What’s in Your Cabin (Filter)

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Yeah no doubt those Farmers commercials are 100% based in reality. All of us in the industry have battle stories. The weirder they are, the more fun moments the career can have!

Bum — badum bum bum bum bum!

I was never affiliated with Farmers though.
 
craze1cars said:
Yeah no doubt those Farmers commercials are 100% based in reality. All of us in the industry have battle stories. The weirder they are, the more fun moments the career can have!

Bum — badum bum bum bum bum!

I was never affiliated with Farmers though.
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I love the statues they make for each oddball insurance claim.
 
Like others writing here, I have had some seriously bad experiences with rodents and car wiring. I am not sure that any one thing will work, but a combination of commonsense precautions (like NO food left in your car or garage), peppermint spray and rodent traps seemed for me to at least make the critters move to other, easier targets in our neighborhood.

For entertainment (and possibly some useful guidance) read the info on Rat King Dave's web site (https://www.howtopreventratsfromeatingcarwires.com/) and the Consumer Reports' article (already mentioned in another post) at https://www.consumerreports.org/car-maintenance/how-to-protect-your-car-from-rodents/.
 
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Anyone with a boat or RV knows the rodent battle is real. I get chipmunks nesting in my garage periodically, and I have to use glue traps in the corners/edges of garage to stop them from chewing through and destroying stuff when I close the garage door. The glue traps also helps keep the spider/bug population under control. I use Fresh Cab repellant bags in my RV and mothballs in my boat. Fresh Cab bags actually smell good like cedar and peppermint so you could use it in your car. I would recommend protecting the garage with either glue traps, Victor mechanical, or bait/poison. Don't ever use bait /poison in a vehicle, as it draws them into your car to die in some crazy hard place to find. BTW can use vegetable oil to remove surviving critters from glue traps if you feel the need to be humane, just make sure you remove them miles from your house or they will be back.
 
I pulled my cabin air filter today and this is what I found. I will have to put some sticky traps around the garage.
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That's what I just found this AM in our 2018 Clarity. Where did all that insulation come from? From somewhere inside the car? Any drawing and/or instructions for a screen to keep them out of the air filter housing?
 

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JRath said:
That's what I just found this AM in our 2018 Clarity. Where did all that insulation come from? From somewhere inside the car? Any drawing and/or instructions for a screen to keep them out of the air filter housing?
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Is it from the engine firewall or the sound insulation on the bottom of the car?
 
After reading this thread and wife saying she saw a dead chipmunk in the driveway that came back to life and move under the car, when I got in the car today I thought I was smelling weird smells.

After taking courage, I did open the panel but found nothing...
 
Has anyone figured out how mice get into the car? And, better, how to keep them out? I've removed one huge nest, and two mice, and replaced the air filter. We keep the car in the garage, and use it most every day. How does one prevent mice from being able to enter?!?
 
JRath said:
Has anyone figured out how mice get into the car? And, better, how to keep them out? I've removed one huge nest, and two mice, and replaced the air filter. We keep the car in the garage, and use it most every day. How does one prevent mice from being able to enter?!?
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You need to start by preventing mice from getting into the garage. Check for openings around the garage door, seal off cracks with foam, and likely place some bait traps in there.

Your other option is finding the air intake and placing a screen over it, but would recommend keeping them out of your garage in the first place.
 
turtleturtle said:
You need to start by preventing mice from getting into the garage. Check for openings around the garage door, seal off cracks with foam, and likely place some bait traps in there.
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I agree with this. My car is always in the garage, and I got a mouse nest in the filter anyway. Subsequently, I did set some traps in the garage, and I caught one. They can get in through surprisingly small openings. It is hard to always maintain a baited trap, and I have since slacked off. Every time you forget to close the door (or have it open intentionally) the little buggers can sneak in and hide. There are a couple of small gaps around the garage doors that I need to attack (some day).

It seems like the manufacturers could do a much better job of adequately blocking all possible entry points to the cabin. It can't be plastic screens / grates because they will chew through them. I think you would be hard-pressed to locate these on your own. Of course, even perfect protection from entering the vehicle does not protect all of the wiring that is outside the cabin (engine compartment, wheels, HV battery in our case). Rodents frequently do a lot of expensive damage by chewing through wires.

From the repeated stories here, they seem to like the cabin filter. This is a good thing because it is accessible. The worst thing is to have a dead mouse (or nest) deep within the bowels of all the HVAC ducts within the dash. The odor can be horrific and the only way to get it out is major disassembly of the dash.
 
I read this thread, then immediately went out to the garage, unsnapped my glove box, opened the filter door and inspected the filter. Nothing but a bunch of Oklahoma red dirt. Replaced it with another CP-182 filter from Amazon.
 
I am happy to report my filter only had regular filter dirt as well and changed it with a new filter. Waiting on the air intake engine filter to arrive to change that one too. Very simple process.
 
I found an upgrade Cabin Filter at Autozone, STP CAF1873M - it's a 4-stage filter, and good price. Make sure you get one with the "M" at then end. Like $27. It's blue on the bottom, and a mottled grayish white on top. Just need to insert it 90 degrees from original, with printing on side.
 

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Just found a massive nest beneath my engine air filter. Not sure how long it’s been there, but I’ve had the car since December 2018. There were bits of yellow fiber similar to one of the earlier posts so now I’m wondering if the material came from somewhere on the car.

Cabin air filter hosing was clean thank goodness.
 
MrFixit said:
Interesting... Did you happen to take a picture of this?
Perhaps this is another rodent vulnerability that we need to look out for.
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Does critter-nesting atop the engine give us a reason to run our Claritys on HV once in a while? I can imagine the critter waking up the first time he/she feels the unanticipated vibrations, "Wha? Wha?!" Certainly it would be a disappointing shock after the successful search for a belt-free, under-hood lair.
 
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MrFixit said:
Interesting... Did you happen to take a picture of this?
Perhaps this is another rodent vulnerability that we need to look out for.
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insightman said:
Does critter-nesting atop the engine give us a reason to run our Claritys on HV once in a while? I can imagine the critter waking up the first time he/she feels the unanticipated vibrations, "Wha? Wha?!" Certainly it would be a disappointing shock after the successful search for a belt-free, under-hood lair.
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I did not take a picture unfortunately, but it did occur to me that running as EV all the time may encourage this kind of nesting behavior. Also, the housing was packed so tight with nesting material I wondered if this might have had an impact on fuel efficiency while running in HV mode?
 
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