So I took my Cayman into the dealer yesterday to have a chip in the window repaired and apparently a technician spotted a rat running out from my under car. When I returned to pickup my car later that day a significant amount of gas was leaking from the front of the vehicle. I left the vehicle at the dealership to determine what the issue is. The story I am being sold is that I have a significant amount of rodent damage to my car, which is not covered under the warranty. My insurance should cover this if it is indeed true, but it sounds a bit hard to believe. Especially the whole fuel line thing. Could a rat really chew through a fuel line on the Cayman??[img]/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/confused_smile.gif[/img]

Yes! I live in Tucson and here the damage from rats is well known. I am sorry for your problems, but each spring through the summer months I leave large rat traps beneath the engines of all cars parked outside the garage. A few years ago, over a single evening a rat caused over $800 in damages to our Lexus by eating through electrical lines and tearing up the sound baffeling under the hood. We never turned in the damage to our insurance company so I am not certain if it would be covered or not.


Best of luck to you.

Happens all the time in the country. They seem to love irrigation lines, phone lines and rubber/plastic car parts. Traps help. Moth balls sometimes are used but I don't know if that really works.

My brotherhad significant damage to a wiring harness in his new Dodge pick up. This happened not once, but twice, within one week (after the vehicle was fixed the rodent hit it again) to the tune of about $800 in damage not covered by warranty.


I don't know if it will work in all cases but he sprayed many parts of the vehicle with a spray designed to repel deer and other pests from damaging trees, bushes, etc. So far it has worked.

Edited by - Carl AMG on 04/07/2006 12:52:57 PM

Had a field mouse crawl into my 911's air filter and he made a winter home for himself. He was living large!

All good until my first warm winters day drive.......'whats that smell?'

I guess my concern is that it ate through the fuel line. There was no damage to any wires in the vehicle, only the fuel line. I have not inspected the vehicle myself yet, but I am just having a hard time believing that a rat would or could chew a hole through a fuel line. My vehicle is parked underground in a cement garage. There are no fields or grassy areas near my home. Insurance should pay for it regardless, but it's gonna be sometime before I see my car again...

Ha Ha, you've opened up the door for me to tell one of my favorite stories. Last spring I was changing my rotors over to Cross drilled rotors and putting in new pads on my M3. I pull the front caliper off and sticking out from one side of the pad is a crispy mousehead with wiskers and two arms and sticking out the otherside was two crispy legs and a tail. Now that is bad timing! The poor guy must have crawled in there to warm up and got squeezed at just the wrong moment. I still chuckle when i think of how truly bizarre that is. I had a tough time keeping the dog from gnawing on him. I guess he likes his mouse well done.[img]/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/regular_smile.gif[/img]

I would get some rat bait to keep these critters away from the cars. Mice and rats have a need to constantly gnaw on something with their front teeth. Their teeth never stop growing, so even if they have had their fill of food, they are going to gnaw until their teeth are at some length that they like. Make sure that you don't have any food or water in the garage or near your home as this will definitely;y attract them.Make sure no children or other pets are left alone in the garage or outside the home while you have the bait out. You could, if need put the bait out after sundown and then collect it at sun up to avoid contact with young people or pets during the day.


I am really sorry to hear that rats found your Cayman.

We use bait inpet proof boxes all around the property. Still it is difficult to control them although the owls and bobcats help from time to time. Is the fuel line metal or rubber? Metal would be difficult to accept to me as well.

Fortunately, it was our Subaru, not the Cayman... the car wasn't running right, so I opened the hood and out ran a rabbit that had been chewing on the ignition wires... now I keep the cars in the garage or at least on pavement next to the house... I think some traps might be in order too

WORST PROBLEM EVER!!!!! These rats always go in to our cars. My dad drives his car everydat for about 50 miles and the rats still went in there and messed up the wiring harness, it cost us $900 to fix it. Also the rats would go into my brothers Ferrari, so we put sticky paper around his car, we caught a whole mess of these rats.


Justin

Had I not heard it here I would have never believed it! Greata stories, I sure hope rats don't like tropical climates?

Aloha Russ

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Get a cat for that garage!

I believe that I can add a funny story to this rodent subject. I met an attorney that had his Cayenne at Beverly Hills Porsche waiting for parts to correct some of the numerous recalls that were in progress. He had occassion to note that rodents had eaten up much of the wiring and some other things up near the firewall. He, the attorney, complained to the dealership that their mice had caused the damage and that they would be responsible for the damages. Naturally the person at the dealership denied that the mice were theirs. Mr. attorney said, 'I will bet you $100.00 that those mice are yours.' The dealer person took him up on the bet. Mr. attorney produces a bunch of paper and debris that the mice had made into their nest. The main ingredient of the nest was numerous dealership work orders with all of the appropiate details and all the details of work done on cars complete with dates. The dealer could not deny that the mice were theirs.

I'm happy to say that rats are 'illegal' where I live in Alberta. Since this is historically a grain-based economy (oil is a more recent feature), rats have been very aggressively eradicated from the province. Therewasan incident lastyear where someone had released some rats (probablyraised to feed to a pet snake) in a local neighbourhood, and the residents came out with shovels and bats to kill offthe nest they found. Of course PETA and many local bleeding-hearts were unhappy about it, but most residents applauded the response. KenRose will probably remember the incident, and RedEye may have similar stories since he's also Albertan.