Prius ll Rodent fix

Limited market, one way to find out.

 

will it work for my house?

 

Will this work for 2010?

 

Tell us what your fix is, and we'll tell you if we want it.

 

Hey, donaldgrim,

I agree with brick that you should let us know what your fix is to help us determine if we will make use of it or not. I did a DIY fix on my 2005 a few years ago using some "Gutter Guard" available in hardware stores (back then $2.49 per segment, but now $5.99). I had to cut the mesh using tin snips & without anything to burr the mesh with got myself full of little cuts trying to fasten it over all 5 holes. Removing the wipers & plastic tray, cutting a cardboard pattern for the shape & trimming the mesh to the pattern, drilling the sheetmetal of the firewall & fastening the mesh with screws & lockwashers, & reinstalling the plastic tray & windshield wipers took way longer than 5 minutes (I'm thinking at least an hour or more). I think that fix was posted over at PriusOnLine.

I also found some signs of mouse nesting in the engine air filter box, so I screened that off too with the same mesh material. Somebody else screened off where the air tube enters the filter box, but there is a long run of tubing that can fill up with debris that could still possibly make it past the mesh (but NOT the filter material) with the intake suction & it could build up in the filter box & start to starve the engine for air. Putting the mesh at the entrance of the tube into the filter box will surely keep the mice out but maybe not their feeding scraps & nesting materials, so I did my screening off of the tube right out at the very beginning end next to the windshield washer bottle.

I have a friend who had a really bad mouse problem last fall/winter that even had eaten through the cabin filter & filled up her heater blower with debris so it didn't work. She was very disgusted that the cleanup effort was so involved & we all wish that Toyota would have installed some screening at the factory during assembly. Apparently there is no Toyota/dealer fix for this in the way of a TSB or recall, so we must all fend for ourselves to protect our cars from the rodents. I offered to screen off her 5 firewall holes & her engine air intake tube, but she first wants to try some natural aromatic oils this fall/winter to see if that helps before having to go through the physical effort of the screening off process.

I would say if your fix is really a "ready-to-go" or "plug & play" 5-minute installation & is offered at both PriusOnLine & PriusChat (& you make one for the 2010 model too) that you might do really well selling them (but only to those that have not already had to do our own DIY job).

Hey, brick (Tim),

Are you missing Connecticut at all? It feels like you never left because you're still here on the Prius sites. I had a really nice talk with Frank Goodyear (formerly with Balise Toyota) a few months ago. He's really enjoying his retirement. He still keeps up on all things Prius & hybrid though. He even called here a few weeks ago & had a nice chat with my wife while I was out. He was such a great sales person/inventory manager & just bursting at the seams with Prius/hybrid knowledge. He was THE "go to" person at Balise if you wanted no BS but just straight talk regarding the Prius or any of the other Toyota/Lexus hybrids. It was such an easy purchase for me back in 2005 with him. Take care, Tim.
P.S. It seems I'm just about the only one who cares about PriusOnLine & I've been appointed as a moderator with banning powers (to try to keep out all the spam) because of all my whining that nothing was being done by the site's owners to alleviate the spam problem, so please try visiting there again once in a while.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

I had to cut the mesh using tin snips & without anything to burr the mesh with got myself full of little cuts trying to fasten it over all 5 holes. Removing the wipers & plastic tray, cutting a cardboard pattern for the shape & trimming the mesh to the pattern, drilling the sheetmetal of the firewall & fastening the mesh with screws & lockwashers, & reinstalling the plastic tray & windshield wipers took way longer than 5 minutes (I'm thinking at least an hour or more). I think that fix was posted over at PriusOnLine.

While this process definitely sounds like a headache, DIY, you saved a ton of money by working at it yourself. Sounds like you had a tough time ataching and fitting the mesh, but wasn't it worth it looking back? I too have had some mouse issues within the garage and I have had to use a ton of wire mesh:

Belleville Wire Cloth Co., Inc - Woven Wire Mesh | Wire Cloth | Stainless Steel Wire Mesh | Wire Cloth Strainer

Usually buy it all here, bought some very fine stuff for a decent price recently and have used almost ALL of the material! Every time I cover one opening, I find another place that these critters have gotten involved in. A real hassles, pretty soon I will just make 1 Huge Wire Mesh Cage around my car (jk). I wish I could though.

 

Adding something to discussion after extensive rodent issues on my Gen 2 Prius (2008). I have had rodent eat wire harnesses multiple times and had them in the HVAC box located behind glove box as well as in the cabin. I attempted multiple fixes to the problem as listed below:
#In engine bay remove wiper assembly and tray and install screen on open "windows" cut in the sheet metal. Issue with this, as I have just discovered, is there are open passageways behind both front fenders. It may be possible to install screen there as well but did not want to remove both front fenders.
#Installed a "Jam stick" in fresh air door to prevent rodents getting into cabin as it is not possible with Toyota software logic to always leave the fresh air door closed. This prevented them from getting into the cabin although my last inspection revealed that they were chewing on the plastic housing on which the fresh air door was jammed closed. This does not prevent them from getting into the duct located above the fresh air door.
#Now that spring has arrived had a "dead mouse" odor in the cab that has persisted for the last several days. Based on that removed the complete dash to allow access to the HVAC box. If anyone is interested is an excellent video on this on Youtube titled Prius Gen2 dash Instrument cluster and MFD removal 2004-2009.mp4 that will save you hours. I then removed the air duct from the HVAC box and found nesting material and a dead carcass. I installed a metal plate at the inlet of the duct to block any further intrusion by rodents. This eliminates the fresh air option but is worth it to prevent future issues. The total process to remove dash, install cover and replace dash took about 5 hours.
#The only other thing I have found that helps is to spray the engine bay, under carriage, inside fenders, on top of the fuel tank etc. etc. with a mixture of 1 oz of Peppermint oil concentrate to 1 gallon of water. I spray everything once a month and it has definitely helped. I unfortunately missed spraying last month which likely caused this issue. As a side note this also works for keeping woodpeckers off of your wood siding.
I have been extremely happy with my Prius but the likely outcome of this is my next vehicle will not be a Toyota. I can not understand why a company of their caliber would leave open access to the HVAC box as they have causing all of these issues. Hope this helps someone.