Maybe it sounds funny until it happens to you. I took my 8 to the dealer to have the front brake pads replaced... when they brought the car around for me after they were finished, they said there was something under the hood they wanted me to see. All the insulation blankets on the sides and back of the engine compartment looked like someone had taken a garden claw and tore them up. I've seen news stories about it in DC, but this is suspicious to me for a few reasons... there was no sign of any critter(s) in the engine compartment, no smell of urine, no dung pellets. The damage was also very regular over all threel blankets. Also, I complained to Mazda in the past about dealer because when they were replacing a tail light assembly under warranty (the common 'moisture in the tail light'' problem), they scratched my bumper with the mounting bolts (must have left it dangling by the wiring harness, and maybe moved the car while in this condition) and instead of removing the plastic rivets that hold the interior in place, whoever did the work just yanked on the line until it ripped around 2 of the rivets. So, it's always possible this was some sort of vindictiveness on their part. I put a quart of oil in the engine 2 days earlier and there was no damage, and while this doesn't prove anything, when you mix all of the parts together, it doesn't exactly pass the "whiff" test.

Before I replace the blankets, I'm thinking about, if this is critter damage, how to prevent this from happening in the future. One thought is to replace the blankets with the metallic kind which is less likely to be eaten by squirrels or rats; another is to use the OEM blankets and spray them with the kind of cayenne pepper spray that is used on plants to discourage rodents from eating them, and a third is to spray them with the stuff that parents paint their infants' thumbs with to discourage them from sucking.

Any good ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.


Mods, if you think this post belongs elsewhere, please move it there... I couldn't see anywhere it really fit...

 

i think anything you try to spray them with will either make your car stink while driving it (and may irritate your lungs/eyes in the process) or just cook off after an hour of driving.

 

Damn rodents!

 

Where's that thread where one person had rats building a nest in his engine bay.
That was good.......we gotta find that one. It might help you out in the end, but it was wiild!

 

Ja, I remember that one.

 

Had a squirrel go after my insulation blanket within three months of buying the car, but he only ate a small round hole and never came back. They do seem to like it though.

Long tears in the blanket? In my experience with this sort of thing, rodents usually gnaw in circles, but what the hell do I know. Sorry about the damage. I never replaced mine, but like I said it was only a two inch hole.

 

Yeah, I had mice do the same to the insulation. However, this is NOTHING compared to what they did in the air filter box...
1) Dragged a bunch of cotton, fiberglass and other insulating material in there, clogging the filter.
2) Chewed about 70% of the way through the filter.

I dread to think of the consequences if they had gotten all the way through... lots of crud plus some very shocked mice getting sucked into the combustion chambers and then clogging the catalyst Luckily I caught it in time.

 

Wow the air filter one is scary. Must of been a racket for those poor mice every time you drove!

I've got the same damage to my insulation too, supposedly from rodents (was already there when I bought my car, didn't notice it until I brought it home). I don't really care about it much, as long as none of the wiring is chewed.

 

I don't know how many 1970's/80's GM air cleaners that I have opened over the years and had acorns fall out. It was amazing some of those cars ran there were so many acorns.

I once talked to a guy in England who had rebuilt an Aston Martin DB250, and he told me that when he got it out of the barn where it was stored, he pulled 25 pounds of rat turds out of the trunk. I would ask whether it was worth it, but he did get an Aston Martin out of the deal .

 

laythor, it's possible that what you say could be true about cooking off, but tend to think this would not happen... once it's dry.

the damage is quite extensive, I'll try to post some pictures soon...

and yes, I saw the other thread about the nest in the engine compartment. I wish mazda would do something about this... initially I thought this had only happened to one or two other people, but from the posts in this thread I can see it must be even more widespread.

 

I've had a beaver or 2 in my car, but never rats or squirrels.