Mouse + Engine Bay = :(

Well I stored the 996tt in a detached garage over winter and didn't leave any moth ***** or other repellent and a mouse or many mice decided it was a nice place to call home. I've sprayed everything the hose could hit under the car, atop the car, and into the front radiators and I'm still not getting anywhere. Thankfully the bastards didn't enter the cabin because there's no smell sitting inside. Anyway the question is thus: do I have any concerns popping the rear lid and spraying into there to clear it out from the top? Obviously I'd cover up the airbox. Is this ok or am I going to have to get in there and wash everything piece by piece?

Before you clean everything - I'm guessing you've started the car and confirmed those little rats didn't chew on anything important? On the cleaning - my advice would be to clean it by hand or pay a detailer to do it for you.

Quotes source post: 14900999

My Hyundai only sat for two weeks. The little effers ate through my wiring harness $5,000 on a Hyundai. I did notice on my 996 the previous owner had mice chew through the solenoid wires to the rear deck lid release. I now keep restaurant style rat bait boxes around both of the cars. Hopefully, you are not in this situation but my insurance company covered all but the deductible on the Hyundai.

What worked great for me was the sticky traps. Put them in the corners of the garage and in places where the mice would run through. That and the rat poison stuff Decon. Gets rid of the critters quick.

I seem to have miraculously dodged the damage bullet. No electrical or mechanical issues I've seen but I'll know more when I really dig in there. I've shipped the car cross country so I'm no longer concerned about the rodents returning but now I've got this nasty smell to deal with...

A few years ago some mice ate the insulation off of the spark plug wires on my Audi. I now have a neighbour who lets her cats roam freely, I don't complain...

Did you change your cabin filter? They loved that area on my friends Boxster.

Good news and bad news. Good news is I found the nest. It's not in the engine bay. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljg9dgw3o5...35.16.jpg?dl=0 (can't upload the photo inline for some reason). Bad news is my "no damage" assessment was premature. I found an oil leak on the ground and traced it through a hole they must have been using inside the driver side front wheel well: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rc7oeb63oy...31.47.jpg?dl=0 The oil is seeping out of that hole. I took a bunch of photos from the top as well. I can't quite tell where the leak is coming from but it might be at the base of that green line. Any help identifying what I'm looking at and thoughts about what might be damaged would be greatly appreciated. I'm not even sure what lines are running oil through the front of the car. https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0puvbpr6h...02.29.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1twjwalan...02.46.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8hg1zy6ff...03.05.jpg?dl=0

Any drop in brake/clutch fluid? The only thing that I can think of they chewed through a brake line or the reservoir, or something around there.

I didn't see the pictures but there shouldn't be any oil upfront on the drivers side in the 996 turbo. There is pentosin steering and clutch fluid as well as the brake booster and potentially other brake lines. Just saw the pictures. Yikes! That is some nest. Looks like the moisture may be coming from the flexible hose that attaches to the pentosin reservoir.

There is no oil in the front of the 996.

I haven't finished the sterilization/deodorization but when I do I'll stick my head in for a closer look. The liquid dripping out is very thick and brown. Looks and feels a ton like oil. Can't go by smell because it smells like urine... The car has also had GT2 slave conversion... Any of this suggest one or the other?

There is definitely not a source for engine oil up there. I suspect your "oil leak" is a mixture of feces and urine. I can't tell for sure, but the hole looks like it's on the opposite side of the nest - could be that hole is the primary ingress/egress. God only knows what's been percolating in there. Remove, irradiate, and burn the cabin air filter.

5CHN3LL, I think you nailed it. When I dealt with mouse leavings in a car, that is some of the stuff they left behind. It had a color and consistency that might fool a casual observer into thinking it was oil.

Just get a shop vac in there and after it's clean spray it down with a 50:50 concentration of Meguiars all purpose cleaner and distilled water. Then remove the plastic boot in the drain underneath the pentosin reservoir and blow it out with compressed air then pour some 50:50 mix through there too, maybe no dilution if it's that foul. It's a dirty job, but it'll clean up. Then start her up and drive around the block, then check for leaks.

Quotes source post: 14905166

^^^ Bingo! Eiwwwwwwwww...

When I found mouse mess in a 996 I bought, I removed and discarded anything porous (in my case it was interior - carpets, padding, cloth wire wraps, plus all damaged wiring harnesses) then cleaned the remaining hard surfaces and wires with a strong bleach solution followed by stuff designed to neutralize pet mess (Natures Miracle from the pet store), repeated a couple of times, and it was gone. Until I did this, the odor was strong and persistent.

If it looks like mouse **** and smells like mouse ****...STOP SMELLING IT. OP, I do not envy your cleanup job.

It may well be that your clutch power assist had been leaking petosin at the clutch reservoir and you just happened to find it along with the mouse mess. I have not yet converted mine to a GT2 style master/slave; so I'm not exactly sure what your conversion would look like. Are the lines form the pump and accumulater left and just dead ended? Perhaps these could leak?

Update: indeed the "oil" was simply reconstituted nasty from the spray-down I had done a few hours prior. Great call on that one. I spent the entire daylight hours of Saturday taking everything apart in the front and scrubbing it out. I don't know what I would have done if there weren't drains in there to flush out all the soapy water I sprayed in. Looks like there wasnt any damage after all except for some chewing on the bit of foam that sits just above the cabin air filter. Kind of surprised they didn't damage anything else... Bad news is I still get whiffs of the smell from there, under the car, and in the engine bay. I think a good chunk of the smell is coming from the fabric straps of the wiring harnesses, and I'm not about to take all those apart. Now the long and painful task of testing deodorizers.

The stuff we use for our puppy and I used to neutralize mouse smell in my car is called Nature�s Miracle and we got it at the pet store.

I used one of these in my house when a rat decided to eat some poison and DIE between the interior and exterior walls of my kitchen. For the rot smell it worked, not perfectly, but for pee they might be just enough if you keep one in your rear footwell or the frunk. Link action: https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Air-Sponge-Absorbing-Neutralant/dp/B001SBMLAM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1522621613&sr=8-4&keywords=bad+air+sponge https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Air-Sponge-Absorbing-Neutralant/dp/B001SBMLAM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1522621613&sr=8-4&keywords=bad+air+sponge If it's not working - go to amazon and look up "Bad Air Sponge."

Thanks all. Will give these both a try.