Toyota claims not aware of mouse problem

It's a little early for April Fools'!

 

BubbleDogs, mice in the engine compartment is as bad (or at least as expensive) as mice in the passenger compartment. The health risk is probably as bad, too. You don't want them in either place. You really need to keep the mice away from your car by destroying their habitat. Poison and traps might work, but getting rid of habitat is better. And don't leave dog food setting out for the mice to feast on. The same goes for bird feeders as seeds fall to the ground and attract mice. Search the Internet for other ways to get rid of mice. I've heard that moth balls can keep mice away. Ammonia might work too. But I wouldn't depend on either and I wouldn't like my car smelling like either one, either.

Don't forget that your car's comprehensive insurance policy should cover cleaning up after a mouse invasion (you'd pay the deductible, of course).

 

I wonder if any of the mice were blind?

 

I better keep my windows closed we have packrats in our woods in BC.

 

Hey I'd be very careful with that ammonia mouse deterent suggestion.
Not sure if mice dislike ammonia, but your car may not like it.
Ammonia causes stress corrosion cracking of brass components.
Fancy way of saying brass can crack wide open on contact with ammonia vapors.
Maybe there is safe to do this on a cotton wad or something but I would not mess with it unless I had good instructions.
Of course I have no idea if there is any brass in a Prius, but could be some in your garage.

 

Long ago in Idaho we had a few mice in my wife's Dodge Aspen. Not in our Volvo 240, but I always attributed it to luck and not to any Volvistic virtue.
None thus far in the Prius in Ark.
It would seem that some rather wide meshed screens (to prevent dirt from clogging and impeding airflow) should be a fix that the manufacturers might be able to do to keep the cabin mouse free. Do any other manufacturers do this?

 

Yes they do.

 

Actually there is a reason to shut off the AC compressor a few minutes before shutting your Prius down. Having that habit dries off the evaporator coils and minimizes the chance that mold will grow in the vent system.

I also had mice in my vent system (nesting materials in the cabin air filter area). I started getting hives about a year ago and after spending a lot of effort with allergists, realized that every major flareup correlated with a long trip in my Prius! I just had my dealer clean out the heating (drop the blower and clean out the box) as well as using thier foaming antiseptic cleaner on my AC evaporator coil (about 1.5 hours and $160 later). Here's hoping that my hives will now abate.

JeffD

 

Moe! Larry! Cheese!

 

I want to weight in on this subject of mice nesting in Toyotas. We have owned an array of different cars over 34 years while living in the same location: Ford, Dodge, Isuzu, Subaru, Chevy and Toyotas. Currently we have two Toyotas, a 4 Runner and a pickup truck and have had others. I like Toyota products in general and think they make quality vehicles. However, I do have a specific gripe with Toyota and that is mice, or other small rodents entering the air intake and building nests there. This has been a problem with every Toyota we have owned and has not been a problem with any of our other vehicles over a period of three-plus decades. I consider it to be a design flaw. Toyota provides a grillwork on the exterior-most air intake, but then has a number of openings where rodents can enter through the fire wall behind the engine and then have access to the more interior air intake, which has NO GRILL or hardware cloth to block their ingress. I repeat, this is a manufacturer's design flaw! I have wearied of dealing with this repeated nuisance and having researched on line, I see many others have tired of it as well. The service dept. claims it happens to all makes of vehicles and can't be helped. This has not been my experience, so I call BS. The brilliant service dept. also offers the Mickey Mouse suggestion to close the air circulation selector from outside air to inside air before exiting the vehicle ... fine, that means that the rodents built their nest on top of the air intake flapper, rather than right in the squirrel cage blower. However, when the driver later opens the exterior air intake the nest drops into the blower fan, to be propelled into the heater/AC heat exchanger. Independent mechanics have told us the problem can't be solved. Wrong! On the models we own, removing the grill and/or cowling at the windshield wipers and afixing an appropriately shaped piece of 1/4" hardware cloth snugly over the more interior air intake solves this problem.

 

So I had to get my 2010 Prius V serviced today and there had been a ticking noise prior to the car allowing me to turn my heater on. Well they determined that I have mice issues as well. It's going to cost me $967 for them to get the Blender Box (hopefully I stated that right) and have them put a screen up, but it didn't sound like that would guarantee that they wouldn't invade again. This is my 2nd Prius and both have had mouse problems, I've had a TON of different cars and this never happened to any of them. The mechanic told me to spray V08 hairspray on the entire engine 1 every 3 months, he also coated my cabin air filter with it, for some reason he said the it deters the mice away. I'm not sure what to do, I need a GUARANTEE fix for this problem. I can't afford $1000 everytime a damn mouse gets up in my car, I'm thinking of getting rid of the car this is ridiculous! Any and all advice would be appreciated. I just got this car in June 2012, so I haven't had it very long. I really love the car, but the expenses involved with this will offset all my fuel savings. I'd rather have a different car with less expensive mouse issues. Thanks

 

Welcome to the club, sorry to hear you are having rodent issues.
I have screened off my 06 and my V, if you search here you can find the how to.
Please let me know if you need help.
Please, please call Toyota and give them a piece of your mind.

 

Time to go to the pound and get a cat.

 

Eastern Washington has rattlesnakes while western Washington doesn't. Yet a rattlesnake is found in western Washington every now and then and it's believed that they climb onto a car or truck parked in eastern WA and then get transported to the west. That's never happened to me, though I did bring a mouse back with me one time. It'd built a nest on top of the car's battery. I chased the mouse out of my car and I've often wondered if that mouse was happier in western WA with its numerous house cats, or if it preferred eastern WA with its rattlesnakes.

 

Any mechanic or a handy person can do it. Just use care when replacing the cowling, trust me you do not want to hit the edge of the windshield. You have found the how to on this, right?