Prius Prime Battery Heater/Rodent Attraction

not that i have seen. it's not any comfort, but prius has a long history of rodent infestations.

you can find many threads here with potential solutions. not sure if there are any in prime forums

 

Weird that they wouldn't just replace the whole battery assembly if that's what was damaged. Or maybe it's too expensive.

 

!!!

 

what are you driving now?

 

Ive not had any issues in the Prime yet but I'm only a month into ownership. However, rodents caused an expensive repair on my 3rd gen Prius. They came in via the firewall HVAC opening and made a nest on top of my evaporator core for the air conditioning. Eventually this led to a hole being formed in the core and a slow leak for the refrigerant. I was quoted close to $2000 by my dealer to have it fixed. I ended up buying the parts and doing the work myself. It was quite the time consuming nightmare to completely remove the dash board and HVAC in that car but in the end I got my repair bill from ~$2000 down to ~$450 including the cost to purge/refill the refrigerant.

One of the main causes for this is the ease of access the rodents have to cabin. The opening in the firewall is just a wide open hole. There is nothing preventing them from coming in via the engine bay, into the wiper tray and directly inside the cabin. So before I re-installed the HVAC back into the car, i used a roll of mesh wire and cut out a piece big enough to overlap that opening in the firewall about an inch and then bolted the HVAC assembly back in over it. Benefits to this would also be to also keep all the leaves and crud out of the assembly as well because there were tons of crap in mine.

 

So what do the rodents do when the care is being driven? Seems to me they might not like going down the highway at 70 MPH.

 

Wow... almost brand new PRIME eaten by a tiny mouse. Or was it a rat? Sorry to hear about the problem. I hope you got the full value of the car from the insurance payout exceeding what you paid out of your pocket after deep incentives and discounts.

After reading some stories on rodent damages, I thought about trying various rodent repellants for automotive available but never did. Most of them are just smelly stuff to deter rodents to come close to the car and need to reapply either weekly or monthly depending on the product. I also live in NE but never had any rodent problem in any of my cars including two PRIME so far. Since we have plenty of feral cats roaming around our house, they are probably more effective for getting rid of mice than any of those products.

 

There's air exhaust vents at the back too, where rodents can possibly get in. I keep meaning to mesh those on our 2010.

I have addressed the HVAC intake in the firewall, and engine air intake as well.

 

In the Northeast almost every garage has mice. Prii come off the docks with mice. I've seen brand new Prii on the lot with sound dampening insulation on top of the engine. They love to rip that material off the inside of the center bottom splash panel. On my 2020 they built a nest with it under the EGR cooler.

Luckily, I've never had any damage to wiring or hoses that I'm aware of. It's a cost of doing business. Set traps and soak that bottom panel in peppermint oil. Just open your oil drain access panel and dump a $5 bottle of peppermint oil onto the inside of the splash guard, maybe a few moth balls if you can stand it. And stay fully insured until you can self-insure.

 

Yes! We set traps and use peppermint oil based rodent deterrent spray from Tractor Supply for our cars and tractor. Works like a charm!

 

^hows it smell?

 

You can definitely smell the peppermint (not so much in the cabin, but where I spray), and it lasts for a month or more.

 

By totaling the car, they can sell it and make money, which may offset the cost of the vehicle minus the repair costs.

 

I have already caught 3 mice in the garage this season. All on glue traps with a nab of peanut butter in the center of the glue trap. Also, a lot of spiders and other bugs...so bonus points.

 

More human methods, please?

 

OTE="Gokan, post: 3294552, member: 45202"] More human methods, please?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, besides being gruesome they are more expensive in the long run and disposal is a hassle. We use TomCat claw type traps with removable bait cups. These are far more effective than cheaper models without the removable bait cups, as no weight is loaded onto the actuator until the rodent is on it. Also easier to bait and no-touch carcass release. We also use the larger sized ones for bigger rodent "guests".