  where rats. It must have been near the end of the year and the weather was turning  colder so Mr. and  Mrs. Rat after having camped out all summer decided to find a  cozy home. They made their way up a long tunnel (air intake tube) to the master room (air filter box). They brought in their bedding, furniture and food supply to last the winter. Mr. Rat, being somewhat mechanically inclined decided to chew through the wire harness for the fuel injectors insuring his home will stay a condo and not turn into a mobile home. However they should have left a bribe payment for the tow truck driver to not tow their condo away. Big mistake.
     When the car arrived at the shop I checked for the no-start condition to find the injector harness totally chewed apart. Upon investigating farther I took the air filter box cover off and found it jammed full of nesting material. Being cautious I took a long screwdriver and stirred the nest and was happy to find nobody home. It appears Mr. and Mrs. Rat may have been out Christmas shopping when their condo was towed away. Cleaning out the air box and tubes, replacing the filter, repairing the wire harness and the tow bill set this customer back approximately $350.
     Can you imagine when this car returned home how Mr. and Mrs. Rat must have felt when they again entered what they thought was their winter home only to find their bedding, furniture and food gone and that they have been evicted?
The purpose of this page is to make people aware of the importance in checking and maintaining the easy yet important components of their vehicles. Creatures in the engine compartment are very common in rural and wooded areas and they can do a costly amount of damage. Check under the hood and the air filter box as often as possible and look for evidence of creature visits.

     The picture is not very clear but you are looking at the inside of the automobile air filter box  with the filter removed. It is loaded with acorns. Fortunately this vehicle had no real damage  as compared to the one above. The car came to the shop with the "check engine" light on.  The code was P0101 mass airflow problem. At idle the car ran fine (all the nuts just rested at  the bottom of the air chamber), Revved to 1500 rpm it would sound like a popcorn maker  (the nuts where flying all over in the air chamber) and at highway speeds the engine would  hold back (the nuts all jammed in the air intake and blocked the mass airflow sensor).
This is just another reason to do normal maintenance and check the air filter on a regular basis and more often in rural and wooded areas.

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