My car was stored for 9 years, and did not move for 8 of them, in a metal shed used to store machinery on my relatives farm. It was under a cover, and the building has has a cement floor. They put mothballs in the car during storage, but I don't think it did much good.

When I first picked up the car, I could see right away a nest was in the drivers side fresh air vent. I cleaned that out first thing, and also found a dead mouse in there. (1) I was then able to open that vent, and let "things" fall out of it as I drove it. I finally thought I had everything out after putting 200 miles or so on the car. More on this vent later................

Next I cleaned the trunk. I decided to vacuum the areas between the trunk floor and the quarter panels, and found nests on both sides, along with 3 more dead mice. (3)

I have a fastback, and I noticed the rear seat was not attached correctly, and decided to take it out to check why. Found another nest, along with a mess load of different grains (wheat, barley, and timothy). Vacuumed this mess up, and managed to find 3 more dead mice tucked away in the nest. This nest was made mostly of seatback material by the way. Guess they liked it. (3)

I had been doing research on here about material used for headliner insulation, if any. Common consensus is there isn't any insulation. So I started to wonder why the first two "sections" of my headliner were full of some type of material that made noise like a maraca when I pushed on it. I then noticed that one of the seams above the drivers seat had a small hole in it. I started to put two and two together, and made slits in each of my seams above both doors, and removed my rearview mirror and made another slit there. Sure enough, a HUGE nest, along with enough grain (the maraca sound) to feed a human for a few days, stretched across the area above the sun visors. Took me over an hour to vacuum out everything in the headliner, and in so doing, filled up my 6 gallon wet/dry vac one and a half times, for a total of 9 gallons of nest and grain. Plus, three more dead mice. (3)

I put in a brand new suspension front and rear two weekends ago, and needed to remove the back panel to access the shock bolts. What do I find? Another small nest, and another dead mouse. (1)

Now today I was checking out my clutch lever spring noise under the dash. I noticed that even though I thought my drivers side vent was open, it was still closed. The shaft the flapper rotates on rusted so bad it was not connected to the flapper anymore. So, I decided to remove the air grate, and move the flapper with a screwdriver. Grain and "things" started raining down as soon as I moved the flapper. Another HUGE nest was in there. I filled up 6 gallons again, and found one more dead mouse. (1)

Now, if you add all of my numbers in (), you will get 12. That is how many dead mice were in my car, along with approx 18 gallons of mouse nest/grain/mouse nuggets. No wonder my car smelled terrible! I am hoping I have finally found all the "hiding" areas, and my car will finally start to smell a little bit better. My passsenger fresh air vent is open, and I have put the end of the vacuum hose in there, and nothing has come out. I hope nothing is on that side.

So folks, do NOT store a vehicle on a farm for an extended period of time. It becomes a luxury home for field mice..........

 

better than moth ***** are dryer sheets....they work about the same but they dont stink and you can put them pretty much anywhere....the mice dont like the strong smell they put out.

 

what year is it?

wow, not moing for 8 years, and you started and drove it for 200 miles. not to rain on your idea of getting mice and grain and junk out, but that may cause problems within the block later.

 

I'm surprised you didn't mention them eating the spark plug wires. Yeah, when I stored mine for awhile, the little buggers ate my spark plug wires. Not any other wires, just the spark plug wires. I had several bowls of anti-freeze under the car, but after several months that dried up, so the relatives of the dead ones came back to take vengence.

 

I put the Mach 1 up on the 4 post lift. No more mice. Saves on dryer sheets. LOL. However, I'm wondering if I'll start to have a Bat problem.

 

 

"wow, not moing for 8 years, and you started and drove it for 200 miles. not to rain on your idea of getting mice and grain and junk out, but that may cause problems within the block later."

Ummmmm, no where in my post did I mention I started it after sitting for 8 years and then drove it for the 200 miles. I did not even attempt to turn it over when I picked it up from storage. Please do a search on my name and look at my "Noob saying hello" post.

Soaring, not ONE single wire was touched by all those mice. I double and triple checked everything in the trunk, everything under the dash, and of course under hood. Everything works on the car, including interior lights, dash lights, original AM radio, wipers, tail and headlights, Rally Pac, etc. Only thing that does not work is the reverse lights, and that is because the switch is missing on the transmission. The mice just seemed to gravitate towards my rear seat back, and the headliner area. Maybe since they had so much grain to eat, they did not need to worry about my wires.............

I just took it for a burn tonight, stepped her up to 80, and nothing seemed to blow out of the vents or anywhere else. Hopefully I have found all the rodents. And I will be storing it in my garage during the winter, 270 miles away from the farm that produced all the mice.

I have heard of the dryer sheet idea before, and I think I will put a few of those in over the winter just in case.

Mike

 

Mine were in the headliner too. Sneaky little varmits aren't they?

 

I have found terds on my manifold and one live mouse in the cab. I set traps in the car with PB and didn't catch any. I guess I scared them away.

 

right here

now BEFORE you contradict me, read your OWN witting please, you JUST wrote you drove it for 200 miles.